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August, 1909 THE STRAW NAVY AND AMER- ICAN SHIPPING. In reply to a letter from shipping interests on the Pacific coast protest- ing against th continued chartering of foreign tramps by the navy de- partment for carrying eastern coal to the Pacific coast, and suggesting the use of western coal, thus keeping the foreign ships off the coast, Beekman Winthrop, the attempts to action secretary Of the 'of the department by saying that: acting navy, justify The bureaus and officers who are responsible for the efficiency of our ships have uniformly taken the _ground that our ships of war should only use the very highest grades of coal. In foreign ports they buy only Welsh coal from the Admiralty list, and in. our own ports use Pocahontas and other of the New River coals, which are esteemed superior to the Welsh coal, the reason for this being that, as a matter of fact, the highest price coal is cheaper, as it contains a_ greater heat efficiency, and the still more important fact that it is not so subject to spontaneous combustion, and therefore will stand stowage in coal piles or in the bunkers of ships of war for a much longer period. The fact that the Comox and other Pacific coast coals are used by the Canadian Pacific and other ships trading on the coast, where this coal is used up in a very short time, does not prove that it can be used in furnaces of ships of war. Mr. Winthrop further says: It is thought that the department need not assure you of its entire sympathy with the United States shipping interests. We will admit at once that the secretary does not exaggerate in the says that. the uses nothing but the highest grade of least when he navy coal. If there is any opportunity for the advantage unnecessarily, navy never take of it, but the man who is responsible for the statement that the eastern spending money fails to coal is cheaper to use because of its greater heat efficiency, whether he be secretary, bureau officer or office boy, is either not honest, or does not know what he is talking about. It is not the truth. It cannot even be distorted into any semblance of the truth. It is a plain, bald misstatement. So is the other statement about spontaneous combustion. rubbish. advisers Spontaneous Does the secretary or his imagine that nobody knows that there are ships on the Pacific coast which stow coal in their bunkers and leave it there for months, or that there are no coal piles other than those of the navy department? Does he not know that of all coal mined and shipped, his favorite Welsh coal is more sub- ject to spontaneous combustion than If he does not, he does not any? "TRAE Marine. REVIEW know much about coal. Does he not know that, besides the Canadian Pac- ific express steamers, the ships of the British coal? navy on the ccast use local His statements, nivreover, do not hang together. He speaks of the Pocahontas and New River coals as being esteemed superior to Welsh, manifestly because higher heating value, whereas every- one who knows anything about coal, and many who know nothing about it, know that the contrary is the fact --that the highest heat value determi- nation of any of the eastern coals is 14,800 B. T. U. per pound, whereas Welsh coal runs over 16,000, and therefore if heat - value alone de- termined the choice of .coal, the United States navy would burn noth- ing but imported Welsh. Here let us note that Bulletin 378 of the U. S. Geological Survey, re- issued, which is written to the to the government of purchasing coal under cently demonstrate advantages a standard specification which bases the price upon the heating value of the coal, says: : navy department is a_ large carload well as a purchaser of large for foreign delivery. The consumer as cargoes of coal Mr. Winthrop nothing but Welsh in foreign ports. But in the entire list of contracts made under these specifications for the year 1909, the navy does not ap- pear as a purchaser except in three says the navy buys eastern navy yards, where its favorite brand is on its own chosen ground and delivery can be made cheaply. Thus the government itself confounds the statements of the acting secretary and shows that the action of the de- partment is influenced solely by its determination or anxiety to use east- ern coal at no matter what cost and regardless of its real value or of the consequences. restricted in its it is Js our navy so ability to do what others do? a queer comment on the judgment of our navy designers to say that our ships have been so designed that they can only use one grade of. fiel ot so, it is merely another proof of the general inefficiency with which it has been so frequently and justly charged. they must have ® 275 The statement has also been that the were not adapted to western made boilers of our naval ships coal. Not to waste time and space in this statement. argu- ment, is another flatfooted mis- There is no special design or arrangement of boiler required. There is not an engineer or ship- builder in this country, or any other country, who will not ridicule such a statement. Ships go from all over the world to the Pacific coast, and coal there, and no one ever heard of such a thing until the navy needed a hole to hide in. And once more, if our ships cannot burn Pacific coal in time of peace, what will they do in time of war? It is not a pleasant or well considered statement to give forth to the world on the authority of the secretary of the navy, that unless our ships can be be supplied with eastern coal or Welsh coal, they must stay in port. The United States Geological Sur- vey, a co-ordinate branch of the gov- ernment, and which has no_ interest. in misstating the facts, does not bear the contention as to relative heat values. We deny that one pound of Pocahontas coal will evaporate more water than out department's do not a pound of western coal, but we do deny absolutely that the difference is any greater than obtains between Pocahontas and many grades of east- ern coal which are sold freely for steam purposes on the Atlantic coast and on the Great Lakes in competi- tion with Pocahontas. There are no steamships in the world doing their work more economically than these same steamships on the lakes, and the heat value of 90 per cent of the coal which they use is no higher than that of some of the Washington coals, as shown by the geological The Pacific coast coals are naturally not by any means so extensive as on eastern and middle states coal, but in Bulletin No. 332, a report of the United States fuel testing plant at St. Louis, we find that Washington coal shows in four tests an average evaporative value of 81% Ibs. water per pound coal as fired, while West in 10 tests shows an survey. survey's reports and _ tests on Virginia coal