hey i dont seem to understand why the ship pump doesnt fill the tank ship, the little square on the output is always red not matter the positioning

Had the same issue, place your port or whatever the waterway 'train station' equivalent is first and then try to place the pump and there should be some squares indicating where a pump can be placed to be recognized as serving that stop. I put the stop where I thought would look most sensible for the front of the giant tanker ship to stop but that moved the pump placement squares too far apparently, moving the stop a little bit to align the square with the oil rig outlet (and possibly replacing the pump) made the pump work for me.

i have a similar problem. the ship pumps load just fine but at the next stop they just wont unload. ive tried everything, ive deleted and replaced the station, ive deleted and re placed the pumps (which were connected to the green squares to the boat like the loading dock which worked just fine) im at a loss as to what i need to do to get them to unload the oil

edit/update: ive now removed and replaced the water rails, then i let it do a full circuit and its STILL not working, the only thing thats changed is now the arms on the boat pumps are extended meaning they are ready to unload but they still not unloading.

update 2: FIXED. ive never used pumps before so i was never told that you have to REVERSE THE PUMPS so the arrow is facing AWAY from the ship. WHY doesn't the game tell me these things!