Posted by James Pepper on September 28, 1999 at 07:29:42 in 152.163.195.209 :
In Reply to: Re: Britannic's increased length and beam posted by Scott Andrews on September 27, 1999 at 21:38:10:
Dear Scott and Bruce:
I think we have it. Considering the complexity of this ship, the "published" plans are not far off, The funnels were slightly forward a few feet, possibly by one frame as Scott suggested as a margin of error. The boiler room arrangement in the published plans is off by a frame here and there and this is the cause of the confusion. What is amazing is that the rest of the ship is drawn correctly, everything is there. The "Olympic Class Ship" plans were published in 1911. The Titanic plans were published in May or June of 1912. The engine schematics and machinery schematics were published for Olympic on the launch issue of Engineering in 1910. Therefore each of these plans were published just after or during the ship's construction, and therefore this would explain why they are so close to the final product as opposed to the concept type of drawing, which can be found in White Star literature. I am refering to diagrams in the ads which are not very accurate.
These Engine schematics is what I based my engine room on. They were far more detailed than the general arrangement plans. This also explains why the photographic record is slightly different than the plans. I checked and used the photographic evidence as confirmation when making my ships. I remember making the propeller bosses and the large cast pieces in the stern using the photographs and written descriptions as a guide, since the "published" plans were not very helpful. And as you know, these pieces shape the stern.
What would be interesting is to find any intermediate plans, variations of the ships that were not used.
Since I have full access to these Engineering magazines, I will continue to report what I find in them, for instance the water heating pumps are in the reciprocating engine rooms. The water heaters are high up in the room, and Engineering referes to their depositing the hot water in a tank on the "top deck".
Sincerely,
James Pepper