The first class leisure facilities including the swimming pool, Turkish and electric baths on Olympic were heavily promoted by the White Star Line. Adriatic (1907) had introduced a Turkish and electric bath complex with a plunge bath. Their success and popularity encouraged the White Star Line to provide similar facilities on Olympic, including what was the first true swimming pool on an ocean liner. Both ships had a gymnasium and Olympic also introduced a squash court. Passengers travelling first class on Olympic had far more options to keep them occupied compared to ships a mere few years earlier.
However, data available from Olympic‘s first three round trip voyages to New York in the summer of 1911 shows a distinct gender divide in the number of female and male passengers who used these facilities:
Number of Passengers
Gender Split
Swimming Pool (paid)
Ladies (56)
7%
Gentlemen (785)
93%
Swimming Pool (free)
Ladies (528)
24%
Gentlemen (1636)
76%
Turkish Baths
Ladies (90)
20%
Gentlemen (358)
80%
Electric Baths
Ladies (38)
51%
Gentlemen (37)
49%
The passengers using the swimming pool were 81% male (on a combined basis including both the paid and free uses of the pool) and those using the Turkish Baths were 80% male. Only in the case of the Electric Baths, which were much less popular, were the numbers fairly evenly balanced with female passengers accounting for 51%.
A full gender breakdown of the total number of first class passengers carried during these three round trips is unavailable. It may well be that there were more male passengers in first class, in general. However it seems unlikely that this would be to the same extent of the 80/20 split in male/female passengers using the swimming pool and Turkish Baths. All the indications are that these facilities were significantly more popular with male passengers.
