Why do I always see water being pumped out of a ship's hull? What did they do before water pumps?

Question

On pictures and in video, I always seem to see water flowing back into the sea, or lake, or whatever on large ships. Where does this water come from? Is it leaking through the hull? Was it used to cool the engine? Recently I saw a old, fully rigged ship photo, (wikipedia: ship) and the ship portrays an old ship, I'm sure before mechanical pumps, and there is water squirting out the side. When the tourist ship sank recenlty in Greece, there was water shooting out of the hull in those photos too, but half the ship was under water.

Answer 1

Your right in that the water that you see 99% of the time is used mostly for engine cooling and drawn from large intakes towards the bottom of the hull. As for the tourist ship in Greece that water was probably from damage control pumps pumping out water that is inside living areas.

For the old wooden ships the water naturally leaked in. The water kept the boards a little bit swollen. This helped keep them sealed as much as possible

Answer 2

The water pump wouldn't have anything to do with the fan not coming on. It cools down when moving because of the increased airflow. If the water pump was failing it would overheat no matter what. The problem should either be 1. the fuse. 2. the relay. or 3. a faulty temperature sensor. Your jeep should have 2 temp sensors. One will be for the temp gauge on your dash and the other will go the the engine computer to control the fan. If the sensor go's bad the computer will think that the engine is always cold and won't turn the fan on.

Answer 3

As many others have answered, it is either cooling water or ballast being pumped out.
In days gone by water came into wooden ships due to leakage - be it from just being in the water or from storms. Ballast on older ships was usually lead or iron or rocks/stones.

Answer 4

Traditional sailing ships had significant leakage problems, due to the limitations of caulking materials used. In pre-mechanical days, the depth of water in the bilge was monitored each watch, and manual pumps would be worked when it became too deep. Here is a photo of the pump room of the USS Constitution:

http://www.ussconstitution.navy.mil/bilgepump.html

Hand operated water pumps go back at least to the time of Archimedes.

Answer 5

The water can come from a number of sources, it can be cooling water, bilge water, gray water ( gray water is water drained from the basins in the heads or sinks in the galley with soap in it. The water from the sinking cruise ship was undoubtedly coming from auxiliary pumps they were using to help keep the ship afloat. After they investigate, I am sure they will find the ships crew negligent. Proper watertight integrity should have in concert with the pumps kept the ship afloat. Hope you find this somewhat helpful.

Answer 6

if you are speaking about actual ships as in commercial or military, that water usually is from cooling or de-ballasting. water is sucked up thru sea strainers and goes thru AC systems, heaters, coolers, heat exchangers and so forth and then exited overboard. Large fuel tanks also use sea water to fill in the storage tanks, then is purified prior to transfer to service tanks for use. keeps air out. some are water being pumped out fom bilges or grey water from galley. hope this is your answer. long time ago, guess it be lots of buckets.

Answer 7

Hard to say, water is discharged from the engine cooling system, the air cooling systems, and other systems, like the ballast system.

In old wooden boats, they kept water in the hull to keep the wood swollen so the ship wouldn't leak.

Answer 8

most of the time it is probally the exhaust or one of them lol they let water out to cool down