REFUELING WARSHIPS AT SEA. 171 



the afternoon of the test. The cableway was set up, and the automatic tension en- 

 gines performed their functions for six consecutive hours and coal was transported 

 for four hours. 



DETAILS OF THE SEA TRIAL. 



10.48 a.m. — Buoy was dropped from the collier. 



10.50 a.m. — Buoy was picked up by the battleship. 



11.00 a.m. — The two tow-lines were made fast. 



Thus 12 minutes were required to pass and make fast the tow-lines. 



11.05 ^•^^- — The main cable had been passed over and made fast. 



This showed that it required only 5 minutes to set up the main cable. 



ii.og a.m. — The tail block was made fast. 



1 1. 1 2 a.m. — All gear was made fast on the battleship. 



This indicated that after the tow-lines were passed only 12 minutes are re- 

 quired to set up the entire apparatus. 



ii.ig a.m. — The marine cableway was entirely set up and ready to operate. 



Thus only 19 minutes were required to set up the marine cableway after one 

 ship had taken the other in tow. 



Coaling was postponed until after dinner, was begun at 12.45 P-"^- ^^^ con- 

 tinued until stopped by darkness. 



During the trials no one was hurt, no bags were lost overboard, nothing was 

 carried away, no damage was caused to anything, and no stops were made for ad- 

 justment excepting the block on the lowering device on the battleship. 



A large part of the time the collier rolled 20 degrees. 



During the last hour 83 tons of coal were delivered in 52 loads and in that 

 hour, because of lack of organization on the battleship, the load carriage was held 

 at the battleship end for the return of empty bags a total of gY^ minutes, clearly in- 

 dicating that if the empty bags were returned promptly 60 loads would have been 

 dropped in one hour. Many loads were dropped with only 50 seconds' interval. 



When naval officers and seamen become familiar with the operation of the 

 marine cableway, especially if they have had a few hours' drill, the capacity of the 

 marine cableway will be materially increased. A great deal depends upon the effi- 

 cient work at the warship terminal in taking away the loaded bags from the plat- 

 form and the hooking on of the empty bags without delay to the traveling carriage. 



Drill and practice of only a few hours on the collier, at the loading station, will 

 also materially increase the capacity of the cableway. 



Naval officers witnessing this test freely expressed the opinion that with drill 

 and practice the cableway was equal to transporting 100 tons of coal per hour. 



The cableway made 200 trips and delivered 312 tons, showing that the load 

 averaged 3,495 pounds. 



With the prompt return of empty bags the cableway will make 60 trips per 

 hour. If each bag had carried an average of 50 pounds more coal, the result would 

 have been 100 tons per hour. Sixty loads of 3,734 pounds each equals 100 tons per 

 hour, which is clearly possible. 



