Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1898-06-30
COALING WARSHIPS.
ITS COST IN LABOR AND MONEY AT
PIERS AND AT SEA.

ov0k 0OVSVVV 0R0u0 IN u 100k GO GOAL the
st. Louis Mt Her Dock = Coslins In the
West Indies How War Vessels Are
C0eled In Midocesn.
Any citizen of the United States can
make big money now if he can devise
some plan for coaling war vessels at sea
when neutral ports are closed to them.
Naval engineers claim that in war
like the present the coaling Of war YES
sells is as important as taking on ammu-
milton. All the energies of the govern
ment have been put forward toward i'm
proving armor, bettering; ammunition
and providing for shipping and storing
it. The equally important subject Of
taking on coal has been allowed to take
care Of itself, because in time of peace
the process presents no difficulties. The
result is that the coaling question has
not advanced one step beyond the condi-
ton it was in when steam was first in
troduced on vessels of war.
A fortune is spent every year in coal
ing single ship. Take vessel like the
auxiliary cruiser st. Louis or the Har-
ward. Over $50, 900 must be spent in
one year by each one of these vessels for
the item of coaling-not for the coal
but for handling it, for transferring
this coal from the pier to the coal bun
kers Of the steamship. This enormous
sum applies only to ship which is be-
ing coaled at her dock in New York
city or Liverpool. II the figures were
at hand giving the cost Of coaling the
same sort of vessel at sea, the amount
would be at least double. In some West
Indian ports at present coal is held at
from $12 to $40 ton, and the cost Of
lighterage is in proportion.
Coaling vessel at pier in the North
river is child's play compared to the
difficulty, excitement and danger Of
coaling the same vessel at sea- When q
steamer like the Kaiser Wilhelm der
Crosse is moored to her pier in New
York, she is approached by two or more
coal barges from Jersey City. These
barges are moored close to the side Of
the vessel and a half dozen or more ma
nilla Tenders are let down between the
barges and the side Of the ship to keep
the vessels from scraping holes in each
others sides. Even under these favor
able conditions the management of the
steamship line to which the St. Louis
and St. Paul belonged before being pur-
chased by the United States government
have been compelled to expend over
81, 900 for the transfer of coal from the
cars to the bunkers of one ship. The
best time the st. Paul could make in
coaling alone in port was 40 hours for
5000 tons
Down in the West Indies the United
States warships get their coal bunkers
filled in picturesque manner. When q
steamship needs coal, it is towed up to
a separate pier called the "coal wharf. !"
A stout gangplank is showed from the
stringpiece to the lowest deck, and the
bunkers are filled, not by derricks, but
by native women, who to the number of
about 900 throng the wharfs all day eager
to get a "coaling job" Their baskets
hold each an even hundred pounds
Of coal, and as each basket is filed the
sturdy women lift them to their heads
and march along the wharf and up the
gangplank to the ships coal bunkers
without once bending under the weight.
Matters are vastly different, and dis
agreeably SO, when it comes to coaling
a war vessel at seq When the captain
Of a big ship finds himself in the middle
Of the ocean with little or no coal left,
he is compelled to pursue drastic meas
ures to fill his coal bunkers within q
day at tho Longest. The moment he