ALBATROSS EXPLORATIONS; ALASKA, WASHINGTON, AND OREGON. 91 
from all tbe pipes in the bunkers, and asbestus and hair-felt covering is being substi- 
tuted and the pipes will be encased in wood. 
The Nanaimo coal obtained at TJnalashka had been stored in a closed warehouse; 
in steaming efficiency it was 13 per cent, inferior to Wellington coal. The Nanaimo 
coal taken on board at Kadiak had been left exposed to the weather, without any cov- 
ering, and it appeared to have lost 18 per cent, in steaming efficiency on that account. 
Thirty tons of Seattle coal, taken on board at Unalashka, were more or less mixed 
with the Nanaimo coal in the bunkers, so that no accurate test of its steaming effi- 
ciency could be made, but a marked falling off in the steam supply and an increase in 
the quantity of refuse were observed as soon as this lot of coal was used. 
Twenty tons of patent fuel (Anchor brand), manufactured from Welsh coal slack, 
were taken on board at Esqiiimalt, Vancouver Island. Its steaming efficiency was 
about 12 per cent, less than that of good Welsh coal. 
The selection of the most economical fuel depends on the cost of the fuel per ton 
and its steaming efficiency. In a vessel engaged in making regular passages between 
certain ports, the steaming efficiency is easily measured by the weight of fuel con- 
sumed per mile steamed. But when this vessel is engaged in its regular duties of 
sounding, dredging, and fishing, the value of the fuel must be determined by the 
amount of work which can be done, starting out with a full supply of fuel on board, 
before it is necessary to return to a base in order to replenish the supply. As the 
space available for the storage of fuel in the bunkers and on deck is limited, the bulk 
of a given weight of fuel is of importance ; and as the demand for steam supply is 
intermittent and very irregular while the vessel is engaged in sounding, dredging, and 
fishing, a coal which ignites easily and produces steam rapidly, possesses considerable 
economic advantages. 
I find that in our boilers Wellington coal, fresh from the mines, has produced 
about 2 percent, less steam than an equal weight of good Welsh coal; but that about 
10 per cent, more space is required to store a ton of Wellington coal than of Welsh 
coal. This vessel is therefore capable of carrying about twenty tons more of Welsh 
coal than of Wellington coal, and at our usual moderate rate of speed she would 
steam about 450 miles farther with the former coal. The superiority of Wellington 
coal, on account of the greater rapidity with which it ignites and generates steam, 
can not be expressed in exact figures, and varies according to the character of the 
work in which the vessel is engaged. 
The Nanaimo and Seattle coals have about the same bulk as Wellington coal, and 
ignite with equal ease. The better quality of Nanaimo coal used by us was 13 per 
cent, inferior to Wellington coal in steaming efficiency. The relative value of the 
two coals, as measured by the a(;tual useful work to be obtained from a full supply, 
would depend greatly on the distance of the base of supply from the field of work ; 
the greater this distance the smaller the value of the inferior coal. 
It would be wrong to draw general conclusions from the unsatisfactory results 
obtained by us from the small amount of Seattle coal taken on board at Unalashka. 
An examination of the coal shipped from the coal wharves at Seattle, Wash., dis- 
closed great differences in character and in the amount of incombustible matter mixed 
with it. 
Our experience with the Nanaimo coal procured at Kadiak proved how rapidly 
these coals deteriorate when exposed to the influence of the weather, especially in the 
