Bilge - Bilge Maintenance

Bilge Maintenance

Methods of removing water from bilges have included buckets, and pumps. Modern vessels use electric bilge pumps usually controlled by automated bilge switches. Bilge coatings are applied to protect the bilge surfaces. The water that collects is often noxious, and "bilge water" or just "bilge" has thus become a derogatory colloquial term used to refer to something bad, fouled, or otherwise offensive.

Bilges may contain partitions to damp the rush of water from side to side and fore and aft to avoid destabilizing the ship due to the free surface effect. Partitions may contain limber holes to allow water to flow at a controlled rate into lower compartments.

Cleaning the bilge and bilge water is also possible using "passive" methods such as bioremediation, which uses bacteria to break down the hydrocarbons in the bilge water into harmless byproducts. Of the two general schools of thought on bioremediation, the one that uses bacteria local to the bilge are regarded as more "green" because they don't introduce foreign bacteria to the waters that the boat sits in or travels through.

The term "bilged" refers to the deliberate flooding of the bilge in order to incapacitate the ship, to slow its speed, or to make it difficult or impossible to handle. This process may be carried out by enemy action, such as in the Battle of Vigo Bay, or by the crew of the ship itself in order to save it from falling into enemy hands, where a Spanish ship was grounded and bilged. Taking this action may allow the ship to be recovered later by being pumped out and re-floated during a high tide.