Rich Hampel wrote:
Thats an interesting comment.

I spent a lot of time in my youth in the Canadian maritimes and on the
'rock' Newfoundland. I asked the question in an outport of why the
women so outnumbered the men. The answer was - they all drowned.
Incredulous I then asked doesnt any know how to swim? The reply to
that was - no they didnt bother learn to swim because it was a waste of
time. A waste of time!!!! why is that so, if so many drowned?????
The next answer - the water is so cold that even the best swimmer could
only survive a few minutes anyway so why bother to go through all that
trouble and drown anyway.

The Titanic sunk off the Canadian maritimes and probably all that
drowned, suffered hypothermia first, then drowned.

One of our cameramen went on a shoot up north half a dozen years ago.
He asked the Inuit fishermen (who weren't wearing lifejackets) what to
do if the boat sank. They said to drink lots of water on the way
down... in other words, don't prolong the agony.
It's not that bad in the Maritimes during the June-October period.
In some bays on the Atlantic side, the water reaches mid to high 60s.
On the Northumberland Straight, even higher.
What do they say... in 50 degree water, half the people could last half
an hour. We all know that sailors are more rugged than most!