All About Pumps

QUICK!! Get the water out!! These pictures and demonstration videos were taken during a Dewatering Damage Control training day. There are three emergency pumps that we can use: the Eductor, P100 Pump, and Semi-Submersable Pump. When to use each pump is completely dependent on the situation at the time.

First Up: Eductor

This uses the Bernoulli Principle. The Eductor is hooked up to the ship’s Fire Main System with the 1.5 inch white fire hose. Water will flow through the Eductor with a pressure of about 130psi and will discharge the water through the 2.5 inch orange hose. The flowing water through the Eductor will create the suction needed to pump out the water from the bottom of the trash can, or enclosed space filled with water. The Edutor is easy to carry and easy to set up. You can see how it works with the video below. The voice is Chief Mate Michael Coulbourne.

P-100 Pump

The benefit of this type of pump is that it is diesel powered and can be operated indepenantly of any ship’s system. This means if there is no power on the ship, we can still get the water out of a flooded space. The water will also discharge very quickly. The downside is that it is very heavy and requires a special type of noncollapsable hose, so the pump and over the side discharge can not be very far apart.

Semi-Submersable Pump

This pump discharges water from a space the fastest out of the three pumps. It is powered by 440V, therefore the person turning on the pumps must stand on an insulated pad and wear rubber cloves to protect against electric shock. The electricity gives power to the centrifugal pump. It also has a strainer to prevent any large pieces from getting inside the pump and potentially damaging it, and more importantly, stop the suction. It is easy to set up. You just plug in the pump, and connect the orange 2.5 inches discharge hoses.