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No Such Thing As A Fish
No Such Thing As A Fish

No Such Thing As An Unlucky Fountain

July 02, 2026 • 56m

Summary

⏱️ 8 min read

Overview

In this episode of No Such Thing As A Fish, guest host Jamie Morton joins Dan, Anna, and Andy to discuss fascinating facts about the Titanic's swimming pool and survival stories, the history of exotic Egyptian dances, Hindu astrology's predictions about anatomy, and the lottery curse phenomenon. The conversation ranges from ancient swimming pools to modern-day lottery winners, with diversions into belly dancing regulations, Irish dancing origins, and unusual wedding timing dictated by astrology.

Titanic's Swimming Pool and Survival

The discussion begins with the fascinating fact that a Titanic passenger credited his morning swim in the ship's saltwater pool with helping him survive the sinking. Archibald Gracie IV had acclimatized to cold water, eaten a hearty breakfast after his swim, and recently read about extreme survival, all of which may have contributed to his survival. The conversation expands to modern swimming pool heating solutions, including data centers warming pools in the UK, and various swimming pool regulations and quirks around the world.

  • Archibald Gracie IV swam in the Titanic's heated saltwater pool the morning of the sinking, which he believed helped him survive
  • The Titanic had one of the first swimming pools on any luxury liner, and it was heated
  • Archibald Gracie IV died later in 1912, becoming the first adult survivor to die after the disaster
  • UK swimming pools are getting colder due to heating costs, but some facilities like Exmouth Leisure Centre use data center heat to warm their pools
  • French swimming pools ban loose swimming shorts for hygiene reasons, requiring form-fitting swimwear instead, a rule dating back to 1903
  • Our bodies are physiologically built to urinate in pools as a response to being in water, which is a problem for Olympic athletes
  • Empty swimming pools can pop out of the ground due to loss of water weight keeping them in place
" As long as you travelled with that batch of heated water. "
" If you're swimming in the swimming pool, are you technically sinking though? Because you're just really just still swimming. You could just pretend that I'm just swimming in the swimming pool even though the swimming pool is like, you know, the Atlantic. "

Swimming Pool Quirks and Regulations

A wide-ranging discussion about unusual swimming pool facts, including the White House's abandoned swimming pool now used for data storage, France's strict swimwear regulations, and the Skypool in London suspended between buildings. The conversation covers everything from pool temperature regulations to the physiological urge to urinate in pools, and includes the story of Wim Hof's fountain accident.

  • The White House press briefing room is built over FDR's old swimming pool, now filled with data servers
  • The Skypool near Battersea Power Station is made of acrylic and suspended between buildings, but social housing residents aren't allowed to use it
  • Wim Hof suffered serious internal injuries when giving himself an enema on a fountain jet that had been made more powerful than he expected
  • David Hockney not only painted swimming pools but literally painted the inside of his own pool with wave designs
" I am built to pee in here. "

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