REFUELING WARSHIPS AT SEA. 159 



What Admiral Colomb said in 1887 might be said with equal force to-day, for 

 the English are watching their enemy "in spite of torpedoes" and "the question 

 (of coaling at sea) is of vast importance." 



Admiral Colomb at the same time pointed to the advantages of oil fuel 

 and the simplicity by which it could be transported at sea. Within the last few 

 months Admiral Von Tirpitz, Minister of the German Marine, pointed to the great 

 advantage of using liquid fuel and the ease with which warships can be supplied in 

 a seaway. 



Rear- Admiral Reginald G. O. Tupper, R. N. (then a lieutenant), agreeing with 

 Lieutenant Bell that the "bow to stern" method was correct, suggested a continu- 

 ous moving endless rope between collier and battleship, having bags of coal attached, 

 transporting the same in a continuous stream to the battleship. 



To-day the two surviving systems for coaling warships at sea are developments 

 of Lieutenant Bell's plan for a reciprocating cableway apparatus, viz., the Lidger- 

 wood-Miller marine cableway, and Rear-Admiral Tupper's plan for a continuous 

 rope apparatus, viz., the Adam (German) endless rope coaling-at-sea gear. 



BLOCKADE OF SANTIAGO. 



In 1898 our fleet blockaded the Spanish at Santiago de Cuba, and who does not 

 remember Commodore Schley's telegram to Rear-Admiral Sampson, U. S. N., dated 

 May 24, 1898: — 



"Coaling off Cienfuegos is very uncertain. Having ascertained that the Spanish 

 fleet is not here I will move eastward to-morrow, communicating with you from 

 Nicholas Mole ; on account of short coal supply in ships cannot blockade them if in 

 Santiago. I shall proceed to-morrow, 25th, for Santiago, being embarrassed, how- 

 ever, by Texas short coal supply, and our inability to coal in the open sea." 



Commenting on the blockade, in 1900, Rear-Admiral Sir S. M. Eardley-Wil- 

 mot,* R. N. (Retired), in "Our Fleet To-day," said:— 



"The method employed in this operation is the most noticeable feature of the 

 war. Exponents (mostly civilians) of naval warfare have declared that steam and 

 torpedo boats will render the blockade in modern warfare impossible and sub- 

 marine attack would deter the blockading force from being effective. Sampson 

 demonstrated that steam had made blockade more certain and the torpedo attack 

 must be dealt with otherwise than by running away from it." 



It is also a matter of record that while our fleet was blockading Santiago fre- 

 quently one-fourth of our ships were absent for recoaling, and when the Spanish 

 came out three of our ships (one the battleship Massachusetts, which cost the 



♦Author of "The Next Naval War," 1894 ; "The Battle of the North Sea," published 1912, and many other 

 valuable works on naval warfare. 



