Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-03-01
THE COAL AND COKE mARKEr
Mr. /. 8. Richards Talks Of Business at
san Francisco

Mr. /. 8. Richards Talks Of Business at
san Francisco
NJ. /. 5. Richards returned yesterday
on the Umatilla from San Francisco.
having been absent several weeks. He
reports business extremely quiet i'm the
chief city of the Argonauts and indeed
throughout California. Crop prospects
were never better nor the immediate
outlook for export trade more diScour-
aging. lu conversation with "a reporter
Of the HERALD Mr.. Richards said:
"My mission was principally to i'm
ye-tlgitc the status of the coal aud coke
market and ! found II pluttcd by uu-
prccrdcntcd shipments i'm ballast from
England. ship loads of the best Eng
li-h canucl coal are uid down iu san
Fmucl-co for sj.Gj per tom and freight
charges ON coke from England are only
$500 per ton. ] have bccu iu some Of
tine greatest ports Of the world, Lon
don, Liver iuOl, New York and others.
and J never al one time saw anything
approaching the number of vessels that
there are now iu san Francisco bay.
Every quarter Of the globe b. repre-
sculrd aud the aggregate carrying ca
pacliy Iu sight i- something enormous
. tA
the ships Will all do i- a prOblcmA large
number of them came there iu autici-
pat on Of securing wheat charter, but
Notwithstanding the enormous crop
and immense shipments the ocean tuu-
MAGE now Tying idle elm the stream" i-
vastly FOO excess of the demand. There
is every indication of callyand great
improvement in the lumber market
and 10 i- quite probable that many of
the ships will come 10 the Sound.
/ Though the coal market is Ovcr-tocllcd
now and the present demand for our
product slight, the depression is only
| temporary, due entirely 10 the unusual
shipments from England. An cuorm-
ous amount of Wellington coal, from
Vancouver island, was shipped to San
/ Francisco last year and it all pays
/ duty Of ninety cents ton. We now
/ have Puget coal Sound Of equally good
] quality and with little lower freight
rates we should be able 10 control the
| California market and practically shut
/ out the Australian and English pro-
/ duct. The whaleback, now under COM
maud Of Capt. OlBrieu, is at San Fran
cisco and is exciting "A great deal Of in
/ tcrc-t. She charters at Sl.jO per ton
and makes money. II b. regarded as
certain that vessels Of this class will
| force a general reduction in water
| frcpits. Just now the coast trade is
very light From Cape Mendocino to
| the Golden Gate we did not sight a
| single coasting vessel.
The outlook for the coke business ~
very good indeed thanks to our su-
pcIior product. ! took with me to san
| Francisco one ton Of average coke from
/ the Fairhavcn mine and IL fairly aston
| ished all the experts who saw IL. san
| Francisco and cities supplied from there
used 10000 tons Of COX last year. Ours,
aud by that Of course ! mean the coke
Of this locality, will equal the very best
| in the world and there H. mo- doubt that
/ there viii be a ready market for all we
can produce
! Late. the reporter obtained from the
/ Land company copic- oi three letters
recently received from persons who
/ have give their coke thorough test
/ They 3re a- follows:
~AN fHANol-co. Feb. IS. ls92.
NE. g. y. LArRAGEE Dear Sir:
/ THE tom oI coke brought down was
used by tuc Fulton lDu Works on
/ Tuesday afternoon. lu compari-Ou
with the English coke il showed the
] iDIl'N ilIHs 30 tpIN phi ' iH.i ''Hl hi'i y
or our coke lO do the same work, and
made lhc melted iron not quite a- hot.
lu machining the work after casting, ,our
coke made equally ~ good iron ~ the
/ English. The per cent addition i'm
quantity used was due I think, un-
questionably, 10 the fact that our coke
showed al least 30 per cent more dirt
than the English. This trial was made
against the very best English coke that
comes TO this market and the results
are more than gratifying.
Yours very truly,