Firth. — 0)i Fires in Coal-ships. 107 



of the ship was only 77°, the real cause being the heating 

 of the cones of small coal and slack under the hatchways. 



Commenting on the above report, the Morning Herald 

 and Miners' Advocate, Newcastle, New South Wales, says : — 



" The case of the heated cargo of the ship ' Knight of St. 

 Michael ' continues to excite considerable interest in shipping 

 and insurance circles in Sydney. There can be no doubt of 

 the injurious effect upon the Newcastle coal trade caused by 

 this occurrence, however northern colliery - proprietors and 

 their representatives may endeavour to prove that more has 

 been made of the affair than circumstances would justify, as, 

 according to statements made to the Newcastle Herald's 

 Sydney representative by merchants and others in the 

 metropolis, some of them are doing. The fact that the 

 surveyors judged it advisable that a third of the cargo 

 should be discharged after the ship had been in Port Jack- 

 son for a month is taken to be a full indorsement of the 

 decision of the captain to return to port. As one gentle- 

 man put it, Captain Dodd was not likely to have put 

 back, when he had the knowledge that such a delay would 

 cause his owners considerable monetary loss and additional 

 expense for harbour charges and lying idle, if there had 

 appeared to be any safety in proceeding on the voyage. 

 On the other hand, it is said that, by continuing his trip, 

 the captain would have, in face of the surveyors' reports, 

 been endangering a magnificent vessel, valued at £20,000, as 

 well as thirty lives, for the sake of a coal-cargo worth only 

 £2,000. It is generall}' agreed by shipping and insurance 

 people in Sydney that, in the interest of the trade of New- 

 castle, it is advisable that the coal-owners should take steps 

 to secure a full investigation of the matter. Otherwise, it is 

 believed the trade of Newcastle may suffer from alarmist 

 reports, which in many instances may not have as much 

 foundation as in the ' Knight of St. Michael ' case." 



Causes of Combustion. 



The conclusions to be drawn from Mr. Pitman's able and 

 exhaustive report are clear enough : — 



1. That the cause of the spontaneous combustion of the 

 coal on board the " Knight of St. Michael" was the absorption 

 of oxygen by the small coal in the hatchways. 



2. That the most favourable conditions for the self-heating 

 of coal are a mixture of small coal, slack, and dust produced 

 under each hatchway by the dumping down of the coal from 

 the railway-trucks, and forming a cone under each hatchway, 

 consisting mainly of coal pounded into small coal, slack, and 

 dust, thus presenting the conditions necessary for spontaneous 



