Posted by Mike Pell on October 26, 1999 at 15:00:36 in 24.226.68.152:
In Reply to: the mystery of the aft boat deck board posted by Bruce Beveridge on October 26, 1999 at 00:35:52:
: I just picked up a photocopy reference picture for an actual picture of people playing on the aft A deck of the Olympic. That shroud or electrical conduit that runs from the Boat deck to the mast is in plain view. It also has two eyebolts running through it like they were used to hang something off of them, like a punching bag in someone's basement. I think this thing was wooden and nothing more then a removable support for a canvas weather shade. This picture just ads to it. If I ever get an original picture, I'll be able to see it better. This thing has been one of those "can you prove" type objects. I've seen things like this on many other ships as well as the Britannic, where the boards extend over the fore well deck and aft across what would be the aft well deck.
: Any other ideas?
Bruce, it would seem reasonable that this object could be used in conjunction with the drying/hanging of canvas. It is about the same length as would be the canvas panels that hung along the aft of the B-deck open promenade where the jackstays are seen. If the canvas panels were lowered from A-deck down to the B-deck level and then attached to the B-deck jackstays (at their base) and A-deck/B-deck cleats for the top, they may have been raised up from B to A deck in reverse and dried over this "conduit". Perhaps railing canvas was dried here as well if the Titanic had (but never photgraphed deployed) the same panels as seen on the Olympic in bow and stern photographs. Do you have any idea if the pipe that swings out from UNDER the Boat deck canopy INTO this conduit (as seen in the Browne photos) is electrical, or other (perhaps water feed for the aft area hydrants entering the mast from the upper decks, down the interior of the mast to decks below, then cross over to the poop deck where we next see a plug above #6 hatch). It appears as though the conduit rectangular cover is a protector for this pipe that enters it from the boat deck, in order to give it rigidity if indeed the interior pipe extends to the mast. Might the pipe entering the cable be electrical for control of the docking lamps if they are controlled from the bridge, thereby providing the most direct route from the bridge on or near the boatdeck level or A-deck roofline? I would offer a suggestion that the rectangular cover is serving a dual purpose, one for adding a rigid protective cover for the "pipe", and to support the weight of damp/wet canvas, similar as the pipe we see between the aft #1 funnel trunk vent and Gibb vent forward of the bow end of the GSC skylight cover.
Credence to these theories would depend on if the pipe (a given fact on the Titanic) which enters this rectangular conduit extends internally over to the mast. The Olympic not having this rectangular conduit originally may have only added the conduit later, but NOT the internal pipe. Though the Olympic pic is helpful, it will be more beneficial to examin the Titanic Brown photograph where we know for certain that the pipe AND conduit were there from day one. Suggestions, or comments?