We all know that seawater is undrinkable, then the crew traveling in the vast ocean, and even a few months do not have the opportunity to see the land, the seafarer's draught problem in the end how to solve? As an old ocean-going crew, with their own practical experience to tell you the heartbreaking experience of the crew.

There is indeed distilled water on board, but only for the cooling of mechanical equipment, seafarers can also drink, but generally seafarers will not choose to drink distilled water, because distilled water is very clean, does not contain any minerals that the human body needs, and seafarers long-term references to distilled water on the human body is very big damage. When I first came on board, as I didn't know the industry, the agency told me that I didn't need to bring anything with me, and that overalls, quilts, and toiletries were all issued by the ship, so I went on board empty-handed. The first voyage was from Russia to Brazil, a long voyage, plus anchoring time, that voyage took about 60 days, in the middle of which I drank all the distilled water, obviously my hair fell out very quickly, and my face turned white, plus there was no fresh vegetables and fruits on board, I obviously appeared to be malnourished.

Since distilled water on board ships is undrinkable and there is no way to pump groundwater when the ships are traveling in the sea, how can seafarers be assured of water for their daily life? What do seafarers drink when they live on board for a long time?

First: At present, including fishing vessels, they are all designed with a large fresh water tank, which has a very large volume and can hold several hundred tons of drinking water. When the ship is in port, the sailors, under the command of the first mate, have an important job to add fresh water. This fresh water is the crew's usual drinking water, which is usually used for cooking in the kitchen. Even if the water on board is groundwater, many crew members are not willing to drink it because the fresh water tanks of the ship will only be cleaned once in a long time. I once had the opportunity to see sailors cleaning the fresh water tanks, which were covered with moss around the bulkheads due to the humid environment. Especially in the bilge of the water tank, a thick layer of fine sand had accumulated. The water inside the hold gave off an unpleasant odor and appeared to have a yellowish color. It was completely undrinkable without heating.

Second: desalination systems. The desalination systems around the world are now more mature, and this technology is also installed on ships. As ships traveling in the sea are not short of seawater, there is naturally a constant supply of fresh water through desalination. Although this fresh water is also drinkable, there is no crew to drink it directly. Because of the desalination of seawater, the need to use some drugs on the desalination of water treatment, the ship on the fresh water use of drugs on board the seafarers are generally cabin personnel, they are not too professional for the grasp of the drug dosage, in the ship of this closed environment, the water is the source of life, so there is no one dares to drink desalinated water. Once drink out of the problem, basically also buried in the sea. So the ship for the management of water is also very strict, once the water out of the problem, basically it is all gone.

Third: In reality, seafarers really drink mineral water. Every time before a ship calls at port, each crew member will buy a certain amount of mineral water by himself, that is, the bottled mineral water we usually drink. Everyone reports the amount of mineral water they need to buy and hands it over to the third mate for unified purchase. The water delivery company will deliver the mineral water to the berth of the ship, and then the crew will carry it back to their rooms. If the route is long and the mineral water purchased is not enough, the crew will also drink some fresh water from the ship's fresh water tank for a short period of time. As an ocean-going crew member, I have drunk mineral water from many countries around the world. This is one of the characteristics of crew work.

Distilled water from desalination on ships is not drunk by seafarers, but it is necessary to exist. Why is this so? What value does it really have to exist?

First: the crew's living quarters require large quantities of distilled water, and shipboard work is very dirty, especially for ordinary seafarers. You must take a bath after work every day, and the desalinated distilled water is used for bathing. In addition to bathing, other aspects of life such as flushing the toilet, washing clothes and other areas that require fresh water will use desalinated distilled water. After all, the fresh water added inside the water tank is very limited and cannot be used excessively at will.

Second: There is also a big need for distilled water on board the ship. After every time a ship loads or unloads cargo, it is very dirty on the A class. After the ship has sailed out, the sailors are required to do an overall wash of the ship. The first time to wash the deck is completely using seawater, but many ships will still require, with fresh water to wash again. Because the seawater rinse, the sun, the armor class is all bright crystal sea salt, not only will corrode the armor class, but also because of too slippery and cause safety hazards. The fresh water used to wash the armor class is distilled water.

Seafarers are a particularly tough profession, where even the most basic draught is an issue. Deep in the depths of the ocean, the crews ride the waves in their ships, no one knows if they are well, they have no signal at all and are unable to make contact with the outside world. All problems that arise on the ship have to be solved on their own. Think about how terrible this kind of working environment is, so please individual agencies have a little bit of conscience and stop deducting the seafarers' hard-earned money. We also hope that our society as a whole will give seafarers the status and treatment they deserve.

What do you guys think of the seafaring industry? Would you guys choose to work in this industry? Feel free to leave a comment below and we'll discuss it together!

Thanks for the invite.As a "woman" majoring in nautical sciences.I used to be the one who was so excited about being a "female captain" that when I saw a question like this, I had to answer it.

First of all, the ship is going to use distilled water, an ocean voyage, a month or two, if the unreasonable use of seawater, living and living, the ship's various cooling devices on fresh water alone how to maintain a month or two.

There's a desalination unit on board for distilling seawater.When fresh water is not enough, it is mainly used for bathing, washing hair and clothes, boilers and toilets in daily life. Even distilled water is not used for drinking or even for kitchen water if it is not necessary.Only in very extreme cases, when fresh water runs out, would you choose to cook with distilled water.

Why? Some of us have tried the taste of distilled water, it is quite hard to drink, there is no flavor, due to the simplicity of the equipment, not distilled well a little bit of a faint bitter taste, so in the kitchen drinking side of the water will not choose to use distilled water, drinking water will be even more not to choose distilled water.Desalination units are basically rarely used nowadays and are emergency units, used only in emergency situations.

So here's the question, what is the water for cooking, and what is the water for drinking?Typically, a better sailing company, the water for cooking is fresh water that is stocked when you dock, and the ship has fresh water compartments that are specifically stocked with fresh water. What about drinking water? The better companies will still have plenty of mineral water for their employees to drink.

Maybe some people will think that distilled water is very pure and clean, but not so, distilled water has no minerals in it, it is simply a water that is not suitable for drinking, and it is not as good as tap water.

The life of a seafarer is very hard, the endless sea, coupled with the endless waves, at the beginning there is almost no one crew does not get seasick. The seafarers who just got on the ship, the days can only be described in one word, that is, "simmer", the days of seasickness "simmer" over, small waves are okay, encountered a big wave, even the old crew will be shouting can not stand. Try to imagine, you are standing in the cabin, and a ship and the general height of the big waves over, how do you feel.

Life on a ship is lonely, no internet, no games, no one to talk to, a fixed size space, in the automation Chengdu more and more high ship, the people are less and less. It's like being locked in a fixed space, with only the sea and the blue sky in your eyes. There are even many people who can't adapt to the life on the shore and don't know how to communicate with others.

So the crews bear the hardships that others can't bear, they can't eat, drink and play like the people on shore, and they deserve a higher salary. I am glad that the sailing company didn't hire me, because I can't bear that kind of life, and I want to live a normal but flavorful life.

As a person who has been sailing at sea for 11 years, I tell you now, the ship has long had a desalination device, but because it is distilled water, there are no minerals in it, and generally the ship does not drink this water, which is used as living water, bathing, washing clothes, flushing toilets, and generally cooking water is still used to add tap water on the shore, but you know, the water is put in the freshwater cabin for a few weeks, and the water is used to make the water more efficient.

Some old ships, fresh water cabin spoils of come, inside are precipitated sludge, you see can not drink, we are now on board, the conditions allow, are to buy mineral water, running the ocean if a person have to prepare a ten box, the kitchen wash cooking no way, can only eat a little bit, so many of the old crew members have an occupational disease, kidney stones, because they can not afford to put the money to buy mineral water, usually drink water in the cabin, time For a long time, they usually have stones.

Now you know it, seafarers are also bitter, two years ago the shipping recession, the shipowner debt, the ship does not want, above the crew on the bitter, no one manages, if in foreign countries, and can not casually come down to the ground to do the license, the shipowners have run away, there is no money to the agent, who do not care about you, a ship always have to be someone on duty, want to run also can not run, and sometimes there is no food, can only be salted with rice to eat for a month, the water is no one to give you to add, can only be Water, no one can add, can only be controlled, one person a day a bucket, think of this era, life is still like a refugee.

It's wiping people's asses and cleaning up their messes.

You can follow me if you want to know more about the seafarer industry and where seafarers live.

When answering your question, as an ocean liner crew member I was in the anchorage of Banaracqua, Brazil.

Drinking distilled seawater is fine, but we seafarers say no!

Almost every ship has a desalination unit, but due to my department and position, I don't know exactly what kind of desalination is used, I just know that it is on board, and that we use desalinated water every day for bathing, flushing toilets etc.

From the first day on the ship, I have heard the old crew say that the water made by the water machine do not drink the water, will lose hair, harm the body, that in the end there is no harm, I think there is, after all, the ship's equipment is not like the home of the tap water plant equipment so perfect. So the crew will not drink the water as a last resort.

The water used for cooking in the kitchen is drinking water, this water is added from the dock when docked.

What you don't realize is that

The ship's drinking water is in the fresh water tank for drinking, and there is also a desalination tank. The fresh water produced by the ship's water maker is usually used by the crew for laundry, bathing, and other domestic purposes, but not for drinking.

As stated above: how exactly does desalinated seawater harm the crew?

To be honest we are not allowed to know, we would rather believe in what is there than what is not there. By now, what I have seen is that many of the crew members do not even drink the fresh water that is added to the ship at the pier but rely on the pier to buy a lot of mineral water to drink, and of course, I have done the same.

There are a lot of uncertainties on board, and as the saying goes, plans don't change.

Sometimes the ship does not add too much fresh water, and then when it arrives at the loading place, it needs to anchor and wait in line, I have heard of one of the most anchored is in Brazil, five and a half months, in this case, the ship is certainly not enough to drink fresh water, and can only drink desalinated seawater.

• I'm Seaman Li Xiansen. Please click to follow me. Thank you!

Distilling seawater is something that's already in use. A long time ago technology!

The process of obtaining fresh water from seawater is called desalination. The desalination methods used now are seawater freezing method, electrodialysis method, distillation method, reverse osmosis method, and ammonium carbonate ion exchange method, the current application of reverse osmosis membrane method and distillation method is the mainstream in the market.

Distillation method is basically known, heated after the condensation of water vapor into water, similar to pure water, what minerals are not, a long time to quote the body is very harmful. Distillation of water, energy consumption, and the amount of water is not much, but also cause boiler scaling. Most boats use the waste heat from the main engine cylinder water to heat the seawater, which is evaporated and cooled into drinkable fresh water. However, many people do not drink this kind of water, long time to drink this kind of water has a smell, it is hard to drink, usually in the port with tap water, filtered water used to wash things, flush toilets or flush plywood and so on.

Many carriers now use reverse osmosis to extract fresh water, and the amount extracted each day is said to be enough for a city to use for a day.

Reverse osmosis, also commonly called ultrafiltration, separates seawater from freshwater by utilizing a semi-permeable membrane that allows only solvents to pass through it but not solutes. Under normal circumstances, freshwater diffuses through the semi-permeable membrane to the seawater side, thus causing the liquid level on the seawater side to gradually rise until a certain height is reached before stopping, a process known as osmosis. The static pressure of the water column above the seawater side is called osmotic pressure. If the seawater side of a larger than the seawater osmotic pressure applied to the external pressure, then the seawater in the pure water will reverse osmosis to fresh water. The greatest advantage of reverse osmosis is its energy efficiency. Its energy consumption is only 1/2 of the electrodialysis method, distillation method 1/40. Therefore, since 1974, the United States and Japan and other developed countries have turned the focus of development to reverse osmosis method.

But no matter how to get out of the water, the crew will not drink more, because drinking too much pure water hair loss is particularly strong, so many crew members will buy their own mineral water in the lounge storage.

Crew is very bitter, often can not return home, the vast ocean is also particularly monotonous. There is no recreational activities can only work, the food is not good, there is particularly easy to get kidney stones, in addition to earn more is really no advantage.
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A lot of people don't think there's anything to pure water, so let me tell you something close to me, from my dad.

When my dad was young, blood fever, that is, the skin on the palms of the hands of dry and cracked, peeling, he was very serious, cracked out of the mouth, clenched fist will bleed kind of, took a lot of medicine is not good, nothing to do at home to boil traditional Chinese medicine. Later, after divorcing my mom, I went to the mountains to plant trees and raise fish. Then drink the spring water in the mountains, slowly hand also good, not peeling the skin. However, after more than ten years in the mountains, although drinking spring water cured my hands, but because of the high mineral content, I got kidney stones~.

Don't think that the water does not contain many trace elements is fine, there are a lot of things that people need to lack to find out. Nowadays, science has not yet achieved the point of omnipotence, pure water contains nothing, certainly not beneficial to the body.

It is not impossible for seafarers to distill seawater, and nowadays this method is also used to obtain fresh water, and this technique is the most common one, as well as the most commonly used one.

In fact, nature is a very good seawater purifier, the sun shines on the surface of the sea, seawater evaporation, and then through the form of precipitation and then down to the land, and then through the purification of the earth's soil, and then form groundwater or rivers, etc., a large portion of the freshwater we use is so come.

Seawater so much, seawater into fresh water principle is so simple, then why we usually still say that fresh water resources are very small, and less and less, why not use seawater desalination? In fact, it is not impossible, but there is a problem has not been solved, that is, the problem of efficiency. Through the distillation of seawater to obtain fresh water is very inefficient, and the consumption of energy is also very huge, with other energy in exchange for basic water resources is very uneconomical.

Going back to the question of the subject, then why do seafarers nowadays not use this method? In fact, there are many reasons, some ships will carry some spare fresh water resources, this way is very convenient and cheap, do not need additional tools, and do not need to spend time to desalinate seawater. There is also a part of the more special long-distance ship can not carry a lot of fresh water will take the way of desalination, but not using such a simple way, but the use of a more complex point of equipment, some will use the principle of distillation, some will use the principle of filtration and osmosis, that is, we say that the semi-permeable membrane infiltration way.

Finally, no matter through what kind of technology of desalination, it is very difficult to be like our usual drinking water. We usually drink fresh water has a lot of trace elements and minerals, these although the content is very small, but it is really necessary for our body, if you drink distilled water for a long time, it will lead to a lack of trace elements, induced by a variety of physical disease, so very few crews are always drinking artificially distilled water. Generally after a period of time will be fresh water replenishment, or through other dietary intake to ensure that the body's needs.

With ah, who said no, now ships generally two kinds of water-making devices, one is vacuum distillation, another is the principle of semi-permeable membrane osmosis. Vacuum distillation, obviously, by vacuuming to reduce the boiling point of seawater, the use of cylinder cooling water evaporation of seawater, producing steam, and then use seawater to cool the steam to generate distilled water, into the fresh water tank, as for another answer to the shore to connect the tap water, never encountered, unless the water machine can not be used unless the water machine can not be used, there is also the problem of the dirty fresh water tank, I feel that this can not be blamed on someone else, you three months to wash the tank, there will be Sludge? Stones are usually caused by the high mineral content, but distilled water, what stones. The other principle of the water machine is to use pressure to force seawater through the membrane, fresh water can pass, salt, various other ions can not pass, so as to obtain fresh water. From the fresh water warehouse to the room, the kitchen, need to go through the fresh water booster cabinet, that is, the pressure water cabinet, and then the filter, disinfection device, and finally to the use of the place, our ship's fresh water is directly drinkable, but because there is no added minerals, so usually also buy mineral water in the room to drink, the kitchen to cook are using our own made water. I hope this is useful to you!

I have seen people talking about adding chemicals to the water maker, firstly, the chemical is added to prevent salt crystallization from being generated in the evaporator parts, adding this chemical slows down the crystallization, and secondly, the chemical is added to the evaporated water, i.e. seawater, not to the condensed distilled water. Also the amount is very small, 700ml a day, diluted in a 130l bucket. So, safety is not a problem, I basically do a water chemical test every week. Coffee is made on board with water we make ourselves!

I am an ocean-going seafarer, can clearly say that seawater distillation can not be directly drinkable! Sailing at sea for many years, about drinking water I really have suffered losses, when I first came on board, I thought that empty-handed, tube food, carefree mentality on board, colleagues also reminded me to bring more mineral water, I still too much, lazy to get! I didn't know that the pot was made of iron. As the cargo ship in order to pull cargo, the space to store the amount of water is limited, for a period of time, did drink seawater through the water machine purified water! It was water that had been distilled and was being mineralized and had a very poor taste, a little slightly bitter.

It is clear to anyone that seawater contains a large amount of salt, which, when directly quoted, can lead to human death! In the middle of the vast ocean, seawater cannot be quoted, and there is no running water, what kind of water does the crew drink?

drinking water

Every time a ship docks, it will store tap water, and there is a large storage compartment on the ship for water, randomly 100 tons is not a problem, and this is the drinking water on the ship. Usually on the ship washing dishes, cooking, making tea and so on are using this water. With direct contact with the human mouth must use tap water, after all, tap water usually on land through sterilization, filtration, you can drink directly, occasionally drink a mouthful of nothing, the storage of drinking water called drinking water cabin. Tap water contains a lot of minerals, every time you fill up the water, as long as the timely cleaning of the inner wall to face the inner wall has a lot of scale, water quality, do not have to worry about, this water will also be through the back of the filtration, sterilization treatment, and we usually drink the quality of purified water is almost the same! Harmless to the human body, but also safe.

Many people must still have questions, sea voyage is as little as a few months, more than the time of the year are available, is it enough to store the water each time? How to solve the problem of domestic water on board!

domestic water

Although the ship will replenish drinking water as well as tap water every time it docks, but the sea voyage, the company purpose is to make money, not to travel, the cost of all aspects of the account! In the case of each ship to a port, stopping for a limited time, will not really wait for you to add water for the sake of water, people have to wait for delivery, sometimes not filled, and drive away. The water will not be enough. This time we have to mention the ship's water machine, the machine's water is directly to the seawater fresh water, that is, we use to take a bath, flush the toilet, wash the deck, cooling the host of the water, because there is a water machine, so greatly solve the problem of water on board! Although the water from the water machine is distilled water, but as long as it is not imported, it is completely harmless to the human body, which greatly solves the problem of water on board!

Ocean voyage, the crew every time they get off the ship, will buy a lot of things, one of them is to buy a lot of water, some crew members will be based on the time of the voyage to count, usually will buy about 100 bottles of water, in addition to the hot days, plus the water stored in the cabin, basically enough to drink! If the ship's water is really out of ammunition, you can also mineralize the distilled water from the water maker, and the human body can drink it, except that the taste is not good, and long-term drinking is not good for the human body.

Many people are more curious about the life on the ship, you now know, even drinking water has to be calculated, you can think about it, work on the ship, in addition to life is not worried about, in fact, more often than not, it is in the fight with themselves, you need to overcome the situation of no women. But also to make up for their inner world, although each person on board is a minus bed, but long-term life in a confined environment, people will be repressed, so people know that seafarers have high wages, but suffered a lot of pain, and more is to fight with their own inner battle!

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I'll answer that question as a veteran mariner.

First of all, ocean freighters definitely have desalination units on board. Not only do people on board need fresh water to live, but machines also need fresh water. Ocean liners generally ten days or even a month to dock, if only by shore to add fresh water, is not enough, and, in some countries to add fresh water is very expensive! 20-30 U.S. dollars a ton. Therefore, the ship must use seawater to produce fresh water, desalinated fresh water is generally stored in a separate water tank for the living area to take a bath, flush the toilet, for machine cooling, boiler water.

Crewmembers generally drank the tap water that was refilled ashore for drinking. However, nowadays, crew members usually order a dozen cases of mineral water for daily drinking once they are on board. Kitchen cooking cooking soup, there is no way to avoid, will drink some water from the water cabin.

The desalination device is called Fresh water generator in English, the principle of desalination I will talk about a little bit of common sense, in fact, as the subject said, the seawater will be boiled, and then cooled distilled water, and finally collected to the water tank. Of course, in practice it is more complicated than this.

In fact, there are times when the ship is short of water, then you will say a steady stream of seawater, build ah! Yes, but the ship anchored for a month or two, or even half a year, fresh water will be tight! When there is a water shortage, we drink fresh water and take a shower with air-conditioning condensate. When people stop working, they don't need to bathe.

A final note on why you don't, or try not to, drink distilled water made by water makers. Fresh water after desalination is actually pure water H²O, long-term drinking is not good for the body, but also easy to lose hair. And the fresh water storage tanks have gone in people are afraid to drink the water tanks of water, because the bottom is yellow mud ah. So the crew on board, everyone will order a dozen boxes of mineral water, 1.5 liters, enough to drink a few months.