244 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



20,000,000 tons is shipped on the Tyne. Writing in 

 The Times on i6th May 1911, a special correspondent 

 stated that the North- Eastern Railway Company pro- 

 vided accommodation for about 15,000,000 tons, and the 

 shipments both by river and railway are conducted in 

 the most up-to-date and efficient manner. At the Tyne 

 Dock the work goes on night and day, without extra 

 charge, and so perfect and complete are the arrange- 

 ments that it is not uncommon to unload at the rate of 

 600 tons an hour. Mr. Wilcock, of the North-Eastern 

 Railway, told the correspondent of a quick record in 

 which 4000 tons of cargo coal and bunkers were loaded 

 in ten hours and fifty minutes. The ship was in port 

 only thirteen hours. 



The coal-carrying trade of the North Sea is indeed 

 one of the most striking features of that waterway, and 

 in many cases the commodity is almost as frequently 

 handled as is fish before it reaches the consumer ; while 

 in the same way the price to the user increases with 

 every fresh handling. It is a common enough experi- 

 ence for the London householder to pay for coal twice 

 or thrice the price at which it can be bought by the 

 resident in the north, and that is one of the solemn 

 truths which are amongst the first to be known by the 

 northerner who settles in the capital. 



With so many handlings it is inevitable that there 

 should be an ultimate heavy cost to the consumer, and 

 what that cost must be can be fully realised only by 

 those who study the methods by which the coal is dealt 

 with from the time it leaves the pit-brow to the time 

 when it is shot into the householder's cellar or carried or 

 hoisted to some aerial flat which has accommodation 



