The Pristine was one of the great ships of its time in the 16th century, until it wasn’t. The wooden ship, with massive sails, hit a rock and suddenly started sinking.
All of the nautical crew rushed to the hull to start bailing water out of the boat, but it quickly became clear that the hole could not be patched. The solution seemed obvious. Tear the vessel apart and start making rafts.
One sailor, mockingly nicknamed the Professor, tried to stop the crew.
“Do not tear the boat apart,” the Professor warned. “The wood will keep us afloat for weeks.”
“That’s not right,” a sailor said. “Neptune will claim our souls. Besides, what does a couple of weeks get us?”
“In that time, we can signal for help,” the Professor said.
“How is another boat going to find us?” one sailor snarled. This sailor was already planning to use his teeth on one of the ship’s banisters to tear it apart.
“We can fire guns, we can bang drums, we can light lanterns,” the Professor offered.
The crew laughed and ran off to ransack the captain’s quarters before they made their rafts.
The Professor went the other way. Under his own bunk sat a small boat, some oars and a makeshift sail. The Pristine was not the Professor’s first sinking ship. No one ever believed the science, so he had to find his own way to survive.