...PING-PONG balls! I just saw an episode of mythbusters where they scuttled a 20-foot sailboat by pumping water into it and then proceeded to raise it back up to the surface by pumping it full of 27,000 ping-pong balls. It was really pretty cool.

Anyone have any info on where the myth came from or other stories of how this has occured in real life? They showed an old Donald Duck comic strip book at the end of the episode where Huey, Duey, Louie and he raised a sunken boat the exact same way! And that was written 70 years ago! :o

That method was actually proposed to raise the Andrea Doria, but it would have taken more than 27,000. I saw that episode a few months ago and when it aired I knew it would work it was just a matter of science. It goes without saying a sailboat is easier to raise than an oceanliner, but who's to say it wouldn't have worked back then when she still a fresh wreck, of course we'll never know now.

I actually watched that episode!!!! Very cool stuff. I remember in Serpent Austin mentioned that someone had suggested that method for raising the Andrea Doria, but I didn't know it could actually work. Talk about thinking about things in a novel way.