Ships' Bilge Pumps: A History of Their Development, 1500-1900

Some historic nautical subjects are so thoroughly prosaic in form and use that their importance is ignored, even by those who should know better. Bilge pumps must rank among the lowest of the lowly, yet their presence and working condition were vital to a ship’s ability to stay afloat, not to mention its making a successful voyage. Taken for granted by everyone connected with shipping (except the ship chandlers and inspectors for insurance or safety of life at sea), marine pumping equipment of any kind has received scant attention in texts on ship design, construction, or handling.

For the period between 1500 and 1850, marine archaeology has made the most substantive contributions to our present knowledge of bilge pumps, through the discovery and description of their remains in wreck sites or in preserved vessels. Tangible (and more important, measurable) artifacts have fleshed out the brief verbal descriptions and crude illustrations that have been the chief sources of information for historians and museum specialists. Thomas J. Oertling’s book is all too brief as a history of the bilge pump, but it is effective as a summary of archaeological findings on the subject.

A thoughtful first chapter deals with the problem that every ship’s hull leaked, with disastrous consequences if its pumps were inoperative or inadequate to the task. The second chapter addresses the most difficult task in pump making: boring a log through its center to make the wooden tube for the pump shaft. The term “pump tube” as far as I know is an academic one. English and American sailors called this part the “pump log,” and a log is exactly what it was in most ships. The pump logs in the 1627 Swedish warship Vasa still have their bark!

The four chapters that follow describe the basic types of bilge pumps, which include: the burr pump; the common, or “suction,” pump; the chain pump; and the metal “patent” pumps of the late nineteenth century. The burr pump, with its leather valve, was the simplest but not the most effective for larger vessels. It remains in use today, however, as one of the more popular pumps for working small craft, because of its low cost and ease of repair. The tubes are now made of galvanized sheet metal with conventional bottom valves, but the wooden spear and conical upper valve (called a “pump leather” by fishermen) remain unchanged.

The common, or suction, pump was in widespread use among fishing and coasting schooners throughout the nineteenth century, even after patent pumps became standard in other sectors of the shipping industry. The upper and lower valves were turnings, often of lignum vitae once that wood’s properties were recognized. Lignum vitae became the wood of choice for deadeyes and block sheaves. For this reason, American block makers also made pumps, as is evident in their advertisements. When patent pumps gained popularity, several foundries began to make metal common pumps in imitation of the more sophisticated mechanisms. To this day, a foundry in Nova Scotia manufactures such pumps, which at first glance are hard to distinguish from the patent diaphragm pumps of a century ago.

Although the chain pump’s origins can be traced to China and even to the ancient Western civilizations, its marine use in eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Europe was almost exclusively in naval vessels. This type has been more extensively described in the literature of its time than have other pumps. Archaeologists have nevertheless gained new information about it from actual parts recovered from wreck sites.

The sixth chapter, “Later Pump Types,” is more of a postscript to the preceding than a serious attempt to describe the metal “patent” pumps being mass-produced in the second half of the nineteenth century. The author admits as much in the introduction, suggesting that patent records, advertisements, and catalogs are the best means to investigate this...