There's no mystery here, Joughin's story is almost certainly nothing more than a tall tale.
I don't believe there's a mystery either, but not for the reason you adduce.
For one to assume that
everything about Joughin's story is a "tall tale," you have to also assume that the other survivors who were privy to what happened to him were willing to lie about it or conceal it. I think we can reliably dismiss his perception of how long he was in the water; even at the best of times, our sense of time is unreliable; in emergency situations, it is quite distorted. Joughin is far from the only survivor who felt that he had spent "hours" in the water. Others also had a distorted perception of how long they were in the water, or how long before they changed lifeboats, etc.
Charles Lightoller admitted, years after the fact, that his own testimony was somewhat doctored to exculpate White Star Line. There would be no surprise that other employees also gave testimony laced with inaccuracies or omissions. But to assume Joughin would take the risk of a wholesale elaborate lie that many others could contradict him on is to violate Occam's Razor. He was holding on to the overturned collapsible for a considerable time, and this kept a great part of his upper body out of the water, which is a distinct advantage. He didn't say he never got his head wet, only that it didn't go underwater. Either way that too is an advantage, as many deaths from immersion in cold water occur immediately when the face is submerged and the cold water shock response is triggered, causing drowning by sudden involuntary inhalation of water.
You don't give any links to this "earlier story" of his, but even if it varied considerably from his sworn testimony, the latter is considered evidence, in the eyes of the law, not the former. If it's a newspaper story, we can't put too much credence in that, as many were wild exaggerations or even complete fabrications, given the insatiable hunger for
Titanic "stories" at the time.
One telling detail that tends to support Joughin's story of being on the stern at the end is his statement that he stepped off the stern into the water and felt no suction whatever. It was a universal belief that the
Titanic sinking would involve a huge amount of suction that would drag boats and everything down; Joughin would have been unlikely to have invented this detail.
While his story is unusual, it's hardly unique. When the
Empress of Ireland sank in 1914, the water was only marginally warmer than the
Titanic sinking site water - about 33 F. The ship sank over five miles from shore and there were strong currents in the area. The sinking occurred so rapidly (in 14 minutes) that most passengers had no chance to get to the deck, let alone the lifeboats. It would normally be impossible for someone to survive long in that water, though some did last as long as 40 minutes while boats came from the Norwegian ship to rescue them.
However, there was a lone outlier in this case as well. A young PhD student from the University of California set off for shore, swimming against the current. It was more than five miles, since the current increased the actual distance swum. The
Empress sank at around 1:30 a.m. and this young man reached the shore in a small fishing village about 3 hours later; he woke up the local priest and his housekeeper, who let him in and attended to him. We could dismiss his story except that there were reliable witnesses. He should have been in Stage 3 hypothermia within 30-45 minutes, but was able to swim, though he did say it got more and more difficult.
Like many survivor stories,and indeed remembered experiences in general, there are undoubtedly inaccuracies in Joughin's story, and his timelines are certainly
way off but are probably true to what he felt. To assume it is entirely a fabrication doesn't meet empirical criteria.
reply
share
malley321
8 years ago
Possibly fears of losing future employment due to his drinking.
Whether or not he was drinking is irrelevant here. The point is that the 3 hours or so he later claimed to has spent in the water is a far cry from the 20 minutes he initially claimed (which is roughly the same as what other survivors on Collapsible B claimed to have spent in the water, give or take).
For one to assume that everything about Joughin's story is a "tall tale," you have to also assume that the other survivors who were privy to what happened to him were willing to lie about it or conceal it.
But who else was privy to it besides himself?
I think we can reliably dismiss his perception of how long he was in the water; even at the best of times, our sense of time is unreliable; in emergency situations, it is quite distorted. Joughin is far from the only survivor who felt that he had spent "hours" in the water. Others also had a distorted perception of how long they were in the water, or how long before they changed lifeboats, etc.
The problem, though, is that Joughin initially claimed he had been in the water for 20 minutes. If he truly believed that he had been in the water for hours, why would he initially claim 20 minutes? The implication is that he intentionally exaggerated his story.
But to assume Joughin would take the risk of a wholesale elaborate lie that many others could contradict him on is to violate Occam's Razor.
I think you are misapplying Occam's Razor. The more accurate application of it would be to say that if a man gives two versions of his story, one mundane and believable and one so far fetched that we are here debating how it is even possible, the best option is to assume the more realistic version is true, rather then one that forces us to come up with various assumptions to account for it. And again, I ask, who would have contradicted him? The vast majority of people who could have opposed his story were now dead. And Lightoller does raise doubts about Joughin's story. At the inquiry, he was asked if Joughin was on his boat, and claimed that he did not remember seeing him. If Joughin arrived at the boat so long after the sinking, one would think Lightoller would have remembered this.
You don't give any links to this "earlier story" of his, but even if it varied considerably from his sworn testimony, the latter is considered evidence, in the eyes of the law, not the former. If it's a newspaper story, we can't put too much credence in that, as many were wild exaggerations or even complete fabrications, given the insatiable hunger for Titanic "stories" at the time.
The "earlier story" comes from 3 sources, which consistently tell the same details. Two are letters written while on the Carpathia. They can be found in George Behe's "Onboard the RMS Titanic." The third is from a newspaper interview. I will see if I can track it down.
As to the rest of your argument, I don't deny that some people have survived incredibly long in freezing water, and I believe some Titanic survivors were among them (though probably still less than an hour at most). My arguments are specifically related to Joughin. When I came across the earlier Joughin accounts, I was initially dismayed and didn't know how to explain them. I really wanted the Joughin story to be true. But after weighing the evidence and objectively contemplating the options, the only reasonable conclusion seemed to be that his more realistic story was the truth.
reply
share