Coal Gives Way to Oil on the High Seas

BY KEITH REID

Navigating the world’s oceans has always been about energy. In ancient times you had muscle-powered oars and basic sails harnessing the wind. The industrial age first arrived in the form of steam power, fueled predominantly by coal. Sailors no longer had to rely on the fickle winds, but coal did have its disadvantages, especially for navies, even before environmental concerns became an issue.

Coal was labor-intensive, requiring numerous stokers to keep the boilers fueled. It was a physically dirty fuel that made keeping sailors and ships clean a challenge. It was difficult to handle during refueling. And it produced heavy black smoke, making ships easily detectable over great distances and obscuring optical fire control systems.

Safety was also an issue. In February 1898, the armored cruiser U.S.S. Maine suffered an explosion and sank in what was then Spanish-controlled Havana Harbor, Cuba. Tensions were high between the United States and Spain and yellow journalism quickly blamed Spain for sabotage. This event helped lead to the Spanish-American War. Years later, when the Maine was raised and examined, it was determined that the explosion was likely related to a smoldering coal bunker fire that ignited the powder magazine, sinking the ship.

The solution to coal’s issues was to replace coal with fuel oil. Fuel oil eventually found its way into both home heating and steam locomotives as well. Fuel oil either solved or greatly reduced most of coal’s negatives while providing more power. But there were initial issues.

The June 1909 edition of NPN featured a short article called “Oil Fuel on Warships.” It noted the Navy Department’s initial interest and reservations. All new battleships and other warcraft moving forward were to be equipped to use oil, even if initially they were powered by coal.

The big stumbling block was logistical. “While experiments are being made and plans devised for the use of oil, there is but a small chance that any ship will ever, or at least not for many years, be equipped for the exclusive use of oil, because it will be impossible to send a vessel so equipped on any very long cruise.”

This was simply an acknowledgment that the supply chain in place for coal was far more robust internationally than that for oil.

Oil’s advantages were such that the supply chain issues began to sort themselves out very quickly.

The December 1911 issue of NPN featured the headline “High H. P. Engines to Increase Oil in the Navy.”

The article noted that many of the newest “torpedo boat destroyers” were designed to run exclusively on fuel oil. Of the eight most modern battleships, two were guaranteed to run exclusively on oil and it was likely that future developments would be exclusively oil-based.

The supply chain issues were still a thing. “Oil is more expensive than coal in the ports frequented by our vessels, except the ports on the West Coast of the United States. The distribution of oil at depots which would be available to the fleet in time of war is still unsatisfactory, but it is being developed.”

The article went on to point out that heavy oil engines—diesel—had experienced performance breakthroughs that made them viable for naval vessels.

Both solutions would dominate naval and commercial maritime shipping through the 20th century and into the 21st. Oil-fired boilers eventually lost favor to diesel (modern container ships are powered by huge diesel engines multiple-stories tall) and gas turbines in naval use (maritime jet engines burning jet fuel) and nuclear power in applications like aircraft carriers and submarines, where the advantages outweigh the extreme costs.

For more than 100 years, from its founding in 1909 to when it went out of business in 2013, National Petroleum News (NPN) documented the rise of petroleum marketing and retailing in the United States. NACS, PEI and The Fuels Institute have catalogued the rich history of NPN in its entirety. Each issue of Fuels Market News will look back at the history of our vibrant industry, through the eyes of NPN, to see how it reflect the issues, challenges and opportunities we face today.