Evening journal., 1899-02-22
COALING STATIONS.
Ports Outside of Europe Where
Steamships Reload.
Lines Established Along the Routes
Of the Great Commerce hearers
Of All Nations - Location
cf the Ports.

Four taon.arl men are engaged to-
day IN making Gibraltar one Of the
greatest coaling stations and depots for
the rehtting Of warships in the world.
II 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 10 secure perfect protection
from outward attack for the vast guam
tity Of coal that Is always kept in stock
az that great station. All the inn
lprovementsa are o cost about SIS 900, 900.
We hear most Of all nowadays about
the coaling stations that are needed
for navies. They are. Of course, equally
iThree-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
meroe, 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
comnlee, Singapore, Hong-Kong. Along
the east Atlantic coast: Sierra Leone,
Ascension, st. Helena, Cape Town, Maui
riilus. 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-
It's 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 231 ports Of the
world outside of Europe, where every
port Is q coal depot. and dealers, Of
course, are glad TO have buyers Of con-
siderable quantities like the captains Of
steamships come along. Atlittle 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 sufficient quantity TO
carry them TO port where coal is a
more generally used commodity, for
dealers where there is little or no COM
petition Ia the article often charge an
exorbliant price for It. Coal Is now
sold at such low figures in our own
ports that most steamersin the Trans
latlantic trade usually coal on this side
of the ocean for the round trip. It
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 10 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 a few
days slow sailing or steaming to reach
some port where IL may replenish its
bunkers. Suppose, for instance, that
one Of our steam whalers in the Arctic,
after a season north Of Behring ctrait,
should run short ef coal, it has only to
60 south as far as Unalasla, IN the
Aieutian archipelago, 10 buy all it
needs
Outside Of Europe coal is specially
kept for sale to steamers at eight ports
on the north coast Of Africa; at 13 ports
OF West Africa. including the Cape
Verde islands and the Canaries; at "A
ports along the Gulf Of Mexico and the
Caribbean sea; at "a ports Of the West
Indies; at % Atlantic ports Of North
America as far south as the Gulf OF
Mexico; at five islands Of the Atlantci
at nine ports Of East Africa; ats ports
Of South Asia; at six islands Of the
India ocean; at 20 ports of the East In
dies and Philippines; at IA ports Of The
East Asian coast; at five ports OF Japan
sachalin and Kamptchatka; at ter
ports of Australia; at seven ports o.
New Zealand; at 10 ports on the west o.
North America; at ten ports on th'
west of South America; at Honolulu
and HiIo in the North Pacific, and a
four islands in the South Pacihc.-N. \
Sun. -.