The bilge is the compartment at the bottom of the hull of a ship or boat where water collects so that it may be pumped out of the vessel at a later time. A hull is the body or frame of a ship or boat. ... Italian ship-rigged vessel Amerigo Vespucci in New York Harbor, 1976 A ship is a large, sea-going watercraft, sometimes with multiple decks. ... Some boats in a harbor in Miami Beach, Florida A boat is a watercraft, usually smaller than most ships. ... Manual water pump in Košice-Ťahanovce, Slovakia An electric driven pump of water works nearby the Hengstey See, Germany 19th century Dutch diesel pump in Rijswijk, Netherlands Manual pump used to obtain water in Afghanistan This article is about the mechanical device. ... Vessel can refer to any of the following: Objects Vessel (French vaissel, from a rare Latin vascellum, diminuitive of vas, vase, or urn), a word of somewhat wide application for many objects, the meaning common to them being capacity to hold or contain something. ...

By housing water in a compartment, it keeps it beneath the decks, making it safer for the crew to operate the vessel and for people to move around in strong weather.

The development of bilge pumps went from buckets, to hand pumps, and now electric bilge pumps are available for even small vessels. A bilge pump is a pump to remove bilge water. ... A bucket with a handle (grip) and spout. ... The article on electrical energy is located elsewhere. ...