PETROLEUM NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 292, 13 May 1914, Page 4

PETROLEUM NEWS.

OIL FOR THE NAVY. ; A writer in the National Review! makes some very serious assertions about the state of things which has, ha says, resulted from the building of oildriven ships for the navy. His story is as follows:—Experiments have been conducted for some years before Lord Fisher became First Sea Lord in 11)04. Then eight ocean-going destroyers and 12 torpedo-boats were fitted to burn oil only. In 1900 and 1907 two large destroyers and 24 torpedo-boats were so"* fitted, but for two years thereafter no such bnats were built. On Lord Fisher's retirement in 1909 the building of oildriven boats began on an extensive scale, and has continued since. In 1912 live battleships and eight light cruisers, and in bhe following year eight more; licht cruisers were designed to bum oil fuel wily. In duly, 1912. Lord Fisher was appointed president of the Royal Commi -lion o;i Oil Fuel. By then live capit: > i-hip- and t-i-j-'i:. lighi cruisers bad been ..rd-re.l to burn oil only, yet the piirp >-e *>;' the commission was to discover \vuri:M>i' llicre was sufiicient oil available i'oi the. purpose. The interim reports of the commission have bceni kept secret, but the. ships are built. Lust year, when introducing the Estimate-,. Mr. Churchill referral to the high price, of oil and to the difficulties of obtaining it. He subsequently stilted that the Admiralty proposed to' acquire and work oil-fields. Soon afterwards, forty torpedo boats on the east coast were virtually taken out of active commission, apparently because the Admiralty could not obtain the supply gj|4| oil required for peace purposes, and ab/r the same time; accumulate a war reserve. It is even (doubtful whether it can obtain a sufficient reserve in any case, although it has reduced the Hash-point from 200 deg. ¥., hitherto the recognised safetv limit, to l. r >o deg. F. A flotilla of 20 destroyers on manoeuvres or exercises burns a thousand tons of oil daily. In the five new battleships of the Queen Kiizabcth type, designed to burn oil only, each ship would burn, upon a normal routine of cruising and manoeuvres about twenty thousand tons per year, and tho freight is not less than 40s. The present price of oil is 90s per ton, which brings the total coßt up to £6 10s per ton. The cost of coal per ton is\ 14s. oi 155., and the calorific value of oil, as compared with coal, is as 25 to 18. The coal is available in any quantity in the United Kingdom. The oil is not avail* able. There ivre (ire battleships, If! cruisers, :.mcl about 1.20 destroyers and torpedo-boats fitted, or being fitted, for oil only. That, according to the National Revcvw contributor, is the situation, and he claims that it demands searching investigation by Parliament.