>5o 



The Review of Reviews. 



Fholasr.if'h lyi 



A Torpedo Destroyer taking in Oil Fuel. 



(Tlic Iwo men aic not needed.) 



many thousands of men, who will then he available 

 for other branches of the service. 



THE GLORY OF COALING-STATIONS GONE. 



It is only when we begin to think out the question in 

 detail that we grasp how serious is 

 the change and how irre.sistiblc must 

 have been the arguments to brirg 

 it about. In the past, as in the 

 present, the wonderful chain of 

 coaling-stations possessed by this 

 ecu itry represen' sone of the greatest 

 of weapons which we possess in 

 time of war. They enable our war- 

 ships to go wherever they will over 

 the face of the globe, replenishing 

 their stock of coal at convenient 

 .and safely fortified harbours over 

 wliich flies the Union Jack. liut 

 it would be to ape the blindness of 

 the ostrich were we to imagine that 

 what has been in the past and is at 

 the present is going to last for ever. 

 .Mas! it will not last many months; 

 it may even now be .said that the 

 day of the coaling-station has gone 

 — that the glory of the British coal- 

 ing-stations has gone. Oil-fuel it is 

 which has brought this about ; and 

 it was in this connection that a very 

 prominent luiropean naval man 

 made the remark which heads this 

 note : " Give me warships Inirning 



oil-fuel," he said, " and then damn 

 )-our coaling - stations ! " And he 

 was right — terribly right. An oil- 

 burning fleet needs never to run to 

 harbour to replenish its supply oi 

 fuel. At all points of the seas it 

 can meet tramp oil-carriers ; in fact, 

 it will be one of the m.ost lucra- 

 tive of businesses for neutral vessels 

 during a naval war to hang about 

 with cargoes of oil, waiting a good 

 sale chance. The warship comes up 

 to the tanker, passes a haw-^er o\'er, 

 and after that a flexible tube, through 

 which the new supply of oil flows 

 into the warship's tanks. This pro- 

 cess can be continued while both 

 vessels are under way. The fact 

 that, despite the enormous loss which 

 this depreciation of our chain of 

 coaling - stations represents, the 

 British Admiralty is convinced of 

 the absolute necessity of the adop- 

 tion of oil as fuel on warships, 

 should con\'ince even the most 

 sceptical that the day of oil as fuel has come. 



REVOLUTION IN RADIUS OF ACTION. 



The great advantage which the experts expect from 

 the use of oil is that the fuel required for steaming a 



[Topical. 



A Destroyer taking ui Oil during Maiic 



