Evening star., 1926-05-27
ENGL AND |SLOS|NG
SHIP COAL TRADE
American Oil in Maritime
Trade Forcing CoIIieries to
Gradual Extinction.

Great Britain's coal crisis, which
shows no signs of ending. is now de
clared by leading oil authorities in the
I nited States to be primarily due to
the SteaGiiy increasing competition of
oil with coal as bunker" fuel. The
ships of the world, which since the
time steamShips We're invented have
burned British coal. are now using
instead SO tremendous quantities of
oil that the British collierN industry
is disloCated and denoral:zed Oil
from California wells is said To be the
main factor in this development. 1t
has become the favored bunker fuel
for vessels in the Pacific, which for
merly burned coal loaded at British
coalng stations. Some analysts of
the present situation in Great Britain
go so far as to say that there would
have been no coal crisis there at all
except for the wholesale substitution
of oil as fuel.
The worst OF it, from John Bulls
standpoint, is that the movement to-
ward oil and away from coal is adj
Vancing. rather than receding. The
gross tonnage of the world S vessels
registered at Lloyds as being fitted for
burning oil rose from one and three
quarter millions before the war to
twenty and one-half millions in 1925
Meanwhile the corresponding figure
for oal-hurninG ships fell from $4,000
QUO to 100000 tons. The tonnage
of oil-burninG vessels building
throughout the world at the begin
ming Of 1926 almost equaled coal
burning tonnage under construction.
Had Big Pacific Trade.
Only a few years ago one of the
important features of the British
coal trade was the distribution of
coal to the great bunkering centers
all over the Pacific lttoral There
is very little coal, and less good
marine coal. produced around the
Pacific, so the Welsh mines built up
great business in sending coal out
TO those distant maritime centers.
Then came the use of oil under ma
rine boilers. 1t spread amazingly.
OH was much easier of tranSporta-
tion and utilization than coal. and
the tendency to its increased use
IN distant seas developed rapidly.
California oil, which began TO be
produced about the beginning OF this
century. has steadily and rapidly
been crowding out British coal IN
Pacific shipping. Last year 23,-
445. 900 barrels of California oil went
into maritime use. In addition. the
United States Navy bought 4.779.000
barrels in 1925, a heavy increase over
The amount purchased by the fleet
in 1924. Fuel oil from The Pacific
coast was shipped in large and i'm
portant quantities to all parts of the
Pacific Ocean; to Canada, Mexico.
Central America. Panama (where it
was sold to ships passing through
The canal. destined to all parts of the
world). Chile Ecua dor, Japan. China,
The Philippines, New Zealand and
elsewhere.
Same Conditions Elsewhere.
While the Pacific area is the one
in which British coal has been most
Spectaculariy crowded out, the same
thing has been going on everywhere
else. Enormous quantities Of oil
are brought to British ports from
Mexico. Venezuela. Colombia, Trim
dad. the East and South of Europe.
Persia and the East Indies. much Of
which goes into ships bunkers. Of
course, it directly substitutes for the
coal that few years ago would
have beer taken on.
The British navy was undoubtedly
the greatest single patron OF the
British coal industry. Nov the British
navy is chiefly an old burning esta ab-
lshment. The truth is that Great
Britain is gradually losing her grip on
what has been her greatest funda-
mental industry, because of the mod
erniZation of merchant marines. The
oil industry of the United States is the
chief cause of this damaG Ge. simply be-
cause this country produces some
thing like 20 per cent OF the world S
old and by far the largest part of the
oil that goes into the bunGers.
niI I'So I.,creasinc
In 1913 the quantity of fuel oil used
in the British Isles for all purposes
probably did not exceed 100000 tons.
In 1924 the amount supplied to YES
sells engaged in foreign trade alone
was over 900, 900 tons. Every ton of
oil bought for bunker use displaced
corresponding amount Of coal. Last
wear more than twice as much bunker
coal as bunker oil was sold in Grea,
Britain. But oil is gaining on coal by
leaps and bounds.
America herself is reSorting to oil
fuel in ever-growinS degree. Petro-
leum Is already displacing between
rs 900 900 and 100 600. 600 tons of coal
annually. Oil is going into the bunk
crs of United States ships engaged in
the foreign trade at the rate Of about
10 times the amount of coal used in
that traffic. Statistics are available
for last month. In April, 1926, foreign
trade vessels took on 4.060.5S7 tons of
fuel Oil and only 400,638 tons of fuel