Mechanical music is one of my passions.  History and trivia about
Titanic and her sister ships is another.  In all my research and
reading pertaining to this very subject, I have never run across
any information that Titanic or the Olympic contained a player piano.
Both ships had five grand pianos, and two uprights (for steerage
class singsongs).  No mention I have found anywhere that any of these
pianos was a player.

Oddly, there is mention of an Aeolian electronic organ in the First
Class lounge.  Wallace Hartley, the bandmaster on Titanic played
violin, and he, along with his seven colleagues provided the music
on the ship, which consisted mostly of what we would now call
"background" music.

Some of the great German liners were said to contain beautiful Welte
instruments, and some American liners were said to contain upright
players.  According to an advertisement I remember seeing in Harvey
Roehl's 'Player Piano Treasury', some WW1 battleships were fitted with
players.  There is little information to be found more than this,
because I have been keeping my eyes open about this very subject for
a very long time.

My guess is that the great liner companies; White Star, Cunard, The
French Line, Norddeutscher Lloyd, would have employed live musicians,
because it was tradition.  It's quite possible that some ships in the
1920's had players.  It would surprise me if they did not have a few
out there.  Unfortunately, little information exists to back-up the
assumption.

From chilly Central Wisconsin,
E Robert Case