Merchant Shipping (Safety And Load Line Conventions) Act 1932

(1)

Ships shall be provided with an efficient pumping plant capable of pumping from and draining any watertight compartment under all practicable conditions after a casualty whether the ship is upright or listed. For this purpose wing suctions will generally be necessary except in narrow compartments at the ends of the ship. Where close ceiling is fitted over the bilges, arrangements shall be made whereby water in the compartment may find its way to the suction pipes. Efficient means shall be provided for draining water from insulated holds.

(2)

In addition to the ordinary bilge pump, worked by the main engines, or its equivalent engine room pump, two independent power bilge pumps shall be provided, except that in ships less than 300 feet (91.5 metres) in length, having a criterion numeral less than 30, either two efficient hand pumps of the crank type fitted one forward and one aft, or a portable power pump, may be substituted for one of the additional independent power bilge pumps.

Sanitary, ballast and general service pumps may be accepted as independent power bilge pumps if fitted with the necessary connections to the bilge pumping system.

(3)

Where two or more independent power pumps are required, the arrangement shall be such that at least one power pump will be available for use in all ordinary circumstances in which a vessel may be flooded at sea. One of the power pumps shall, therefore, be an emergency pump of a reliable submersible type. A source of power situated above the bulkhead deck shall be available for this pump in any case of emergency.

(4)

Where practicable, the power bilge pumps shall be places in separate watertight compartments so arranged or situated that these compartments will not readily be flooded by the same damage. If the engines and boilers are in two or more watertight compartments, the pumps available for bilge service shall be distributed through these compartments as far as is possible.

(5)

With the exception of pumps which may be provided for peak compartments only, each bilge pump, whether operated by hand or by power, shall be arranged to draw water from any hold or machinery compartment in the ship.

(6)

Each independent power bilge pump shall be capable of giving a speed of water through the main bilge pipe of not less than 400 feet (122 metres) per minute, and it shall have a separate direct suction, to the compartment in which it is situated of a diameter not less than that of the bilge main. The direct suctions from each independent power bilge pump shall be arranged to pump from either side of the ship.

(7)

Main circulating pumps shall have direct suction connections, provided with non-return valves, to the lowest drainage level in the machinery space, and of a diameter at least two-thirds that of the main sea inlet. Where the fuel is, or may be, coal, and there is no watertight bulkhead between the engines and boilers, a direct discharge overboard shall be fitted from at least one circulating pump, or, alternatively, a bye-pass may be fitted to the circulating discharge.

(8)

(a) All pipes from the pumps which are required for drainage, cargo or machinery spaces shall be entirely distinct from pipes which may be used for filling or emptying spaces where water or oil is carried.

(b) Lead pipes shall not be used under coal bunkers or oil fuel storage tanks, nor in boiler or machinery spaces, including motor rooms in which oil settling tanks or oil fuel pump units are situated.

(9)

The Administration shall make rules relating to the diameters of the bilge main and branch pipes which shall be proportioned respectively in relation to the size of the ship and the sizes of the compartments to be drained.

(10)

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 sea when containing cargo, or pumped out through a bilge pipe when containing water ballast.

(11)

Provisions shall be made to prevent the compartment served by any bilge 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 near the side of the ship or in a duct keel, there shall be fitted to the pipe in the compartment containing the open end either a non-return valve, or a screwdown valve which can be operated from a position above the bulkhead deck.

(12)

All distribution boxes, cocks, and valves in connection with the bilge pumping arrangement shall be in positions which are accessible at all times under ordinary circumstances. They shall be so arranged that in the event of flooding the emergency bilge pump may be operative on any compartment. 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 workable from above the bulkhead deck. If 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 the emergency pump is capable of operating on any compartment under flooding conditions.

Motor Ships.

(13)

The bilge pumping arrangements in motor ships shall, so far as practicable, be equivalent to those required for steamships of similar size, except as regards main circulating pumps.