1855 log pumps built in Maine

[Jond]

Request for info on log pump

I am building a model to represent a brigantine built in 1855 in Boothbay, Maine.  I have read that these vessels were called half brigs here, but that is another story.

We know the yard and the builder. We also know the builder was one of four Seavey brothers.  Two of his brothers worked next door in two shops.  One was a spar maker and the other built blocks and log pumps.   Considering the location, the relationship etc., I have assumed the log pumps were utilized.  I am doing an open frame under construction version of this half brig, H G Berry and I have decided to show something.  

 

•   Here is a photo of the model as it sits now.  The two pumps are simple a bored-out dowels.   I debated but did not add joints and bands.

My curiosity is up though… to better understand what a log pump might have been. 

Let me first say open internet searches have not produced anything yet.   I know that during this same period, 1850’s, as the great stands of trees were being consumed, that masts and spars were often made up.  Therefore, the skill to do so would have been right there in the spar shop next door.   To make four or even six 10-12-foot-long length carved out strips and then banned them together might have been easier that whatever it meant if one had to bore a hole say 10 feet down a log.

 

Enough of my jabbering.  I started this post to see if someone out there may be only one of two clicks away from one who knows something about these pumps.  If you do, I would love to learn
Thanks