01/09/2026
A good factual story about Charles Joughin. There are a lot of times in life when we need to be survivors. No need to be selfish. No need to turn our backs on helping other people. An important component of life is being of help to others in small and challenging times.
On the fateful night of April 14th, 1912, when the Titanic struck the iceberg and chaos engulfed thousands, one man decided that if the end was coming, he might as well face it in good spirits.
His name was Charles Joughin, the ship’s chief baker. What followed is perhaps the strangest survival story in history.
As soon as he realized the ship was sinking, Joughin didn’t run toward the lifeboats to save himself. Quite the opposite. He ordered his staff to load the boats with bread to provide provisions for future castaways.
Then he returned to his cabin and began his own “mission”: drinking an impressive quantity of liquor.
With his mind fogged by alcohol—but filled with a kind of reckless courage—he went back on deck. He started tossing wooden deck chairs overboard, hoping that those already struggling in the freezing water could cling to them. It was later revealed that this act saved dozens of lives.
As the ship tilted sharply, panic was total. People slipped, screamed, prayed. Joughin calmly walked to the stern, climbed over the safety rail, and waited.
He later recalled feeling the ship descend beneath him “like an elevator.” When the Titanic vanished under the Atlantic, Charles Joughin simply stepped off the metal and into the ocean. He did it so smoothly that he later claimed, “I didn’t even get my hair wet.”
Here’s where the strange science comes in. The water temperature was -2°C (28°F). Most people died within 15–20 minutes from hypothermic shock or panic, which drained their energy instantly.
But our baker was… “anesthetized.” The huge amount of alcohol in his system had two crucial effects:
It erased his fear completely.
He swam slowly, calmly, without wasting energy—preserving his body heat.
Although alcohol normally speeds up hypothermia, in Joughin’s case, the extreme relaxation prevented the initial cold shock that stops the heart the moment someone hits freezing water.
He swam in the darkness for over two hours. When dawn broke, he was found by a lifeboat—still paddling calmly, as if taking a refreshing morning swim. He climbed aboard, dried off, and… survived without any long-term effects.
Charles Joughin lived to an old age, passing away in 1956 at 78. He remains the man who proved that sometimes, survival defies all logic.
