Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1899-03-10

COAL FOR STEAMSHIPS.
the Great Trade ships OF
the World.

NUMEROUS Ports Along the Routes or
the Great Trade Ships OF
the World.
Four thousand men are engaged to-
day in making Gibraltar one Of the
greatest coaling stations and depots for
the refitting of warships in the world.
1t will take two or three years yet for
carrying out the plans for extending
the docks and other accommodations
required for the repairing of naval YES
sells and TO secure perfect protection
from outward attack for the vast guam
tity of coal that is always kept in stock
at that great station. All the i'm
provcments are to cost about $15,0 ,0G0 900.
We hear most OF all nowadays about
tie coaling stations that are needed
for navies. They are, of course, equally
essential for the merchant marine.
Three-fourths OF the worlds commerce
Is carried on steamships, and the whole
of the power used by all nations for the
defense of commerce depends upon the
use of coal. Without security of the
seas there can be no security Of COM
merce, and so there must be geograph-
ical security for coaling stations all
around the world. This fact greatly
impressed Great Britain, for it touches
her very existence. Look at her line
OF government coaling stations along
all the great trade routes.
Along the route to the orient: Glib
raltar, Malta, Alden, Bombay, Trim
comalee, Singapore, Hong-Kong. Along
the east Atlantic coast: Sierra Leone,
Ascension, st. Helena, Cape Town, Mau-
ritius. In Australasian waters: Aus
tralia and New Zealand ports. Along
the West Atlantic route: Halifax, Que
bee, Bermuda, st. Lucia, Kingston and
Falkland islands; and IN the northeast
Pacific, Esquimalt. After that depos-
its of coal on the east and west coasts
of Canada, South Africa, India and
Australasia. For nation whose COM
merce is all round the world little more
could be done to make geographical
unity complete.
In time of peace coal can be bought
by any naval vessel and the merchant
marine in most of the ports of the
world but not in all of them. Coal is
kept as commodity at 23l ports If the
world outside of Europe, where every
port is a coal depot, and dealers, of
course, are glad to have buyers cf con.
siderable quantities like the captains of
steamships come along. At little islands
like Nossi BE and Comoro, in the In
dian ocean, and Samoa and the FIJI is
lands, in the Pacific, merchants keep a
good supply of coal on hand, and prac-
tically their only customers In these
tropical regions are passing vessels. At
these out-of-the-way places ship cap
tains buy only a sufficient quantity to
carry them to a port where coal is a
more generally used commodity, for
dealers where there is little or no COM
petition in the article often charge an
eXorbitant price for it. Coal is now
sold at such low figures in our own
ports that most steamers in the Trans
atlantic trade usually coal on this side
of the ocean for the round trip. 1t
happens, therefore, sometimes that
when they are coming back to America
and are greatly delayed on the way
their supply runs short, and we hear
now and then that they have been COM
PEELED to put into Halifax for coal. Ex-
cept in the Pacific supplies of coal are
now scattered so widely over the world
that usually a vessel requires only few
days slow sailing or steaming to reach
some port where it may replenish its
bunkers. Suppose, for instance, that
one of our steam whalers in the Arctic
after season north of Behring -trait
should run short of COAL it has only to
go south as far as Unalaska. in the
Aleutian archipelago, to buy al il
needs.
Outside OF Europe coal is specially
kept for sale to steamers at eight ports
Ou tHc uOI II COdSt VI hlllNd, at IL pOIlS
Of West Africa, including the Cape
Verde islands and the Canaries; at IA
ports along the Gulf of Mexico and the
Caribbean sea; at "a ports of the West
Indies; at 22 Atlantic ports Of North
America as far south as the Gulf OF
Mexico; al five islands Of the Atlantic;
at nine ports of East Africa: at 19 port S
of South Asia; at six islands Of the
India ocean; at 26 ports Of the East In
dies and Philippines; at II ports of the
East Asian coast; at five ports of Japan,
Sachalin and Kamptchatka; at ten
ports of Australia; at seven ports OF
New Zealand; at 10 ports on the west OF
North America; at ten ports On the
west Of South America; at Honolulu
and Hilo in the North Pacific. and al
four islands in the South pacifc.--N Y.
Sun