The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-05-31
FORTUNE FOR AN IDEA.
Some One Wanted to Produce Plan
to Coal Vessels at Sea-

New York, May 31.-Any citizen of
the United States can make big money
now If he can devise some plan for
coaling war vessels at sea, when neu-
trail ports are closed to them.
Naval engineers claim that in a war
like the present the coaltng of war
vessels is as important as taking on
ammunition All the energies of the
government have been put forward
toward improving armor. lettering am
munition and providing for shipping
and storing it. The equally important
subject of taking on coal has been al
loWeds to take care of itself, because
in time Of peace the process presents no
difficulties. The result is that the coal
ing question has not advanced one step
beyond the condition it was in when
steam was first introduced on vessels
of war.
fortune is spent every year in coal
ing single ship. Take a vessel like
the auxiliary cruiser st. Louis or the
Harvard Over $780, 900 must be spent
in one year by each one of these YES
sells for the item of coaling-not for
the coal but for handling it; for trans
ferring this coal from the pier to the
coal bunkers of the steamship. Some
times one coaling costs 81, 900 here. If
the figures were at hand giving the
cost of coaling the same sort of a vessel
at sea, the amount would be at least
double. In some West Indian ports at
present, coal is held at from $12 to 500
a ton, and the cost of Hghterage is in
proportion. Down in the West Indies
the United States warships get their
coal bunkers filled in a picturesque
manner. When a steamship needs coal
1t is towed up to a separate pier called
the coal wharf" the bunkers are filled,
not by derrickS but by native women,
who to the number of about 200 throng
the wharves all day eager to get
"coa1ing job" Their baskets hold each
even 100 pounds of coal, and
each basket is filled the sturdy women
lift them to their heads and march
along the wharf and up the gang plank
to the ships coal bunkerS without once
bending under their weight. Matters
are vastly different and diSagreeably
so when it comes to coallng a war We
sci at sea. When the captain of big
ship finds himself in the middle of the
compelled to pursue drastic measures
to fill his coal bunkerS within a day
at the longest. The moment he sights
the collier of his fleet the captain of
the war vessel pounces upon her as a
hungry cat jumps at large fat rat.
The work of coaling when no neutral
port Is open requires not only daring,
but very ingenious daring in order that
vessels bunkers instead of into the sea-
Even on calm day coaling is not all
beer and skittles. The ships roll and
toss like two huge drunkardS of the
sea, pitching toward each other, and
then in opposite directions. Whether
the sea is calm or the waves are dash
ing over the decks of the vessels the
work must be done at once, as the
matters brooks no delay. In order to
keep the vessels from separating, each
end of the collier must be secured to the
warship by a stout cable and this itself
is on easy matter to accomplish when
every minute may sink one vessel or
the other.
While some of the crew are engaged
in keeping the vessels from crashing
into each other by Juggling at the helms
Il 6aa
officers in charge directs, others stand
by with huge rubber tenders to drop
when the sides of the vessels are plung-
ing toward collision. None but seamen
with level hadS are detained TO thlS
task.
Sixteen seamen of the GOLFERS crew
are ordered to the hold, where they
shovel the coal into canvas bags OF
triple thickness. Others raise the der
rick, which has been lying dashed to
the deck, and the cable and clamps are
fastened to the proper place IN the en-
CINE room.
on the warship let down steel plat
form, which ha sserved as a door TO
large port, and here from -FOUR TO SIX
blue jackets stand with ropes tea TO
their waists and held securely in the
hands of other blue jackets inside the
ship. The derrick descends into the
hold of the collier and comes up IN a
few moments gripping three TO nVe
raised to the proper height the derrick
swings toward the war vessel, where a
dozen men haul the arm by a stout
rome until it reaches a projecting plat
form. Here the coal sacks are dropped
and the derrick returns for a fresh
handful.
Meanwhile the men on the platform
Of the war vessel SHOW the sacks
through the large port hole where
large force of blue Jackets tumble them
into barrows and wheel them OH to the
hold.
The coal being transferred, the der
rick is lowered and dashed back to the
deck the seamen on the platform are
hauled in by their comrades, the plat