You have chartered a yacht with three friends, for the holiday trip of a lifetime across the Atlantic Ocean. Because none of you have any previous sailing experience, you have hired an experienced skipper and two-person crew. Unfortunately in mid Atlantic a fierce fire breaks out in the ships galley and the skipper and crew have been lost whilst trying to fight the blaze. Much of the yacht is destroyed and is slowly sinking. Your location is unclear because vital navigational and radio equipment have been damaged in the fire. Your best estimate is that you are many hundreds of miles from the nearest landfall. You and your friends have managed to save 15 items, undamaged and intact after the fire. In addition, you have salvaged a four man rubber life craft and a box of matches. Your task is to rank the 15 items in terms of their importance for you, as you wait to be rescued. Place the number 1 by the most important item, the number 2 by the second most important and so forth until you have ranked all 15 items.

Decide upon the rank order of the following items...

Sextant

Shaving mirror

Five-gallon can of water

Mosquito netting

One case of army rations

Maps of Pacific Ocean

Seat cushion

Two-gallon can of oil-gas mixture

Small transistor radio

Shark repellent

Twenty square feet of opaque plastic

One quart of 160 proof rum

Fifteen feet of nylon rope

Two boxes of chocolate bars

Fishing kit