WIND POWER CARLILL. 155 



on the same voyage. But the screw and the compound engine to- 

 gether decided the issue of the duel. Then came the question whether 

 the new power could not be used in combination with sails. Many 

 experiments, now forgotten, were tried with this object. The navy 

 was very unwilling to part with the power which had so long been 

 its prime mover. Even merchant shipowners were reluctant to part 

 with the clippers which had built up their commerce. But in the 

 course of experiments to combine sail and steam it became apparent 

 that the space demanded by engine and boilers and bunker coal, to- 

 gether with the quarters of an engineering staff in addition to the 

 large number of hands required by a full-rigged ship, were too great 

 a tax on the cubic capacity of the hull and left little space available 

 for cargo. 



Now, if we consider the conditions of the problem we shall see 

 that they have much altered since the days when it was dismissed 

 as impracticable. The invention of the internal combustion engine 

 with oil as fuel has reduced the space taken up by the engines by 

 nine-tenths. It is now possible to fit a sailing ship with auxiliary 

 screw and oil engines without interfering materially with her carry- 

 ing capacity, and experimental voyages undertaken by the firm of 

 Preuthout le Bland, of Havre, have demonstrated the commercial 

 economy of the sailing ship so equipped. Moreover, for certain voy- 

 ages — routes in which the trade winds play an important part — it 

 has been demonstrated both by German and French shipowners, 

 before the war, that it is actually cheaper to tow a sailing vessel to 

 the trades than to employ steam for the whole voyage. A fortiori 

 with coal at double the price the advantage will be greater. 



It has now become a matter of importance to us that our coal re- 

 serves should not be wasted in work which can be done equally well 

 by power which is supplied to us gratuitously. Of the 20,000,000 

 tons of coal which we annually export to our coaling stations abroad, 

 a considerable portion might be carried by the wind, just as well as 

 by steam. Part also of our annual imports might without dis- 

 advantage be carried by the same agency. But an even more im- 

 portant consideration is the opening up of trade routes to certain of 

 our crown colonies which are neglected by the steamship because 

 they do not afford sufficient opening for regular periodical voyages. 

 In these smaller trades to out-of-the-way places there is undoubted 

 scope for sailing ships fitted with auxiliary petrol engines. Here is a 

 considerable field of enterprise which is open to the sailing ship with- 

 out challenging by direct competition the lines of traffic already occu- 

 pied by steamship companies. And it is moreover a field in which 

 the ancient spirit of the merchant adventurer may be revived. 



Ever since the complete triumph of steam the tendency of mer- 

 chant sloping has been toward consolidation, combination, amalga- 



