(03-27-2015, 12:45 PM)Caspar Wrote: Actually, as improbable as that sounds, you can swim in full plate, again, if it's properly fitted to you. It's just not as easy.Â
Swimming in mail, however, would be much harder. With plate you can at least swim a short distance, but I'd think swimming in mail would be extremely dangerous. It can be heavier and the weight is distributed on your shoulders, pulling you down. I think the idea that it was impossible to swim in plate armor came from the fact that most medieval men couldn't swim anyway. Not to mention, if you panicked and were wearing an additional 50 pounds you wanted to get out of immediately, it was nearly impossible to do so.
Well, I will admit that I am not actually aware of the accurate weight for either mail or plate armour. That being said, I do know from personal experience that 20lbs of non-bouyant mass will carry all but the very strongest of swimmers straight to the bottom.
When training as a lifegaurd, applicants are required to lift a 10lb brick or dumbbell from the bottom of a pool and carry it a distance of 2 meters. This task is so extremely exhausting that my instructor told us it had failed more lifegaurds than every other requirement combined. We students tried many different methods of lifting this thing, including over the shoulder, at the hip, and under the arm, none really made much difference... it still required weeks of practice to achieve.
  I may have suffered nightmares involving dumbbells and diving pools...Now in my particular certification group there was one young man, who had very little trouble. He was the captain of our local water polo team, with two national titles under his belt, and had just received full scholarship to an American university. He had basically done nothing but swim since the age of six. One day to see what he could handle, we challenged him to carry two dumbbells (totaling 40lbs). We tied them together to leave him a free hand, and watched him lift the weight and carry it half way across the pool (about 5 meters), then his head began to go under, then he began bobbing and choking, before eventually dropping the weight next to the far wall. Even a national level athlete, trained specifically in water polo could not do it.
Now I realize that that a pair of dumbbells and a suit of armour have drastically different distributions of mass. However what is advantageous on land actually becomes a hindrance in the water. Due to the extra drag and resistance on your limbs, it becomes far more difficult to create buoyancy and propel yourself upwards.
Once through some particularly poor foresight, I found myself dumped into a chilly lake, while wearing a sweater, woolen socks, light rain pants, and a windbreaker. The bulk and distribution of that outfit would probably have been comparable to a set of half-plate or short chain coat. The entire outfit soaking wet, probably weighed all of two or three pounds. I was a lifeguard, a cross country runner and an open water swimmer. I knew what to do, I was in excellent physical shape, and I was still in deep trouble. Yes, I held my head above water until a nearby power boat could fish me out, but is was a very near call.
So based on my personal experience and observations, I would say that swimming in full plate should be impossible for most individuals. For those who could survive, it would be more a matter of desperately keeping your head up and trying to make it a few feet to land. Â
So there is my two three five gil on the subject of swimming in clothing and plate.
The questions of stealth and agility, I will leave to those more knowledgeable in the subject.
