Posted by Bruce Beveridge on May 29, 1999 at 18:29:25 in 199.179.160.146:
In Reply to: Windows and Doors posted by Bob Read on May 29, 1999 at 15:53:52:
Bob,
That's a good question. We may never know about this configuration for sure because there are no pictures of this area that I know of. The Olympic wasn't built with a cowl fore of the starboard heat exchange drum like the Titanic however, it may have been built with a hump backed duct like what is seen on the aft port corner of the #3 casing on the Titanic ( or something similar ) This would be out of view in the picture seen in Susan Wels book Pg.27. In this picture, if you look real hard you can see the corner of another screen starting fore of the drum. Now to answer the Titanic question. The cowl appears to be immediately fore of the drum. There may be enough space for a screen, though slightly obstructed, in between the drum and fan housing. There is probably another screen fore of the cowl/fan housing also. This is why I make this assumption. If you look at the G/A's of the 1933 era Olympic in Anatomy you will see that they were kind enough to show the openings for the screens. I understand that there are more screens shown here then what are seen in the pictures. They were probably added at some point or rearranged. If I draw a conclusion based on what I see from photographs of the early Olympic and the two Titanic pictures seen in Tragedy pgs. 106 and 107. I would say that there was a screen fore of the starboard drum, then the cowl which happens to be in line with the door right across on the port side, and another screen as shown in the G/A. The cowl/fan housing seems to have taken the place of the door on the starboard side. Again this is an assumption. The 1933 Olympic G/A's have a real strange configuration of the screens even as far as deleting a screen on the port side that was there originally. Maybe the drawing is not that accurate in this area, who knows. If it were me, I would go with the symmetrical screens on both sides based on this evidence with the cowl/fan in place of a door on the starboard side. Of course this would not be enough for a conviction in a real court but it would qualify for probable cause. :)
Bruce