I put my harness to the test. Enjoy:

http://vimeo.com/13634653

There's a good chunk of black video at the beginning. Just be patient for the action.

awesome test Micheal! Really interesting results :D I'm curious how that would be with a spring steel harness...though I think the main issue was having you're arms fully articulate with your strokes. Don't know many people that would be willing to do that with their armour :eek: The entire time I was watching that I was thinking "ohh...that's gonna rust"

Now you need to get yourself a steed in the pool and try again :p

The armour was rusting before I was out of the water. Something in the pool water caused it to oxidize it in 20 minutes. The armour still has many hours of work before it's back to normal. One thing that didn't make it into the final cut of the video was me weighing the harness. It's a lot lighter than I thought, around 50 pounds. The only thing the arms prevented me from doing was a proper breast stroke.

I liked your video Michael very much, I'm not much of a armor guy, I prefer 16th & 17th century where armor was on the decline and maybe you'd find a small kit if that.

Impressive sacrifice for the community! :)

Lake or river water would have been kinder to the armour, but it would also have been much more dangerous to do these tests in natural environs, so pool water was probably the better option.

Thanks you for the work you put into posting this research. I always enjoy when results are shown practically and not speculated upon. This is a good contribution to the community for a frequently asked question. :)

Wonderful experiment, Michael! The next question concerns the speed with which a panicked man can strip off enough plate to get to the surface and swim to shore.

Your work here has implications for the way we understand an illustration like this one:

---

 Attachment: 43.35 KB

That was great. Well done, and thanks.

Micheal, thank you so much for that incredible video. That lays to rest some questions I had about swimming and armour. I admire you for taking the time to do this. Very good quality video.

I also have to admire the soldiers who wore armour in naval battles. It gives me even more respect for them.

Michael, Congratulations! That was an amazingly gutsy thing to do!

I wouldn't have expected a man in armor to be able to do anything other than sink like a stone. You have shown that someone could, at least, swim a short distance.


Thank you,


Ken

Michael
thank you for poasting your test it was very informative. however i have heard of a man who swam across the nile river or some outher river in egipt close to it (it has literly been years since ive read about this) the man who swam across the river wore full plate armor, and even acording to some vareations of the legand he had heavy weights straped to his legs and arms. just thought id informe you of one single legand ive heard of to intrest you.
thankyou once again for poasitng your test.
If i can remember where or how i heard of this legand i'll PM you.

Thanks everyone.

Marko Susimetsa wrote:

Impressive sacrifice for the community! :) Lake or river water would have been kinder to the armour, but it would also have been much more dangerous to do these tests in natural environs, so pool water was probably the better option.

I knew going in that my armour would be damaged. I did it in the pool for the safety, it was a compromise I was willing to make.

[quote="Thomas R."]

JE Sarge wrote:

I'd love to see more of you experimenting with maille and gambeson alone. How would those behave? Would you be able to walk through deeper water? Or streaming water? Can't imagine swimming in full maille... Regards, Thomas

If I owned a coat of maille I would be happy to try, but I think that walking would work, but swimming would be impossible. So much heavier, and a lot of drag.

Flowing water, going WITH the water, may aid in the movement and swimming, if it wasn't too fast. I don't know.

Sean Flynt wrote:

Wonderful experiment, Michael! The next question concerns the speed with which a panicked man can strip off enough plate to get to the surface and swim to shore. Your work here has implications for the way we understand an illustration like this one:

That's a great illustration.
I personally can't get a lot of my armour off without help. I can get my helm, gauntlets, and probably my some other peices off, but I don't know how many. I also had a tie point snap while underwater, so that may aid in shedding. I would just try cutting stuff off with a dagger if I had a clear enough mindset.

Thanks for watching!

Great work, though I have to wonder what it would be like to get Michael Phelps in a similar situation.

I wonder if someone who was fairly strong&fit and was used to wearing armour for long periods would have been able to handle the water more easily. Also if they also used partial harnesses (i.e. no leg or rear protection) and the total armour weight was only 20~30 pounds then perhaps they would have had a better chance both getting out of their armour quickly and/or swimming to a nearby boat or shore.

it was a very interesting video and I like that you came off looking both professional and well spoken. Thank you for the effort you put in to it.