Coaling (ships)

Pearl Harbor coaling station in 1919.

The era of the steam warship powered exclusively by coal was relatively brief, lasting from 1871 until 1914. Although the French ironclad Glorie and the iron hulled HMS Warrior in 1860 both had coal-fired boilers and funnels, their purpose was to provide additional speed in battle. Sails provided their main propulsion most of the time so, unlike HMS Devastation, the first ship built without sails, these were not true steamships. Although much faster than sail, the lengthy refueling or coaling required by steam ships brought considerable additional risk to the ship and hardship to the crew. These drawbacks led to the replacement of coal by oil.

Coal itself also required maintenance. Coal cannot be pumped and, once loaded, it had to be continuously moved to ensure bunkers nearest the boilers were always full should full power be suddenly needed. These problems were sufficiently serious for the Royal Navy to build HMS Queen Elizabeth as an oil-fired ship despite an abundance of coal and a shortage of oil in the United Kingdom.^{[citation needed]}

Necessity of nearby friendly ports[]

HMS Majestic at a coaling station

The replacement of sailing ships with steam led to the requirement that coal be widely available. Coaling a warship was a much hated, dirty, and unavoidable task normally carried out in port with a collier alongside, during which time the ship was unable to fight and vulnerable to attack.^[1] Once coaling had started it continued day and night until completed.^[2]

The denial of port facilities to the Russian Baltic Fleet, forcing them to overload themselves with coal, played a part in their defeat at Tsushima in 1905.^[3] Commander Semenoff described the problems facing the fleet required to sail around the world with very few friendly coaling ports.^[4] His ship, the Borodino-class battleship Knyaz Suvorov, found all neutral ports closed, leaving it the choice of either coaling at anchor three miles off the coast—regarded as very risky or even impossible even in good weather—or carrying additional fuel. The Borodino class battleships—already 2.5 ft lower in the water than designed and weighted-down even carrying their designed maximum of 1100 tonnes—took on a total 2200 tonnes of coal. They even used the main deck and were regarded as potentially at risk of capsizing in a strong wind. The Suvorov coaled for 29 hours in tropical heat, the sailors keeping cotton wool between their teeth to avoid inhaling coal dust. Semenoff reckoned no one could work for more than 20 minutes in those conditions.

Vulnerability[]

Warships caught coaling were stationary targets operating without power^[5] and the British battlecruisers in the Falklands in 1914 were fortunate that Admiral Von Spee missed a "golden opportunity" to attack them.^[6]

United States Navy procedures[]

The call to "Rig ship for coaling!" was an unwelcome announcement of a day of backbreaking work shovelling coal into canvas bags aboard a collier, hoisting those bags onto the warship, dumping the bags near the coal bunkers, and shovelling the coal into the bunkers. The following day was spent cleaning the warship of the black coal dust which had penetrated every crevice and corner of the ship including its living quarters and food supplies.^[7]

Removing the coal dust clinging to their sweat-drenched skin after coaling required each man to wash while sitting balanced atop the bucket of fresh water he had been issued for the purpose. There were no showers. The deck was covered with nude sailors, each trying to avoid overturning his bucket while carefully washing himself over his bucket so that the water flowing off his torso returned to the bucket for re-use. A shipmate might be asked to scrub another's back.^[7]

Need for coaling infrastructure[]

In 1908, Rear Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock declared that expeditious coaling was essential for the efficiency of the navy and lamented the fact that dockyards still hadn't changed ship design specifically to facilitate it. Noting that "the question of rapid coaling appears to me to have never been really studied, and even now it is in its infancy", he said no detail should be left untouched to ensure completion in the quickest possible manner. Every single officer and man that can be spared, should get into the collier to dig out the coal. Other recommendations were that coaling was always done from the same side, that this was kept free of obstructions and that marks were made on the refuelling collier so that it was easy to align the two ships in the best position. Using these techniques, the battleship HMS King Edward VII broke records, receiving 1,180 long tons (1,200 t) of coal at 289.2 long tons (293.8 t) an hour.

Provision of coal supplies[]

In Britain, the Severn Tunnel was constructed primarily to shorten communications between the South Wales coalfield and its high quality steam coal, down to the Royal Navy dockyards around Portsmouth. Work on the tunnel began in 1873 but, owing to problems with unexpected flooding, was not completed until 1886.

References[]

External links[]

• "Coaling Ship" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.