The pump tubes were set so that they landed each side of the keelson, and immediately outboard of them were frequently situated the main fresh water tanks in the hold. A small access hatch to the tanks was then placed just aft of the pumps with a wooden trunk in the 'tween decks to keep it clear of cargo. The hatch could have a portable cowl vent fitted instead of a cover. With fresh water tanks in this area, the small pum p required would be secured underneath the after side of the fife rails.

  However the smaller clippers usually preferred to keep the main hold clear of obstructions and placed afresh water tank somewhere below the poop deck area where a pump could lead up beside the pantry sink.

  On American ships, where wood was used in preference to iron for economy reasons, bitts were situated about the deck for mooring purposes. These were usually in pairs in the fore and aft direction and extended through two deck levels. British ships, however, with the easy availability of iron castings, had the mooring bitts made up of large hollow castings on thick bedplates bolted onto the deck. These were called bollards and often had a screw-down brass dome on top of each 'stump' so that they could act as exhaust ventilators as well. The old style bitts to the fife rails were also cut short at upper deck level and secured in cast iron sockets and were then referred to as stanchions or standards. Sometimes the type of bitt or standard containing sheaves was angled, with the cross-rail in a slight curve. This was done so that men tailing on a rope leading through a sheave could have a path clear of adjacent winches or perhaps the end of a deckhouse.

  On American vessels there was also frequently a single bitt each side of the poop approximately abreast the wheel, for belaying boom sheets or for mooring lines. This bitt had a cross-pin either of brass or wood. Although for the most part American bitts were of wood, spanning two decks, there is some evidence that in our period metal bollards were occasionally used.

  For belaying running rigging at the ship's side abreast the masts, there were a number of different methods. The commonest was to increase the width of the main rail to accommodate the pins, which were then sheltered by the height of bulwark to the topgallant rail above it. If no topgallant rail was fitted, as on some of the smaller British clippers, a pin rail was let into the face of the bulwark stanchions below the main rail level. This pin rail was usually continuous from the forecastle deck to near the turn of the stern on the flush-decked ships." On ships with a raised quarter deck or poop deck the mizzen running rigging belayed on a separate single fife rail on wood or metal stanchions situated just inside the poop rails and stanchions, or if a substantial wooden poop rail was fitted, it was pierced for belaying pins also. Some flush-decked American ships carried a small fife rail at the mizzen. Another method was to fit a strong wooden or iron pin rail, with bosses pierced with holes, across the insides of the mizzen lower shrouds just above the level of the deadeyes, to which it was securely seized. It was of a thickness, and with grooves on the outer face, such that it would not twist or cant with strain on the pins.

  The two bitts forward of the foremast on later British iron ships were sometimes made as stout iron tube ventilators to the hold, to which the mainstay also attached to eyes smithed on bands. American ships also favoured the setting up of the mainstays to the crosspiece of the foremast bitts, either with hearts and lanyards to iron straps or seized directly around the timber itself. In earlier years when the foremast was further forward, the mainstay attached to the windlass pawl bitt, first passing under a cleat on the side of the foremast to bring the stay closer to the deck and clear of the foot of the fore course.