User blog comment:Xilinoc/Realistic One Piece/@comment-5869646-20150524005947/@comment-24769684-20150525133450

Actually, before that he would've drowned due to Higuma leaving him in the water, and he would've sunk immediately (despite the anime showing him floundering for several seconds) and the fact that Shanks would have bled to death in the water, having no strength to swim several hundred meters back to shore