whay is there always a steady flow of water pouring out from the sides of ships and boats?

Answer 1

Believe it or not = very few ships are absolutely water tight, they leak!! The water you see is bilge water being pumped out of the hold.

Answer 2

Cos its better than having a steady flow of water pouring into the boat from the sides and also on some cooling systems the engine has a water pump that draws in cold water through an inlet which is circulated through a heat exchanger to keep the engine cool and yes it also can be a bilge pump outlet

Answer 3

In the case of Ships, the water you are talking about is Ballast Water. This is seawater that was pumped into a designated tank in order to keep an acceptable trim or list. Ships hulls need to be submerged in order to keep a good propeller immersion and to keep the ship stable. Suprisingly a ship is far more stable when deeper in the water.
So the water you ask about is ballast water, and it is pumped overboard to give a required draught, trim or heel. Also the Ballast will be emptied when loading a cargo to keep the same draughts. Sort of weight for weight.
In the case of boats, cooling water for the engine and other sources such as run off from the Bilges.

Answer 4

Ships have several types of engines on board. They are mainly the main engine which is conected to the propeller which is used to drive the ship. They have diesel generators which provide the ships electrical power and they have a number of smaller engines that are used for various auxilliary machinery.

To cool these engines we use sea water which is circulated under low pressure arround the diesel engines to keep them cool.

This sea water, now quite hot is circulated through another devise,(a condenser), and cooled down before being returned to the sea. This is the water that is seen being discharged from the side of a ship.

There are several discharge points for this water depending on where on the ship it is being used.

In port you may sea ballast water being discharged. When the ship has discharged her cargo she is very light and floats high out of the water. This makes the ship hard to handle in a seaway. To prevent this we pump water into dedicated ballast tanks, so that the ship sinks deeper into the water and becomes more managable.
A long time ago ships used to take on solid ballast, such as sand or stones, if they could not get a return cargo. This had very little commecial worth and was costly to the ship owner in both time and money.

You will not see ships pumping out bilges in port as this is no longer allowed. There are very strict rules governing what, where and when we are allowed to discharge things into the sea these days.

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

There are two reasons, in some cases seawater is used as a coolant for the engine. So after being pumped thru some coils around the engine the water is pumped back out. The second reason is as per most answers here is that it is extremely difficult to keep all water out of the hull and therefore there are bilge pumps to pump out any water that ends up there.

Answer 6

As ship or boat cuts through the water she displaces the water and at the same time impart energy to the water particles, these water particles near the water surface finds it easier to move to the air (forming waves and sprays) where the resistance to their motion is lesser under the gravitational force environment.
Water pouring out of shipside can also be from water pumps that are located inside the ship namely bilge pump, cooling pumps, sanitary pumps, ballast pumps, etc.

Answer 7

Ship's hulls don't leak. There is no drainage pipe attached to ships. Water, from many sources, collects in the bilges. When the water level reaches a certain point, it is pumped into the sea. Water can come from rain, cleaning, condensation, spillage from repair work, etc. Ballast water may also be pumped if tanks need to be emptied or reduced. Ballast is used to balance weight distribution to minimize hull stresses.

Answer 8

There are a few reasons for the water you see coming out.
Water cools the engine then is expelled either through the hull, out the exhaust or out through the prop.
Marine air conditioners are water cooled and water comes out a tube in the hull.
Water gets into the boat from leaks, rainwater, spray or waves and the bilge pump removes it.

Answer 9

The larger the vessel, the more points at which water will enter the hull... around seals, through tiny weaknesses in the hull, even just as rain and spray. This is perfectly normal, and vessels have pumps to remove that water, once it percolates down to the bilges.
It may also be that the water you see has been used for cooling of equipment, cleaning, etc... on a larger vessel, it might be somebody's dirty bathwater...

Answer 10

Bildge, but why it was in there depends on the boat. Some is to cool engines, large ships coming into harbor are dumping balast, even smaller boats pump on balast to sink down the back or run flatter & then pump it out when they stop.