I30 COALING WARSHIPS FROM COLI^IERS IN HARBOR. 



COALING THE PANTHER. 



Photographic half-tones, (Plates 40, 41 and 42), give an excellent illustra- 

 tion of the employment of the clamshell bucket on the collier Mars delivering 

 coal in bulk to the repair ship Panther. In this it will be observed (Plate 40) 

 two men are required to operate the bucket. They can see the bucket in 

 all of its positions while filling, hoisting and swinging outboard and dis- 

 charging. The clamshell bucket in Plate 42 is shown delivering coal directly 

 to the hopper wagons on the repair ship Panther. These hopper wagons 

 were not purchased with reference to receiving coal from clamshell buckets, 

 but it indicates an improvement in coaling methods. A larger hopper 

 wagon to be carried on the collier or a collapsible truck would be better. 

 Either would save the labor of hand shovelling. 



COALING TWO BATTLESHIPS AT ONCE. 



The colliers Mars, Vulcan and Hector have ten large hatches and ten 

 Marine Transfers which, if worked simultaneously, will discharge 1,000 

 tons of coal per hour. This capacity is sufficient to coal two battleships 

 at once, giving each 500 tons of coal per hour as long as they can receive it. 

 The last of the coaling must necessarily be slower. 



Two battleships, one of them commanded by the late Admiral Converse, 

 U. S. Navy, were coaled by a collier lying between them in smooth water 

 off the coast of Porto Rico during the Spanish-American war. The circum- 

 stances justified the risk involved in placing a collier between two heavy 

 battleships. In time of war our new colliers are quite likely to be called 

 upon to perform similar duty. 



COAL DUST. 



It was expected that coaling with clamshell buckets would be a much 

 more dusty operation than coaling with bags. This, however, has not been 

 found to be the case and it has been claimed by naval officers that coaling 

 with clamshell buckets is less dusty than coaling with bags. The question, 

 however, of more or less dust is hardly one which should be offered as an 

 excuse for not taking advantage of the increased capacity and the reduction 

 of labor force. 



A COLLIER COALING ANOTHER COLLIER. 



A large fleet of United States battleships in a harbor in time of war 

 would naturally have several of these new colliers in attendance. An 



