possibility of supply from sources within the regions of the
British empire. There is an enormous supply of shale under the
north-eastern counties of England, but no oil that can be pumped—still
less oil with a pressure above it so as to “gush” like the
wells in America—and the only sources of liquid supply under the
British flag appear to be in Burma and Trinidad. The Borneo
fields are not under British control, although developed
entirely by British capital. The Italian admiralty have fitted
several large warships with boiler apparatus to burn petroleum.
The German admiralty are regularly using liquid fuel on the
China station. The Dutch navy have fitted coal fuel and liquid
fuel furnaces in combination, so that the smaller powers required
may be developed by coal alone, and the larger powers by
supplementing coal fuel with oil fuel. The speeds of some
vessels of the destroyer type have by this means been accelerated
nearly two knots.
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| Fig. 4.—Installation on ss. “Trochas.” |
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| Fig. 5.—Details of Furnace, Meyer System. |
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| Fig. 6.—Details of Exterior Elongation of Furnace, Meyer System. |
The questions which govern the use of fuel in warships are more largely those of strategy and fighting efficiency than economy of evaporation. Indeed, the cost of constructing and maintaining in fighting efficiency a modern warship is so great that the utmost use strategically Advantages in warships. must be obtained from the vessel, and in this comparison the cost of fuel is relatively so small an item that its increase or decrease may be considered almost a negligible quantity. The desideratum in a warship is to obtain the greatest fighting efficiency based on the thickest armour, the heaviest and most numerous guns, the highest maximum speed, and, last and not least, the greatest range of effective action based upon the maximum supplies of fuel, provisions and other consumable stores that the ship can carry. Now, if by changing the type of fuel it be possible to reduce its weight by 30%, and to abolish the stokers, who are usually more than half the ship’s company, the weight saved will be represented not merely by the fuel, but by the consumable stores otherwise necessary for the stokers. Conversely, the radius of effective action of the ship will be doubled as regards consumable stores if the crew be halved, and will be increased by 50% if the same weight of fuel be carried in the form of liquid instead of coal. In space the gain by using oil fuel is still greater, and 36 cubic feet of oil as stored are equal in practical calorific value to 67 cubic feet of coal according to the allowance usual for ship’s bunkering. On the other hand, coal has been relied upon, when placed in the side bunkers of unarmoured ships, as a protection against shot and shell, and this advantage, if it really exists, could not be claimed in regard to liquid fuel.
Recent experiments in coaling warships at sea have not been very successful, as the least bad weather has prevented the safe transmission of coal bags from the collier to the ship. The same difficulty does not exist for oil fuel, which has been pumped through flexible tubing from one ship to the other even in comparatively rough weather. Smokelessness, so important a feature of sea strategy, has not always been attained by liquid fuel, but where the combustion is complete, by reason of suitable furnace arrangements and careful management, there is no smoke. The great drawback, however, to the use of liquid fuel in fast small vessels is the confined space allotted to the boilers, such confinement being unavoidable in view of the high power concentrated in a small hull. The British admiralty’s experiments, however, have gone far to solve the problem, and the quantity of oil which can be consumed by forced draught in confined boilers now more nearly equals the quantity of coal consumed under similar conditions. All recent vessels built for the British navy are so constructed that the spaces between their double bottoms are oil-tight and capable of storing liquid fuel in the tanks so formed. Most recent battleships and cruisers have also liquid fuel furnace fittings, and in 1910 it already appeared probable that the use of oil fuel in warships would rapidly develop.
In view of recent accusations of insufficiency of coal storage in foreign naval depots, by reason of the allegation that coal so stored quickly perishes, it is interesting to note that liquid fuel may be stored in tanks for an indefinite time without any deterioration whatever.
In the case of merchant steamers large progress has also been made. The Shell Transport and Trading Company have twenty-one vessels successfully navigating in all parts of the world and using liquid fuel. The Hamburg-American Steamship Company have four large vessels similarly Advantages in merchant ships. fitted for oil fuel, which, however, differ in furnace arrangements, as will be hereafter described, although using coal when the fluctuation of the market renders that the more economical fuel. One of the large American transatlantic lines is adopting liquid fuel, and French, German, Danish and American mercantile vessels are also beginning to use it in considerable amounts.
In the case of very large passenger steamers, such as those of 20 knots and upwards in the Atlantic trade, the saving in cost of fuel is trifling compared with the advantage arising from the greater weight and space available for freight. Adopting a basis of 3 to 2 as between coal consumption and oil consumption, there is an increase of 1000 tons of dead weight cargo in even a
