Marine Oily Handling Devices

and Pollution Prevention

Chapter 1

Lesson 7

Bilge and ballast

1.8 Bilge and ballast

A fire and bilge pump has suctions from sea,
bilge main and engine room bilge, with
discharges to fire main, oily water separator and
overboard.
A ballast pump has suctions from sea, ballast
main, engine room , bilge direct and bilge main
with discharges to overboard, the ballast main,
the oily water separator and possibly, the main
salt water circulating system.

1.8 Bilge and ballast

A general service pump has suctions from sea, ballast
main, bilge main and engine room bilge with
discharges to the fire main, the ballast main, the oily
water separator and overboard. In this way, three
pumps provide effective alternatives for all essential
services in the event of breakdown of one or even two.
Many ships will have more generous provision and all
passenger ships will have a submersible fire and bilge
pump, supplied with power from an emergency
dynamo.

1.8 Bilge and ballast

There are many differences in arrangement; some ships will
be fitted for oil or ballast in all double bottom tanks (except
one or two, port and starboard for fresh water) some in only
two or three.
Other vessels will have one (or more) lower holds fitted as
deep tanks and most will have peak ballast tanks forward
and aft.
Some ships will have a tunnel from the engine room to No.1
hold aft bulkhead, for bilge, ballast and oil pipes and fittings
and others will have a duct keel to carry the pipes forward.

1.8 Bilge and ballast

In most other ships the bilge suction pipes will pass
through the wings of the holds and the ballast pipes
through the double bottom.
In the two latter cases, the valve chests will be on the
engine room (or boiler room) forward bulkhead or in a
forward cofferdam.
In all cases, the bilge suction valves will be screw-down,
non-return, the oil and ballast valves, screw-lift.
Ring and blank flanges will be fitted in deep tank suctions,
so that ballast cannot be discharged inadvertently by a
bilge pump not the hold be flooded when used for cargo.
If liquid cargoes are carried, both will be blanked. Note
that double bottom tanks should never be pumped up.

1.8 Bilge and ballast

The minimum number and capacity of bilge
pumps and fire pumps and their dispersement
within the ship is governed by:
1 Classification Society Rules
2 National requirements
3 The IMCO International Convention for the
Safety of Life at Sea, 1974(SOLAS 74).

1.8 Bilge and ballast

The basic philosophy is similar in all three cases but SOLAS
74 only defines bilge pump capacity for passenger ships and
the Convention only applies to vessels trading
internationally; more-over it excludes cargo ships of less
than 500 gross tons.
The Classification Societies generally prescribe the bore of
the main bilge line and branch bilge lines and relate the
bilge pump capacity of each pump to that required to
maintain a minimum water speed in the line; the fire pump
capacity is related to the capacity of the bilge pump thus
defined e.g.

C
L((BB D
D))

1.8 Bilge and ballast

Bilge main dia. d1=1.68 L( B D) +25 mm
Branch dia.
d2=2.16 C ( B D) +25 mm
d2 not to be less than 50 mm and need not exceed 100 m.
d1 must never be less than d2
where
L = length of ship in m;
B = Breadth of ship in m;
D = Moulded depth at bulkhead deck in m;
C = Length of compartment in m.

1.8 Bilge and ballast

Each pump should have sufficient
capacity to give a water speed of 122
m/min through the Rule size mains of this
bore. Furthermore each bilge pump
should have a capacity of not less than
0.565
2 m3/h

d
1
3
10

1.8 Bilge and ballast

The fire pumps, excluding any emergency fire
pump fitted, must be capable of delivering a total
quantity of water at a defined head, not less than
two-thirds of the total bilge pumping capacity.
The defined head ranges from 3.2 bar in the case
of passenger ships of 4000 tons gross or more to
2.4 bar for cargo ships of less than 1000 tons
gross.

1.8 Bilge and ballast

The following paragraphs are extracted from

the International Convention for the Safety
of Life at Sea 1974 Chapter 11-1 Regulation
18 which relates to passenger ships:

1.8 Bilge and ballast

The arrangement of the bilge and ballast pumping
system shall be such as to prevent the possibility of
water passing from the sea and from water ballast
spaces into the cargo and machinery spaces, or from
one compartment to another.
Special provision shall be made to prevent any deep
tank having bilge and ballast connections being
inadvertently run up from the when containing
cargo, of pumped out through a bilge pipe when
containing water ballast.

1.8 Bilge and ballast

Provision shall be made to prevent the compartment
served by any bile suction pipe being flooded in the
event of the pipe being severed, or otherwise damaged
by collision or grounding in any other compartment.
For this purpose, where the pipe is at any part situated
nearer the side of the ship than one-fifth the breadth of
the ship (measured at right angles to the centre line at
the level of the deepest subdivision load line), or in a
duct keel, a non-return valve shall be fitted to the pipe
in the compartment containing the open end.

1.8 Bilge and ballast

All the distribution boxes, cocks and valves in
connetion with the bilge pumping arrangements shall
be in positions which are accessible at all times under
ordinary circumstances.
They shall be so arranged that, in the event of
flooding, one of the bilge pumps may be operative on
any compartment; in addition, damage to a pump or
its pipe connecting to the bilge main out board of a
line drawn at one-fifth of the breadth of the ship shall
not put the bilge system out of action.
If there is only one system of pipes common to all the
pumps, the necessary cocks or valves for controlling
the bilge suctions must be capable of being operated
from above the bulkhead deck.

1.8 Bilge and ballast

Where in addition to the main bilge pumping system
an emergency bilge pumping system is provided, it
shall be independent of the main system and so
arranged that a pump is capable of operating on any
compartment under flooding condition; in that case
only the cocks and valves necessary for the operation
of the emergency system need be necessary for the
operation of the emergency system need be capable
of being operated from above the bulkhead deck.

1.8 Bilge and ballast

All cocks and valves mentioned in the above
paragraph of this Regulation which can be
operated from above the bulkhead deck shall
have their controls at their place of operation
clearly marked and provided with means to
indicate whether they are open or closed.