Cause it didn't seem like she did! At least not very well.
When rescusing Jack by breaking the cups with the axe, she was seen handing on the pipes for support rather than swimming.
Jack was constantly telling her, "I need you to swim Rose! You can do it."
I'd say she at least would have had some instruction as a younger girl, being of a wealthy lifestyle and most likely having experience with swimming pools.
shareHm. I don't think swimming lessons were a normal part of a young lady's upbringing in those days, and I don't think swimming pools became popular until the middle of the 20th century. In Rose's day the upper classes would be more likely to discourage their daughters from going to a swimming hole with common children or paddling in the ocean than to encourage her to learn to swim, as going outdoors without a big hat might ruin the perfection of their whiter-than-white complexions by giving them a suntan!
However, by 1912, the first female swimming star had appeared. I'm one of the few people alive who remembers the existence of Annette Kellerman (and not even I know why I do), who was an Olympic medalist who put on the kind of swimming shows that Esther Williams later brought to the movies. She was an early feminist and an advocate of fitness for women, and a girl like Rose might well have defied convention and learned to swim because of her.
Since she swam to retrieve the whistle I would guess she did.
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