Damn Your Coaling Stations ! 



155 



It means waste 01 time, expenditure of money— and, 

 as a result, the fuel so laboriously put on board, so 

 arduouslv fed to the furnace, does not represent the 

 maximum of caloric value in the minimum of space. 

 Coal burninji on ships, with all its attendant disadvan- 

 tages, is a survival of a habit, and cannot hope to stand 

 aj^inst the advantages of oil-fuel. With oil there is 

 no excitement, no dirt, no labour ! .\ pipe to be con- 

 nected with the store of oil and a tap to be turned on — 

 that is all. ft is not necessary for anyone to look at 

 the pipe or to trouble about it at all. The only men 

 needed are those at the two ends to see that the tanks 

 of the vessel do not overfdl and that there is enough 

 oil in the storage-tanks to supply the vessel's require- 

 ments. The illustration we give of a destroyer taking 

 i \ oil-fuel is a striking illustration of the calm and lack 



The Admiralty began its oil tanker fleet with the 

 Biirmah. This vessel has many novelties, the vessel 

 being fitted out with the object of oiling the British 

 Fleet at sea. She is capable of towi-ng a vessel and 

 supplving her with oil-fuel, or being towed by the 

 Dreadnoughts and supplying them with oil-fuel at the 

 same time ; also so fitted that she can oil vessels along- 

 side from four different positions situated on the port 

 and starboard side of the vessel. The vessel carries 

 2,500 tons of fuel-oil in tweh-e tanks. In a very short 

 time there will be a most comprehensive fleet of these 

 floating and mobile " coaling-stations " available for 

 service. 



OIL-FIRED WARSHIPS RE.\DY FOR EMERGENCIES. 



The readiness of a warship to put to sea in the 

 shortest possible time, her ability to make a dash full 





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 ««k. ^i^ «.ik ««^_^^ 



Diagrams showing the number of latest type Submarines which could be constructed for the cost of one 



Battle Cruiser. 



of unneic-.sary energy that characterises the loarling 

 of oil-fuel. During the recent manreuvres, torpedo-boat 

 destroyers look in their oil-sup|)ly from trains of 

 railway-tank waggons run along the jetty ; for small 

 vessels there is no need of storage-tanks. For warships 

 of the largest size the operation is as simple, but the 

 quantities arc greater naturally. In a dockyard the 

 battleship will come alongside the wharf, or an oil- 

 barge will moor alongside the war-vessel, a pipe will 

 be passed over, and after a very short lime the warship 

 will be rea<ly to set out for a voyage of thousands of 

 miles. The recorfl coaling feat in the Navy is, we 

 believe, that of the Kint; Edivard F//., which took in 

 1,450 tons in three and a half hours. With oil an 

 (•(|uivalent in steam-power could have been put on 

 board in al)out fifteen minutes. 



steam ahead without leaving a tell-tale trail of smoke 

 on the horizon, and her powei to rei)lenish the bunkers 

 with the utmost speed at a distance from her ha.sc 

 are, of course, prime essentials, and they are ensured 

 by the adoption of the li(|uid-fuel system. Let us take 

 first the <|uestion of bunkering, and assume thai 

 the British Fleet had gone into action at a considerable 

 steaming distance from the t)a.sc. Coaling from .1 

 collier would be possible only in a calm sea, and even 

 then the process would be slow. Otherwise the vessel 

 would have to make for the nearest base or coaling- 

 station. ]'>quipped, however, as the\' are with oil-fuel 

 tanks, the ships whi<'h wouhl Itave to bear the brunt 

 of the b.itlle would be able to bunker in a very short 

 time, even in a heavy sea, by the use of a hose con- 

 nection and the oi)erations of a steam-driven pump. 



