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The tragic story of early shipping and other video based on true stories!
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00:00The year was 1854, and the SS Arctic, the fastest passenger liner of its time, set out to cross the
00:07Atlantic.
00:08As it sailed through the misty veil, it slowly disappeared into the unknown.
00:15The Collins Line, an American shipping company, was started in 1818 and only began seriously trading in the transatlantic by
00:231835.
00:25Its steamships crossed the Atlantic from Liverpool to New York within just 10 days.
00:30Doesn't sound like a great speed today, I know, but back then, the same thing took other ships several weeks.
00:38Light on the water with their wooden hulls, powering through with a strong steam engine, those steamships were the favorite
00:45choice for many high-profile people.
00:47What could go wrong with such an advanced ship, they thought.
00:51This reminds me of some other ship everyone believed to be unsinkable.
00:57But anyway, back to the Collins Line.
00:59It grew to be a serious contender on transatlantic routes, with only one other competitor, the Cunard's Line.
01:07It was a British company also aiming to be the main force through the Arctic passage.
01:13In 1835, the company received a new ship that traveled to Liverpool and came back to New York with the
01:19largest cargo ever at that time.
01:22From then, the Collins Line was steadily growing.
01:25It seemed like there would only be future successes for it.
01:30Unfortunately, their lavish ships became costly to run with the amount of coal used.
01:36Massive power along with weak wooden hulls meant they needed many repairs after each voyage.
01:43So, every trip ended up being expensive.
01:46But since the ships were safe and had a great reputation, people were willing to pay the price.
01:52And the company was definitely not in crisis.
01:54They had achieved something no one had managed to do before them.
01:58Like I told you, their ships crossed the Atlantic in a whopping 10 days.
02:03And Edward Collins, the owner, was very determined to maintain the pace.
02:09Their five ships easily outran the Cunard's Line of only three.
02:13With this great praise, it provided more attention.
02:18Though the Cunard's ships were slower with their iron hulls, they believed there was still profit, regardless of how slowly
02:25they sailed.
02:27Among Collins' ships, the Arctic, the third of them to be launched, was the largest, reaching 284 feet long, with
02:35two side-lever steam engines, each with 1,000 horsepower.
02:40The paddle wheels made 16 revolutions a minute when at full speed.
02:44At the time of its launch, the press called it,
02:47The most stupendous vessel ever constructed in the United States!
02:51But glamour and fame couldn't avoid what would come next.
02:56On the 27th of September, the Arctic was on its journey from Liverpool to New York, continuing a speed pace
03:03through the thick fog.
03:04It's possible that by that moment, after four years of record-breaking trips, the crew became overconfident with their sailing
03:12and the ship.
03:14Going only 50 miles from Newfoundland, they carelessly continued through the fog with no radio contact, sonar, or any other
03:22form of identifying objects, equipped only with Morse code.
03:28A smaller ship, the SS Vesta, which operated as a fishing vessel, often worked around Newfoundland.
03:34It was passing through the same path as the Arctic and crashed into its side.
03:41Shocked by the collision, the captain of the Arctic offered help to the much smaller Vesta.
03:45But it was soon clear that the damage that seemed minor on the Arctic was far worse.
03:52Beneath the waterline, a hole was letting water into the hull.
03:56The cost of the much faster wooden hull now seemed less valuable.
04:00They steered toward land, trying to plug the holes.
04:03But they weren't doing so well, and the seawater continued to pour in, filling up higher and pushing the ship
04:09down.
04:11And finally, once the engine room was full, it put out the boilers, taking away the massive power the Arctic
04:18was once legendary for.
04:21They moved slowly until coming to a complete stop.
04:25The ship continued to sink, and the order was to abandon it.
04:29At the time, maritime law allowed for the Arctic to carry only six lifeboats, only capable of saving 180 people.
04:37The crew and some of the passengers managed to push their way aboard, and took most of the seats on
04:42those boats.
04:43Things were pretty wild, and everyone forgot about their manners, not letting the ladies and the youngest ones board first.
04:51It took four hours for the Arctic to sink.
04:54150 crew and 250 passengers were on board.
04:57Those that weren't able to find a lifeboat made a desperate attempt to build their own rafts from parts of
05:03the ship.
05:05Two days later, only three boats made it safely to the shore.
05:09The other three were never found.
05:12Believe it or not, the rescue party also saved some people that had been clinging to the wreckage for two
05:18days.
05:20Unlike the crew, the captain went down with the Arctic, but amazingly survived.
05:25He would be only one of 85 people that made it out of the 400 on board.
05:33When the news arrived two weeks later, the public responded with great sadness to the losses.
05:39Great anger soon followed towards the poor safety measures in the crew.
05:43The press published demands to change the laws for more lifeboats.
05:47It only made sense to have enough for every person on board a ship.
05:52But they ignored those requests.
05:55This neglect would lead to more disasters in the future.
05:58Enough lifeboats would only come into maritime law some 60 years later, after the disaster of the Titanic.
06:06Edward Collins' wife and two children were also aboard the ship and didn't return.
06:12He was heartbroken, but didn't stop running his business.
06:17The Collins line still had a reputation to uphold.
06:21The biggest, fastest, and most luxurious on the Atlantic.
06:25Edward Collins would now build an even better ship than any other.
06:30It was named the Adriatic, and it was the largest ship in the world, 354 feet long.
06:37With two alternating steam engines that had never been built of this size.
06:41These steam engines at the time were at the height of engineering.
06:45Though today, you can only see them in models and toys.
06:50With the new addition of two masts, the Adriatic would also be able to sail if needed.
06:55Luckily, they made some lessons from the disaster of the Arctic.
06:59But before their new ship, the Adriatic, was built, another disaster had occurred.
07:04The sister ship of the Arctic had also sunk.
07:09They believed this second ship was desperate to stay in front of the Cunard's line and hit an iceberg somewhere
07:15during the race.
07:16This weird contest took the lives of 141 people.
07:22The desperation of Collins and his weakly-built hulls pushed the company towards bankruptcy in 1858.
07:29The newly-built Adriatic, costing over $1 million, had only made one voyage in the end.
07:36And even that voyage was considered a disaster.
07:40The ship collided with a tugboat.
07:42It still managed to finish its maiden voyage at a suitable time.
07:47After the company had gone bankrupt, they had to sell the ship for only $50,000.
07:54They removed the great giant engines, replacing them with only sails.
08:00Although it was once the greatest ship on the high seas, it was only 30 years later until it was
08:06abandoned,
08:07labeled irreparable, and anchored in a river.
08:11The other remaining ships were also sold and only used for parts.
08:16Edward Collins left the industry altogether, seeking work on dry land instead.
08:22As the Collins line was no longer in the mix, the Cunards would grow in strength.
08:27Without competition, they would win the Blue Ribbon for the next 30 years,
08:32and 180 years later, after producing hundreds of ships.
08:36They still have a constant presence on the seas, as they provide transatlantic crossings, world voyages, and leisure cruises.
08:45To this day, the Cunard line is the only one to run ships between Europe and America.
08:51And it's great proof that it's not always the fastest that's the best.
08:59We've heard stories about people surviving in the desert, Amazon forest, and uninhabited islands for weeks.
09:06Such stories show how tough and resilient people can be.
09:10But among these many cases, there is one that can really amaze you.
09:14It's the story about a guy who spent three days inside a sunken ship at the bottom of the Atlantic
09:20Ocean.
09:20He didn't have oxygen tanks, electricity, communications, or food.
09:25But he survived.
09:28So, it all happened in 2013 on a tugboat that was moving through the Atlantic waters along the coast of
09:35Nigeria.
09:36That day, early in the morning, there was a small storm.
09:39The tug was pulling a vessel with oil tanks.
09:42Then, all of a sudden, a huge wave formed.
09:46It crashed into the ship and broke the cable.
09:48At 4.30 a.m., the tugboat turned upside down.
09:53Its entire deck was underwater, and the ship's hull stuck out from the surface.
09:58The boat began to sink slowly.
10:00The crew of 12 people were trapped, as they all were in their locked rooms.
10:05They had closed the doors in their cabins as a precaution, since there were many pirates in those waters.
10:11Because of the locked rooms, they couldn't get out.
10:14But one of them, cook Harrison Okina, was in the bathroom during this time.
10:19The bathroom turned over.
10:21Harrison fell on the ceiling.
10:23All the clothes and toilet shelves fell on his head.
10:27He was stunned and didn't understand what was happening.
10:30When he heard the screams of the other crew members, he realized that the ship was sinking.
10:36Harrison struggled to his feet.
10:38Holding onto the walls, he slowly went out of the cabin.
10:41The water level rose above his head.
10:45Harrison took a deep breath.
10:47He intuitively, driven by fear, reached the engineering room.
10:51There was a small pocket with air.
10:53This space wasn't wholly flooded, since the water didn't get there, and the air hadn't come out.
10:59Harrison realized that this was the safest place for him at that moment.
11:03He had no fresh water and no food.
11:06He was in a cold, damp room.
11:08The floor was flooded, and Harrison's feet began to freeze.
11:12There was almost no chance of survival.
11:15The man found a soda bottle inside the room and a life jacket with two flashlights attached to it.
11:21By this time, the ship had descended to the bottom of the ocean at a depth of 100 feet.
11:27This is about the height of a 10-story building.
11:30The ship's hull was squeezed and made a grinding noise due to the pressure of the water.
11:36Then, Harrison heard a strange movement outside the door.
11:39It was sharks and other fish that were investigating the deck.
11:43At this point, Harrison began to lose hope.
11:47Lack of food supplies and pressure weren't the main problems.
11:51The air pocket was small, which meant there was little oxygen.
11:54Every 24 hours, an average person consumes about 350 cubic feet of air,
12:00which means Harrison had less than one day left to breathe.
12:04But, despite this, he lived in such conditions for about 60 hours.
12:09This happened thanks to the water.
12:11The pressure around the ship was so intense that it compressed the air by about four times.
12:17Another problem was the cook's breathing.
12:20When we inhale, we absorb oxygen.
12:22When we exhale, we release carbon dioxide.
12:26This substance is dangerous to your health if its concentration in the air is 5%.
12:31Harrison slowly filled the room with carbon dioxide, and he couldn't get out.
12:36With each hour, it became harder to breathe.
12:40But, here again, he was lucky.
12:42Water absorbs carbon dioxide, and Harrison moved and splashed it in different directions.
12:48Thus, unknowingly, he increased the water area and kept the carbon dioxide level below critical.
12:55But, even here, his dangers were not over.
12:59Hypothermia may occur in a dark, cold room.
13:02It's a condition when your body temperature drops below 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
13:07You get cold, and your perception of the world gets distorted.
13:10You don't understand where you are and what's going on.
13:14You may lose your memory and even experience terminal burrowing.
13:18This weird behavior occurs during hypothermia when a person tries to find a small shelter, even if they're in a
13:25closed room.
13:26They can even start digging the cold floor with their bare hands.
13:29At the same time, a person quickly freezes and loses consciousness within two hours.
13:36Harrison's room was filled from below with icy water.
13:39He wouldn't have survived in such conditions if he had stayed on the floor for several hours.
13:43But, he managed to build a small platform with a mattress.
13:47This kept him slightly above the water level.
13:50With each passing hour, fear and despair more and more bound the survivor's mind.
13:56He couldn't get out for many reasons.
13:59One of them was that only a little sunlight passes to such a depth, and Harrison couldn't see it.
14:05The soda bottle was almost empty, and the flashlight stopped working.
14:09The man found himself in pitch darkness.
14:12But his salvation was close.
14:15While rescuers were searching for survivors nearby, he was thinking about his family and life.
14:21Harrison noticed rays of light through a hole in the wreckage.
14:24The divers were examining the seabed.
14:27It was the only chance to survive.
14:29Harrison came out of the air pocket and swam towards the rescuers.
14:33He was making his way through the darkness.
14:36The ray of light coming from the diver's flashlight disappeared.
14:40Harrison tried blindly to find the diver, but they were at the other end of the deck.
14:45His oxygen was running out, so Harrison decided to return.
14:49There was almost no air left in his lungs.
14:51He began to suffocate, but still got to the rescue room.
14:56The main thing was not to despair.
14:59It was his only chance for salvation.
15:01After catching his breath and replenishing the oxygen supply in his lungs, Harrison made a second attempt.
15:08He got out of the room and noticed the diver.
15:11He swam towards them with all of his might.
15:13The lifeguard didn't see Harrison, so the cook knocked on his neck from behind and grabbed his hand tightly.
15:21The diver was initially scared, but he realized a living person was in front of him.
15:26Harrison swam to his room and led the lifeguard as his oxygen ran out.
15:31You can easily find a recording from the diver's camera on the internet, where the frightened Harrison was in his
15:37rescue room during a meeting with the diver.
15:40The rescuers gave him an oxygen mask.
15:43They didn't believe there was a living person in front of them.
15:46Harrison couldn't immediately get to the surface because of the pressure.
15:49He spent about 60 hours on the seabed, so he needed to change the pressure level slowly to prevent damage
15:56to his health.
15:57Therefore, the divers put him in a decompression chamber to gradually reduce the external pressure.
16:03Then, when Harrison got out, he saw the stars.
16:07The cook thought that he had been at the bottom of the ocean all day.
16:11So, he was surprised when he found out that he had been underwater for 60 hours.
16:16Also, he thought that all the crew members had forgotten about him and left the ship at the beginning.
16:22Many years have passed since then, but Harrison still has nightmares about his air room.
16:28Sometimes, he wakes up in the middle of the night and tells his wife that the bed is sinking and
16:33they're now at sea.
16:34A similar case occurred in 1991 with scuba diver Michael Proudfoot.
16:39He was studying a sunken submarine off the coast of Baja, California.
16:43During this dive, he accidentally broke his breathing regulator and deprived himself of oxygen reserves.
16:50Michael couldn't get to the surface because he was too deep.
16:53He wouldn't have had enough air in his lungs.
16:56Fortunately, the diver found an air pocket inside the ship.
17:00He swam there and waited for rescuers.
17:03For two days, he was underwater in complete darkness.
17:07He ate raw sea urchins and drank a small amount of warm water from a found pot.
17:12Fortunately, rescuers found him.
17:15Michael Proudfoot got out of the trap and stayed alive.
17:20Imagine that you're on a game show and here's your last task.
17:24There are three doors in front of you.
17:26Behind one of them, there is a car.
17:29Behind the other two, there are goats.
17:31You pick a door to open.
17:32Let's say the first door.
17:34The host of the show, who knows behind which door the car is, opens another door.
17:40Let's say it's door three.
17:43Behind it, there is a goat.
17:44After that, the game host tells you, now your final choice.
17:49Do you want to switch your choice of doors?
17:52Do you think it would be in your interest to change your choice and pick door two instead?
17:57I'll give you some time to think.
17:59And you make your decision.
18:10Have you made your choice?
18:11This problem is called a Monty Hall problem.
18:14There is named after the host of a game show where this situation happened.
18:19Oh, yeah.
18:19And here are what PhDs and mathematicians say.
18:22Switching the door doesn't make any sense.
18:26When you picked it first, the chances of picking the door with the car were one-third.
18:30Whatever door you choose, the chances are the same.
18:34After the host opened the door, the odds of picking the door with the car are 50-50.
18:39But when Marilyn Vuceva, the most intelligent woman on the planet with an IQ of 228, was
18:46asked this question in her Sunday column in 1990, she replied, yes, you should switch.
18:52The first door has one-third chance of winning, but the second door has a two-third chance.
18:58Her response caused a huge outburst of negative comments.
19:01Mrs. Vuceva received thousands of angry letters, 90% of which were telling her how wrong she
19:08was and how she lacked basic mathematical knowledge.
19:12Many of those letters were from mathematicians and PhDs.
19:16Marilyn wrote a response to them, defending her answer.
19:20The winning odds of one-third of the first choice can't go up to one second.
19:25If you are still not persuaded and think that probabilities change after the second door
19:30is open.
19:31Let's just consider all possible scenarios.
19:35There are three doors, and the car can be behind each one of them with equal possibility.
19:41So, three scenarios are equally likely.
19:43The car is behind the first door, the car is behind the second door, and the car is behind
19:49the third door.
19:50Now, let's say there are two players.
19:52One is a switcher, the one who will switch the door after the door with the goat is open.
19:58The other one is a non-switcher, the one who will stick to the first choice.
20:02Now, let's see what happens in each case.
20:05Let's say the car is behind the first door.
20:09Both people choose the first door.
20:11The host opens either one of the remaining two doors.
20:15It doesn't matter which one, because there are goats behind both.
20:19The switcher will now switch to the other door, and the non-switcher will stick to the first one.
20:24In this case, the non-switcher will get the car.
20:28Professors, one.
20:29Marilyn, zero.
20:31But let's consider the other two scenarios.
20:34Now, the car is behind the second door.
20:37Once again, both players pick the first door.
20:40The host opens the third door, the one with the goat.
20:44The first player switches his choice and wins, and the second player stick to the first one and loses.
20:50The last case is when the car is behind the third door.
20:54The players pick the first door.
20:56This time, the host opens the second door, because the second goat is there.
21:01The first player switches to the third door and wins.
21:04The second player sticks to the first door and loses.
21:08So, the non-switching players win only one time.
21:12In this scenario, when they pick the right door right away, which happens in one third of cases,
21:17the switchers lose in only that one scenario.
21:21When they pick the right door right away, and then give it up later.
21:25But they win in the other two scenarios.
21:27In both cases, when the car is behind one of the other two doors.
21:32Mrs. Voussavant suggested another brilliant way to modify the problem, to make it even clearer.
21:37Imagine that there are not three doors, but a million.
21:41The car is behind one of them, and you have to make your choice.
21:45Say you pick the first door.
21:47Then the host opens all the doors except door number 7777777.
21:55All of them had goats.
21:56So the car is either behind the door you pick, or behind the door number 7777777.
22:05Will you switch?
22:06Of course you will!
22:08When you picked the door for the first time, the odds to pick the right one were one in a
22:13million.
22:14Now, when you make another choice between doors 1 and 7777777, your door still has the odds of
22:23one in a million.
22:24But door number 7777777 has accumulated the odds of all the other doors that were open.
22:32The case with three doors is the same, but less obvious.
22:37But who is this brilliant woman who made a monkey out of most professors across the country?
22:44Oh.
22:44Marilyn Voussavant was born on 11th of August in 1946 in Missouri.
22:50She has her mother's last name, and, interestingly, Savant means a person of learning in French.
22:57Marilyn is a descendant of the famous physicist Ernst Mach.
23:02She took her first IQ test when she was 10 years old, and she scored 228.
23:08Just for comparison, on average, an adult has an IQ of 100.
23:14Her parents knew of the girl's exceptional intelligence, but they kept it a secret from
23:18the public so that the girl could live a normal life.
23:22The girl's dream was to become a writer. As a teenager, she was writing for local newspapers
23:28using pseudonyms. She wanted to become a full-time writer, but to do this she needed financial security.
23:36Young Marilyn dropped out of college after two years because she got bored and started to invest.
23:42Within five years, her investments started to support her enough to let her fully dedicate
23:47herself to writing. In 1985, the Guinness Book of World Records obtained Marilyn's IQ scores from the
23:56MEGA Society, a society of people with one in a million intelligence scores. They published them,
24:02and it made Marilyn Voussavant famous. She received a lot of media attention.
24:08A parade magazine wrote an article about her, and it was so popular that they offered her to write
24:14her own column. Of course, Marilyn used this chance. She started the column Ask Marilyn,
24:20where she was answering tricky questions, solving riddles, and publishing her own.
24:26This is exactly where she gave her famous answer to the Monty Hall problem.
24:32But it wasn't the only controversial problem she solved. Here is one more.
24:37A shopkeeper said that she has two new beagles, but she doesn't know if they're male or female.
24:44You only want a male, so she calls a fellow who is bathing them. Turns out that at least one
24:49of them
24:49is a male. What is the probability that the other one is a male too? I'll give you some time
24:55to think.
25:05Here is what most people think. There are three possible scenarios. The two beagles are two males,
25:11two females or a male and a female. Since one of them is a male, then it's now two possible
25:18options, two males or a pair.
25:20Therefore, the probability of two males is one second. Still, Marilyn Voussava replied,
25:28one out of three. This baffles the audience. But the key is that two puppies are different,
25:34and it's important to differentiate between them. For example, there is a puppy A and a puppy B.
25:40Now how many combinations are there? Both being females is one, both being males is two.
25:46Now A is male and B is female, three. And lastly, A is a female and B is a male,
25:53four. So there are three
25:55different cases, when at least one is a male. So when we know that at least one is a male,
26:00getting both males had the probability of one third. In over 35 years of solving thousands of riddles
26:09from her readers, Mrs. Voussava only made two mistakes and she described them in her column.
26:16Now Mrs. Voussava is 76 years old and she's still writing her Ask Marilyn column. So you can even check
26:24it out.