FiHTH. — On Fires in Coal-slivps. 101 



coal-ships, and their prevention. Naturally, in view of the 

 inquiries made by so many able men, I hope it will be believed 

 that I have approached the subject with great diffidence, and 

 very much in the spirit of the mouse when it released the lion 

 from the net — that is, of doing my little best to remove a 

 very serious danger. 



The grave importance of the subject will be further seen 

 from the circumstances — (1.) That from the Port of New- 

 castle, New South Wales, alone, of twelve coal-laden ships 

 which left that port from the 7th September, 1895, to the 

 18th February, 1896, nine ships were reported with their coal- 

 cargoes on fire or heated. Nor is this heating of coal-cargoes 

 confined to Newcastle coal, for Captain Andrew, of the ship 

 " Crondale," reports that " on his recent voyage to San Fran- 

 cisco the temperature of his cargo rose to 103'^, the cargo being 

 from a southern New South Wales coal-mine." (2.) That in a 

 letter from the Shipmasters' Society to the Board of Trade, 

 dated the 10th February, 1896, it is stated " that twelve coal- 

 laden vessels, representing about 20,000 tons, were abandoned 

 at sea ; seven vessels, of about 12,000 register tons, put into 

 port in distress with cargoes shifted ; and forty-six vessels, of 

 about 70,000 register tons, were missing — unheard of — seven of 

 the missing being steamers (period not named). The coal- 

 cargoes of these missing and abandoned vessels are estimated 

 at 130,000 to 140,000 tons, and the crews of the missing ships 

 may be taken at about one thousand lost " (the latter drowned 

 or burnt). 



It must be understood that only a portion of these missing 

 vessels were burnt, many of them having probably foundered 

 at sea from the shifting of their cargoes, which is put down to 

 imperfect trimming whilst being loaded. 



Further on I shall treat of this question of bad stowage of 

 coal-cargoes from ioiperfect trimmmg, but for the present I 

 direct attention to the main subject of this inquiry — namely, 

 causes of fires on coal-ships. 



At this point it is necessary to describe the chief mode of 

 putting coal on board ships at the great coal port of New- 

 castle, New South Wales, which may be taken as similar to 

 the practice in most of the great coal ports in the United 

 Kingdom. 



The coal is brought by rail alongside the ships in trucks 

 containing from 5 to 10 tons. The box portion of the truck is 

 then lifted by a powerful steam-crane, swung over the hatch- 

 way, and the truck-load of coal is dropped bodily into the 

 hold. As each truck-load follows tlie coal is very much 

 broken and pulverised into small coal, slack, and dust. As 

 this dumping down of the coal proceeds, a great cone of small 

 coal and slack is formed, and pounded into a more or less hard 



