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shakeNtake t1_iy7qw6v wrote

Nigeria to Puertos de las Palmas is a 2700 nm trip. Tankers typically travel at ~15 knots. That’s like a week perched on a tiny moving platform at sea with relentless, cold rudder wash and sea spray. No way to sleep, if you fall off you’re done for… Hectic.

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GMN123 t1_iy7x0gk wrote

I don't imagine it would take much wave action for that platform to be completely underwater at times.

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DisplacedPersons12 t1_iy8hdqf wrote

i imagine quite a few have been left floating in the middle of the ocean. what a traumatic way to go

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NextTrillion t1_iy92xcj wrote

It would suck for a brief few moments of despair.

You may try to stay afloat for as long as you can, and yeah, you’ll probably be panicking and get gassed really quick, depending on the turbulence of the water. But from my brief moments a day or a week out in the Hecate Strait, or the Drake Passage, the water can be relentless during the best of weather.

So I’d wager, you’d stay alive for another 10 minutes, if conditions allow. After that, pure bliss as you drift off to the other side and become fish food.

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Mundane-Ad-3142 t1_iy9t7n6 wrote

Not sure why you're being downvoted. I can't find anything inaccurate in your post.

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NextTrillion t1_iy9xtxx wrote

Probably coz I made the boneheaded move of spelling Strait like Straight. D’oh!

Also, it’s pretty much a fact that in a lot of waters, the temperature is cold enough to shut down your muscles after 10 minutes. You’d be lucky (or unlucky) to stay alive longer than 11 minutes total.

Even if in the highly unlikely event someone noticed you in the water, after the propulsion of the vessel tossed you around like a rag doll, it would still take ages to slow the ship down and send out a rib. So your chance of survival without a PFD is incredibly limited. It’s a super deadly environment that these guys were in.

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EmotionalSuportPenis t1_iy8aemd wrote

Depending on the ship, it can go completely underwater under the weight of a particularly full hold by itself. The slightest following sea will swamp it immediately.

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Cetun t1_iyam5a3 wrote

It would be totally under water if it was a full hold, it clearly traveled empty.

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padizzledonk t1_iy7r581 wrote

Could you imagine 11 days of that.....what a risky move....one slip and you float away and die in the middle of the ocean....how do you sleep?

What a nightmare

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TheGreatCoyote t1_iy7xjtw wrote

Yeah, youre not floating away if you fall off the rudder of a ship under way. You're getting drawn into the props and chopped up into fine fish food.

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NextTrillion t1_iy94px7 wrote

Lol no, the rudder is behind the prop, which propels the ship with enormous force. That force would thrust you much further away from the prop and the ship in general, likely tossing you about like a rag doll for a good while. There may be circulating back currents, but I doubt they’d be strong enough to overcome the thrust of the prop. There are few engines on the planet more powerful than these.

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GozerDGozerian t1_iybqiob wrote

Your for sure drown in the prop wash, right? All that massive turbulent water half mixed with air wouldn’t be something even the best swimmer could stay afloat in I’d imagine.

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feral_brick t1_iyc6bt8 wrote

Actually it's not as bad as you'd think... Turbulence in a situation like that a trivial factor, the tendency is to either stay in the flow (where your relative velocity is low) or get kicked out of it. Unless you're trying you're pretty much guaranteed not to stay at the interface of the prop wash.

And aeration from a point source like that is very much a function of water velocity, and the air bubbles tend to rise pretty quickly. So if you look behind a motor boat you might see a long trail of bubbles but the length is mostly because they get pushed far out, not that they take a long time to rise

With a pfd, if you had the foresight to hold your breath, I'd say it's pretty much a guarantee that you'd survive. So in context is just a question of whether they got caught off guard and got unlucky with their breath, or of they got disoriented.

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GozerDGozerian t1_iyc6flq wrote

I see. Thanks for the well thought out response! Think I’ll still steer clear of rudder sitting though. :)

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codedigger t1_iy8h5qk wrote

Would think individual would float as past the props and ship moving forward. Not sure on fluid dynamics of props and if they suck water from behind them but would think that would be inefficient and engineers would have found a better design.

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grungegoth OP t1_iy7rfoz wrote

Probably beats being in air craft landing gear ;)

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pangolin-fucker t1_iy7vhmo wrote

Im wondering if they had a bag of supplies. Mainly water because I can't imagine lasting in that condition for long without any

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MerryGoWrong t1_iy7zccv wrote

They would have had to, there's no way they could survive that long without water.

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EmotionalSuportPenis t1_iy8bfmk wrote

As a rough rule of thumb, a human needs about 1 liter a day at an absolute minimum, assuming you aren't sweating or exerting yourself. That just replaces what you lose through normal metabolic processes.

You could probably do with even less temporarily, but at that point you're just delaying your death because you're still experiencing a net loss of water.

An average human undertaking average activity levels needs 3-4 liters a day to stay healthy, not just alive.

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am3l1a t1_iy8dz7l wrote

And how long can you go without sleep?

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neryen t1_iy8hr6q wrote

The longest recorded time is 11 days, however there is no known fatal limit.

We become severely impaired and begin microsleeping after 48 hours.

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NextTrillion t1_iy953p0 wrote

They could take turns sleeping while the others keep them safe. 4 hours of sleep, 8 hours awake to watch your buddy. Not saying it would be a very comfortable sleep, but they obviously survived (some how)!

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vox1028 t1_iybyg7c wrote

i don't think i drink a litre of water each day... what happens if you don't?

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Sometimes_Stutters t1_iy7z8nu wrote

That’s a tough call honestly. The cold and lack of oxygen would be a serious issue, but you only need to last a couple hours. I think I’d take my chances on landing gear before 11 days on a rudder.

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Bimimans t1_iy7zer8 wrote

You 100% die there.

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Sometimes_Stutters t1_iy80ohs wrote

I had to look it up, and it appears there’s about a 25% estimated survival rate (though not entirely verified).

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2014/04/22/how-jet-stowaways-survive-the-freezing-cold/amp/

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wzi t1_iy81rc7 wrote

> Counting the California teen, 25 made it alive, for a survival rate of about 1 in 4. The FAA notes that the rate may be lower, because people could have stowed away and fallen out of the wheel well without anyone knowing.

So the 25% is more of a ceiling though how much so is unknown.

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NextTrillion t1_iy97oc4 wrote

With the most high end, Mount Everest quality gear, supplemental oxygen, and having a fairly upbeat attitude during your 10 hours of pure hell, you could survive.

You’re basically ascending to a bit higher than Mount Everest within less than an hour. So the ambient air pressure (‘thin’ air) will be equivalent to absorbing 1/3 the oxygen you’re used to (iirc), so you’d obviously pass out. I’d tether myself, just in case.

Having the oxygen concentrator would help with that but I’m not sure how the battery would be able to handle the cold. You’d have to keep it close to your body in a heavily insulated bag.

So I’d say, someone with a good amount of cash and technical know how should be able to survive, but someone very poor with some ill-fitting gear has a much lower chance of survival. That’s if they have even the slightest clue about what they’re about to go through.

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ThirdSunRising t1_iy9zpsz wrote

So basically what you're saying is, if you can afford appropriate gear for stowing away, you can afford the ticket.

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NextTrillion t1_iya5umm wrote

Well, yeah, I was trying to say that it’s not likely anyone that could survive would need to do it in the first place.

Don’t know, maybe a really thick sleeping bag and loads of those hot shots things, tie yourself down so you don’t fall out, and then you slip into a little coma and maybe you can thaw out and survive. People have survived really nasty snowstorms on Everest I believe for days. All of their extremities have died off due to frostbite, but their system kept on ticking.

I just like to think about all the various factors and I’m bored at work right now.

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EinsteinEP t1_iya43am wrote

>With the most high end, Mount Everest quality gear, supplemental oxygen

Is this cheaper than coach? Asking for a friend.

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Elcactus t1_iy8u7b8 wrote

2 hours : 3 Minutes is worse than 11 days : 3 days.

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NextTrillion t1_iy97wz3 wrote

I don’t follow you here.

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Elcactus t1_iy9co2x wrote

While you'd be in the air for much less time, the time in which you'd go without the thing you'd be missing (air, water) relative to the amount of time needed to kill you for missing it is much greater.

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GozerDGozerian t1_iybqt7w wrote

Just bring a piping hot mug of air and some super warm jammy-jams.

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Hall-Double t1_iy7xlka wrote

So desperate for a better life .....I couldn't imagine what these people went through.

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[deleted] t1_iya43f5 wrote

[removed]

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MeatsimPD t1_iya7hf9 wrote

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/24/northeast-nigeria-conflict-killed-more-than-300000-children-un

You have a gross lack of humanity and a willful ignorance of the world

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[deleted] t1_iyagp1r wrote

[removed]

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MeatsimPD t1_iyaug9j wrote

I don't know what's worse, the fact that you think over 300k children dying in conflict isn't something grown men should be worried about OR the fact that you don't think indirect causes like famine or lack of healthcare due to war don't count.

Either way, who cares if they tried to get to Spain for economic reasons? Why is seeking economic success a virtue for ourselves but something we criticize outsiders for? You're criticizing these people for wanting to make lives for themselves and achieve success, but lemme guess if they didn't want to achieve economic success you'd criticize them for being freeloaders or something similar right?

Methinks you're criticism of seeking economic success hides another reason you don't want these people in Spain

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Isosceles_Kramer79 t1_iyaxa99 wrote

I do understand that countries like Nigeria have problems. The solution is not to let illegal economic migrants into developed countries. First step should be for those countries to get their birth rates in check.

You cannot have a country without borders. Developed world cannot survive letting in people just because they show up on the borders. Africa alone has birth rates that could easily overwhelm Europe demographically.

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MeatsimPD t1_iyayeto wrote

What do you expect these 4 guys to do about Nigeria's birthrates? Borders so exist but people cross them every single day, maybe you've crossed some in your life. Presumably legally but even illegally crossing a border doesn't invalidate it's existence.

And when you say "demographics" don't you really just mean race? You're concerned about too many black people and not enough white people for your liking, that it?

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Isosceles_Kramer79 t1_iyayqsy wrote

Just because most Africans are black does not give them the right to invade another continent.

And there is a huge difference between crossing borders legally and illegally. About the same difference as between somebody crossing your threshold as an invited guest vs. as a home invader.

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MeatsimPD t1_iybbaak wrote

"invade"

Yeah I think we are getting to the heart of it. You don't want more Africans in Europe because they're culturally different and don't share the same skin color as the majority there

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Hall-Double t1_iyauzce wrote

Research before you comment ....

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Isosceles_Kramer79 t1_iyaxewp wrote

A low-grade conflict is not a war. It is also not a reason to go to Europe. The south of the country is peaceful.

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SoSoUnhelpful t1_iy81t9i wrote

Makes you wonder just how many attempted this and were washed away never to be heard about.

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Wheres_that_to t1_iy8iosj wrote

I really hope they find the life they are looking for,

It is just such an insane risk they took, whatever it was they were facing, that made them take the decision to flee in this terrifying way, I really hope I never meet it.

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Isosceles_Kramer79 t1_iya46ss wrote

All they should get is a ticket back home.

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Wheres_that_to t1_iyc85m5 wrote

You choose to live your entire life in fear of meeting everyone as equals,

You can choose to be brave, and be kind to yourself, this will help you to not have to flinch at mirrors, you can then start to like yourself, which gives the chance for decent humans to do the same.

Lashing out hurts you, put that energy into positive actions, be a better you, stop wasting your one and only life .

Look what those humans did to improve their lives, be brave.

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Plane-Shake9660 t1_iy9dqzk wrote

I read through some of the article earlier and it sounds like there may be a space inside that can be accessed. In the picture you can kind of see a gap where the rudder meets the hull, I'm guessing that must be the way in. Not that it wouldn't be pure hell, but maybe you could have enough room to sleep or keep supplies

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Medcait t1_iy7xu8f wrote

Imagine being on there. You fall off, you die.

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CinnamonBlue t1_iy83ghd wrote

It’s troubling that there are no countries on the entire continent that they could go to.

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petit_cochon t1_iyabf5w wrote

What are you trying to say? I don't understand.

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Skyslimitations t1_iy81o97 wrote

these guys will now be best friends for life

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Isosceles_Kramer79 t1_iya34l1 wrote

Those illegals need to be deported. Otherwise you are just encouraging more people to try the same.

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redline314 t1_iyamixh wrote

Yeah I can totally see these calling up their old homies from the old hood, “yo I found this dope trip you gotta try it”

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Isosceles_Kramer79 t1_iyav298 wrote

You mean it mockingly, but you are not that far off. Only instead of the trip, they describe their new lives in Europe in "dope" terms.

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