Thought Experiment for you???

You're a young man or woman living in the 1600's. You've been captured by pirates and forced to work hard in the bowels of there ship for table scraps.

Over time living on the ship you begin to realize that there are lots of other pirate ships roaming the seas.

Then one day after months at sea the pirate ship lands on an small island in the middle of the ocean (like tom hanks in castaway) . The pirates allow all people to go onto the island for a short time to get some R and R.

The pirate captain tells everyone that they must return by 6pm or they will be left on the island. You decide not to go back into the ship as the conditions there were so harsh. You decide to stay on the island. 6pm comes and the ship leaves with all all the crew. No one is left on the island but you.

Being on the island has some perks. There's lots of food and water, and you build a small shelter. Over the next few months you notice some things. You notice during some fishing that there's a lot of sharks, great whites that would eat you if given a chance. You also notice there are other pirate ships passing by from time to time. Knowing that if they found you, you'd end up a slave again or dead.

One day you realize that the island is infact sinking. You do some anaysis and realize that you might have only 5 year until the island sinks completely. You realize that you need to eventually get off the island or you'll die.

What do you do???

Do you just try and enjoy the last of your time on the island and hope for the best, even though you know it's sinking slowly???

Or do you cut down the trees on the island in the attempt to build a raft like Tom Hanks did and then hope that by some miricle you can navigate your way through the sharks and pirate ships out there and make your way back to civilization???

What would you do??? Please explain your answer???

a reply to: lavatrance

I would rather die than be enslaved so I would be happy to enjoy the rest of my life on the island. You never know something you never expected could come your way as well (like a merchant ship).

Anyway, I guess I am a live free or die kind of guy. My life is not more valuable than my integrity or my freedom.

It's the 1400's...the 5 year plan hadn't been invented yet.

Try to keep being alive, why fear a possible future instead a certain doom, while you are alive there is a posibility things goes for the better eventually, if you are dead no.

a reply to: Metallicus

but that means you'd only have 5 years until you'd be dead? Compared to chancing it and maybe completing a self rescue?

originally posted by: lavatrance
a reply to: Metallicus

but that means you'd only have 5 years until you'd be dead? Compared to chancing it and maybe completing a self rescue?

It isn't the length of life that matters it is the quality.

I would build a surf board and catch a wave to Jamaica or Ibiza like that guy in your avatar is doing. However it looks like he is in the first stages of a wipe out. If it's an exercise with a fantasy premise....fantasize BIG....

www.youtube.com...


My time in Sayulita was paradise!

Check to see if Gilligan has been moving the measuring stick.

Get on another pirate boat

and try again .. either way I am a slave to something here sharks island or pirates .. two of the three choices guarantee a faster death

I'd try to do both, enjoying my life on the island while preparing for an eventual departure. But it also depends on the size of the island and the amount of resources on it. I'm going to assume there are plentiful resources & a lot of bamboo, the perfect building material.

I'd probably built a hidden shelter deep in the island in case someone else landed on it. That's where I'd sleep every night. But I'd also spend a lot of time designing different types of rafts & eventually boats. I'd also make crude weapons, tools and accessories for my eventual trip.

Assuming no one else came to the island, I'd start testing the different rafts & ships by the 3rd year. By the 4th year, I'd expect there to be constant flooding on the island. I'd use the constant floods for training; meaning, I'd test my fishing skills from the rafts/boats, test how much weight the rafts/boats can safely carry for extended periods of time, etc.

Once most of the island was constantly submerged, I'd finally decide to move out. I would probably wait until the last minute though, since I doubt the island would just suddenly sink 200 ft under the water. I'd probably go out on my largest boat, and have smaller rafts on board.

I'd hope that I could survive off of fishing & collecting edible seaweed until I reached my next destination. But I'd also be prepared to deal with pirates or others at sea, win or lose. Though there's no guarantee they'd fight or hurt me; there's always the possibility of deals.

A small alternative is to stay around the sunken island. Even if the entire island was submerged within 5 years, that doesn't mean it's useless. There are plenty of lagoons in the world, and they can still have plenty of resources, food, and more. You just have to go underwater to get them. So in that case, I'd probably use the 5 years building floating rafts, huts, and much more. And I'd make plenty of twine & rope to keep everything tethered together.

This option may sound stupid but I've seen several poor villages around the world that had to build their bamboo homes on stilts because of the sinking land and constant flooding. And there are other villages where people live in virtual boathouses because most of the land is now constantly flooding. So I might spend the 5 years building a series of floating platforms & boats. Depending on how massive some of the platforms are, I could even have large clay flowerpots to keep growing different crops. And there's the obvious fishing & diving to the parts of the island with certain other resources.

a reply to: lavatrance

Well, since you didn`t provide what skills do the surviver possess...I would like to think that surviver knows all about astronomy and known geographics and is skilled in carving and sailmaking. So in a five years I would make a really nice catamaran with a proper sail made out of canvas that I would gather from shpwreck around the island, stocked it with food and water and set sail towards the first continet or bigger island not controlled by the pirates. I would also avoid any known trade routes as there is where the pirates would be. For this purpose I could draw my own map based on my knowledge of geographics and orientation (astronomy) on a piece of canvas.

So my only concern would be unpredictable weather but what would I have to lose, If I was going to die anyway.

a reply to: Metallicus

Never been dead, so I dont know what the pros/cons are on that.

Never been enslaved, so I dont know what the pros/cons are on that.

Build a raft I would guess that since there is alot of traffic, I'd watch the pathways of ships and try to get a schedule and idea of where to go and when.

You have a chance of making it then, whereas the island is certain death.

How bad could it be as a cabin boy?



Now if you'll excuse me, I have some pipes to clean....

a reply to: lavatrance

Easy. Use the danger around you at your advantage.

I would trap a shark. Then I would signal for a pirate ship to land. I would tell her captain that I found a treasure, and lead him into the trap with the shark. The crew will come out looking for him. Meanwhile I would hijack the captain-less ship and use it to escape the island.

Simple.

5 years in a tropical climate, with food and shelter, and impending doom.

Time to be designing a sloop that could be run single hand or with a couple extra hands, Then as pirate craft land and give their slaves shore leave, I start recruiting get a crew of about 10 able bodies.

Next step is get the sloop launched with the crew, under the cover of night, drift longside one of the pirate ships, Me and crew slaughter the pirates, draft the slaves and take our rightful places as the New wolves of the Sea.



CoBaZ

olaru12 .......


....Lets assume that because you're familiar with boats and the ocean, that you have a reasonable chance of building a stable raft. ?

a reply to: VictorVonDoom

no this is serious....!!!!