The swimming bath

[Daniel Klistorner]

David Brown,

Below is the picture that you were feferring to. The water at the shallow end of the pool (the end that is visible on the photo) is only about 14" deep and presumably 22" at the other end (the deep end). If it makes any difference, the water level is just covering the hole that I showed in a previous post.

Daniel.

 

[Yuri Singleton]

I would think that the auto-circulation system as suggested by David Brown makes mechanical sense, but I have one problem with it. What about the occasional jellyfish that gets pulled inside the pool?

A re-fit so soon on Olympic's pool tiles would indicate to me that a flaw existed with the original configuration, or installation. Perhaps cracking grout, and loose tiles were a problem? Or perhaps the engineers needed access to something behind the tiles?

Those pipes and valves shown in the picture likely have a purpose related to the swimming bath.
The diameter of the pipes nearer the changing stalls seem to indicate they would be not be used for filling the pool. Too small. But could be about the right size for some kind of shower, or perhaps a spray hose. Also, notice that they split two smaller pipes off from one larger one. There are two signs above each valve, but I can't read them from the enlargement above. Maybe more could be determined from a hardcopy enlargment. Notice also that they are close to the changing stalls and in the direct walkway from the pool stairs to the stalls. So some inference may be made that the valves were meant to be seen and perhaps used by the passengers.

The pipes seen nearer the exterior wall seem large enough to handle the amount of water needed to fill the pool, but they are running vertically, and away from the waterline. On closer inspection, these pipes are also two pipes coming together into one pipe. But the design of the joint indicates that the flow of water (?) is from top to bottom. And in my opinion they resemble sewer pipes. But if they are sewer pipes, why do they have valves with handles right there? The question in my mind is, what was above the swimming bath that would need large drain pipes with valves? Toilets, bathtubs, sinks, drains from the well deck?

Yuri

 

[Remco Hillen]

quote:

On at least one photo of I believe Olympic's pool it shows a low water level, but not empty. And, the water is absolutely still which indicates the ship is moored without the engines running to create vibration ripples. If the pool level was equal to the ship's draft, perhaps we are seeing the light draft prior to coaling and victualing?

Perhaps they filled the pool a bit to get a nicer looking photograph(assuming that it is a publicity photo)?
Perhaps I'm completely wrong, but I've seen other photo's during construction where things have been delibiratly made wet to get a better photo.
Just a thought.

Regards,
Remco​

 

[Nigel Bryant]

Hi all,

Why do you think White Star made the pool look so bare? Most of the public rooms are beautifully appointed but the Swimming Pool is like a third-class compartment. When I was writing my interior article, I first thought that there was no paneling installed on the bulkheads because the salt water would damage the paneling. But then later I saw a drawing of Britannic's pool which is paneled, and it is way superior to her two older sisters. So why go with all the bare metal and exposed pipes? Is it because White Star had no benchmark to compare with other vessel's swimming baths with? Once they saw the improvement from the “Imperator Class” they improved on Britannic? On White Star's drawing of the Pool for Olympic & Titanic, they have exaggerated it to make it look very nice compared to what it was like in reality. Talk about false advertising

All the best,

Nigel

 

[Eric Sauder]

Hi, Nigel:

Not much thought and effort were put into decorating the pool because, at the time, "plunge baths" were quite a novelty on board ships. And that novelty was more important than appearance. Just to have one at all was pretty impressive.

The problem is that, if one looks at the two-deck-high, Pompeiian pools the Germans put in the Imperator class within a few short months after Titanic's maiden voyage, the pools on Olympic and Titanic (and even Britannic) seemed pretty pathetic.

Eric Sauder

 

[Daniel Klistorner]

Mark Chirnside and I have been discussing this recently and despite all this, Olympic's pool was left looking pathetic throughout her life. Some very small additions were made, but nothing serious, and the pool was basically left looking the same throughout her life.

 

[Jim Trebowski]

In regards to how they heated it, call me crazy but I thought the ventilation pipes coming from the boiler roooms and the boiler rooms themselves heated the pool. Their location seems to be ideal.

 

[Stephen Hinkle]

Another theory I had was a gravity Siphon Pipe for heating. This would require no pump.

My theory is if the water left the bottom of the pool (where the coldest water is, since hotter water rises to the top) by a smaller pipe, then was sent through the boiler room (even if it does not touch a boiler, just gets close to it), and then the pipe is sent out somewhere at the top of the pool, below the water line. Since Syphoning balances high to low, and low to high, it may provide natural circulation, especially with the cold water falling, allowing for heat.


Also, maybe those small valves have something to do with this, and if you look close, it looks like a mixing valve, maybe allowing cold water to come in, if it gets too hot.

 

[Stephen Hinkle]

Here is a photoshop enhanced version of the pool picture that shows the hole better.

 

[Camron Miller]

In reply to whoever said that swimming in sea-water didn't sound like a luxury - when a friend of mine went to see the Vanderbilt's summer cottage (with 10+ bedrooms, he told me that sinks and baths had four taps - hot fresh-water, cold gresh-water, hot salt-water and cold salt-water. Apparently, salt water was beneficial to the skin. This may have been White Star's sales pitch on the pool. Just a thought.

 

[Tom Bates]

Was the water screend for fish and were there any filers? or pumps? I think the flow was some thing line this ( intake, valve, screen, tank?, filter?, pump, heater?, mixingvalve,pool,(supply system) outlet, pump, filter,heater?,pool(?),drain, pump, overbord (drain system). their has to be at least one pump for the pool? a fill or drain pump.

 

[Brent DeFatta]

I don’t think fish would have been a big problem, I would doubt the pump was strong enough to pick up a fish or even if there would be enough room in the pipe, although I may be wrong. There may well have been a filter for that reason.

Brent D.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

Brent, I think you'll find that the pumps on any ship are plenty strong enough to pick up fish, but as you noted, that's why there are filters, screens and strainers throughout the entire system to deal with that sort of thing. I've had to clean out my fair share in the firemains on some ships I served on.

 

[Haowei Shi]

Did the water filled the whole pool?

 

[Haowei Shi]

The gym was designed to be near the swimming pool, but they decided to move it to the boat deck instead.