PETROLEUM ON THE SEVEN SEAS
The intimate connection between petroleum and maritime commerce became
assured from the day it was recognized that the United States had
resources destined to make her the chief reservoir of the world’s
supply. An interesting discourse could be written on the manner in
which the people of many nations have for centuries depended on ships
and seamen for light. The function of the old whaling ships in the
world’s economy is now performed by the modern oil-tankers--although
carrying the means of light to other lands is but a minor part of
the service of these latter day vessels. The relation of petroleum
to the sea may be approached from several angles. The necessity of
conveying vast quantities of oil across the oceans of the world has,
for instance, produced a form of maritime architecture almost as unique
in its kind as is the pipe-line in land transportation. Then again, oil
has within recent years tended to revolutionize the fuelling of both
the merchant marine and the war fleets of this and other countries.
Petroleum’s relation to naval activity in time of war is so important
that it will be dealt with in a separate chapter. As a stimulus
to international relations it has played a stupendous part in the
evolution of the United States from a great but isolated nation into a
world power.
One of the most important factors in the early development of the
petroleum industry in America was the realization that there existed an
almost limitless market overseas awaiting this new product. American
petroleum met an ever-growing need. Owing to the decline in the annual
catch of whales the world was being searched for substitutes for whale
oil and in the matter of lubricants for machinery there was something
like famine. Within two or three years after the sinking of Drake’s
well, Europe was eagerly seeking to purchase not only the crude but the
refined products, and the demand has grown apace ever since, despite
the development of oil fields in other parts of the world. In the
annals of the oil industry the name of Dr. A. F. Crawford, who in 1861
was U. S. Consul at Antwerp, holds an honourable place. In that year he
arranged that a shipment of forty barrels of refined oil should be sent
to the industrial country of Belgium and thus export to the continent
of Europe was begun. Great Britain, which had been trying to develop
Scottish shale oil production, was also quick to avail herself of the
American discoveries. From the outset the problem of how to carry
large quantities of petroleum products without waste, danger or injury
to other cargoes, occupied the minds of shipping men. The earlier
shipments were in the nature of samples despatched in ordinary cargo
vessels, usually from the port of Philadelphia.
In November of 1861 Messrs. Peter Wright and Sons, a well known
shipping firm of that city, chartered a small sailing vessel, the
_Elizabeth Watts_, to carry oil exclusively and to deliver her cargo
in London. So great was the apprehension among sailors of the dangers
of sailing on an oil-ship that to get a crew the old-fashioned plan
of kidnapping seamen under the influence of drink was resorted to;
and the crew reached London without other disaster than the injury to
their sensibilities involved. The success of this voyage prompted other
shipowners to embark in the business, so that by 1864 shipments of oil
from various Atlantic ports had grown to a very respectable total.
Casks or barrels were used for transport, entailing a very great
waste of oil, time and labour. The casks themselves called for a large
initial outlay and leakages were a source of loss, damage and possible
danger. In 1863 the thought of carrying oil in bulk in vessels,
specially designed for that purpose, appears to have occurred almost
simultaneously to importers in different parts of England. Henry Duncan
of Bromley, Kent, is generally admitted to have been the father of the
idea. He chartered a schooner at Chicago, fitted her to carry oil in
bulk and in her hold and loaded her at Sarnia, Canada, then as now, an
oil shipping point of inland America. The experiment was ill-fated, for
the schooner was lost in the Gulf of St. Lawrence before entering on
the high seas. But the scheme of carrying oil in the holds of wooden
ships in bulk was later successfully adopted by other shipowners and
continued in practice until 1878.
The genesis of the modern tanker dates from the launching of the
_Atlantic_ at St. Peter’s on the Tyne, Yorkshire, in August 1863. In
the record of this launching it was set forth that the vessel was
specifically designed to carry petroleum in bulk “without the aid of
casks” but there is no evidence that she was ever put into commission.
The real beginning seems to have been made with the Belgian ship,
the _Charles_, which is believed to have been the first ocean going
ship to be fitted with iron tanks for the transport of petroleum and
to be equipped with pumps for unloading the cargo. She was a sailing
vessel and her capacity has been estimated as high as 7000 barrels in
bulk. Between 1869 and 1872 she plied between New York and European
ports. By 1878 the business of carrying oil in iron ships specially
built for that purpose, or in converted vessels like the _Charles_ had
become definitely established and barrel-carrying ships had practically
disappeared from American harbours. At first oil was carried only on
sailing vessels, owing to the supposed danger of fire; but gradually
adjustments were made which rendered it feasible to propel oil ships by
steam.
The growth of the petroleum industry in the ’eighties made it clear
that the converted oil ship was uneconomical and somewhat dangerous.
Leakages in such vessels produced gases that sometimes caused
explosions; and one curious fact was demonstrated, namely, that there
was greater menace in an empty oil ship than in a full one, for the
reason that the exposed surface from which explosive gases might
emanate was infinitely greater. When an oil ship of scientific model
was filled to capacity the only danger points were the hatches through
which it had been filled; whereas when empty, especially if there had
been carelessness in unloading, the explosive area and the possible
formation of gas-producing deposits was greatly increased. With the
converted ships the chances of leakage were necessarily many, owing
to numerous and inaccessible waste spaces outside the tanks. This
led shippers to insist on improved tankers built in such a way that
absolute control could be exercised over every drop of oil on board the
vessel, and over every emanation of gas given off by that oil. Much
ingenuity was displayed by ship-builders in meeting this requirement
and the modern tanker has the two great merits of being absolutely free
from the risks of waste and danger.
For a good many years past the construction of oil tankers has been
one of the important branches of industry in the leading shipbuilding
countries; and they carry not only the predominating American product,
but that of all the scattered oil fields of the world. They bring
crude to our seaboard refineries, but they carry little crude away;
their business is that of conveying the finished oils to other lands.
The shipment of the crude product of American wells overseas has long
since ceased as a result of the stupendous development of our refining
industry, but Mexico has lately come into prominence as an exporter of
crude. In comparison with the earlier oil ships the modern tanker shows
the same ratio of growth which characterizes all phases of petroleum
development. The place of the tiny craft of the ’sixties and ’seventies
has been taken to-day by the tanker which runs to dimensions of more
than 500 feet in length and correspondingly wide beam. Whereas the
little Belgian ship, the _Charles_, fifty years ago carried a maximum
of 295,000 gallons, one of the larger types of modern oil tankers will
carry more than 4,500,000 gallons.
The greater petroleum organizations do not depend on private shipping
firms to carry their products, but build their own vessels. The
great American tankers of to-day are equipped with ample deck space
so that the officers and sailors have more freedom of movement
than do many city-dwellers in their own home. The impulse that the
petroleum industry has given to the American merchant marine as a
whole is developing a seafaring spirit among American youths that was
non-existent a generation ago. Many of the American tankers are among
the largest that fly the Stars and Stripes. Such giant vessels coming
up the fairway of a foreign port constitute a graphic advertisement
for the United States, and serve as the symbol of an industrial
nation standing at the head of the world’s commerce. It is fitting
that the American flag should have been carried to every port of the
seven seas in connection with petroleum, the American product which
has revolutionized the world’s industry. These great vessels carry
the source of light, heat and industrial energy to peoples of every
language and every colour. Great progress has been made in economizing
time and labour in connection with cargoes. Where but a few years ago
it required days to load or unload a ten-thousand ton ship, the task is
now performed in a few hours. The oil is handled by the use of powerful
pumps or by gravity, when possible. Owing to the speed with which oil
cargoes are handled no other ships on the ocean do so much sailing, or
spend so little time in port as the oil tanker.
So far in this chapter we have dealt solely with the development of the
sea-transportation of oil itself; but even larger vistas are opened
when we come to its growing relation to all forms of maritime commerce
and naval activity. This arises from the rapidly increasing use of oil
as a marine fuel. In that respect it holds very high potentialities for
America’s seaborne trade. The oil tankers we have been describing are
oil burning, and the same system is being applied to many other types
of vessels which constitute the arteries of the world’s trade. Until
quite recently the supremacy of Great Britain in maritime commerce
was in a considerable measure due to her plentiful supplies of bunker
coal obtainable at low cost in ports like Swansea, Wales. But the
definite advantages of oil as a fuel for the navigation of steamships
are changing the whole maritime equilibrium. As an English writer has
said, the position that oil has captured for itself in this respect has
been fairly won on its merits. Oil fuel has one and a half times the
heating power of steam coal, so that weight for weight carried, the
radius of action is extended fifty per cent. A vessel equipped with a
modern internal combustion engine consuming fuel oil may make a voyage
of fifty-seven days without replenishment, whereas the same vessel
operated by the old type of coal-fuelled steam engine would be obliged
to re-fill its bunkers at the end of fifteen days. In 1912 an Oil
Congress was held in London, England, when statistics were presented
containing a comparison between coal and fuel oil on the great Cunard
Liner the _Mauretania_. It was shown that for the round trip from
Liverpool to New York and back there would be a saving of at least 5000
tons of fuel and that the force of stokers required could be reduced
from 300 to 30 men working under much less difficult conditions. The
resultant increase in available space for cargo and passengers is of
enormous importance to ship-owners. The relative values of oil and coal
for marine use are not limited to the superiority of oil engines over
the old-fashioned steam engines. The caloric or steam-raising power
of oil is so much greater than that of coal as to produce a fifty per
cent. superiority. Another factor is that of cleanliness. Coal is not
merely bulky and prolific of many inconveniences in the confined space
of a ship, but it is unquestionably dirty, as every harbour bears ample
testimony. Oil is clean, smokeless and leaves no ashes and clinkers.
It can be pumped on board from a tender while both ships are making
considerable speed. The late war furnished innumerable demonstrations
of the superiority of oil as a source of motive power at sea, which
will be presently dealt with; as an aid to peaceful commerce its
influence during the next few years is certain to be revolutionary and
incalculable in its benefits.
The future of the oil-burning ship depends directly upon the supply of
fuel, a question that at the moment is giving both the oil men and the
steamship operators a good deal of concern. In recent months, owing
principally to the changes effected by the intrusion of salt water in
the Mexican fields, it has been a difficult matter for vessels not
protected by contracts to obtain fuel oil. The advantages of this
method of raising steam are so considerable that it will prove a great
economic loss if, through failing supplies, it becomes necessary for
oil-burning ships to revert to coal.
It would be a mistake to think that other great commercial powers
are not alive to the possibilities of oil on the seven seas, but
Americans may take pride in the fact that their own business men are
playing a foremost part in the sea-chapters of the wonderful epic
of the petroleum industry. Through their foresight and enterprise
the oil bunkering station is being established at home and abroad to
perform the same function that coaling stations have performed for the
world’s maritime commerce in the past. Although displacement of coal
by oil in any wide measure is perhaps the most recent development in
the story of petroleum; and the construction of oil-burning in place
of coal-burning ships is the latest phase of maritime architecture,
American oil producers have already anticipated the change in events
by establishing oil-bunkering stations in various parts of the world.
Here again American enterprise has shown itself alive to the needs of
international trade by providing supply depots at ports where American
oil-bunkering ships are likely to call. It is highly important that
vessels under the Stars and Stripes should not be wholly dependent upon
foreign agencies for filling their tanks. The United States Shipping
Board has shown much interest in the development of an organized
plan whereby bunkering facilities shall exist to render American
ships independent of the vexatious restrictions sometimes imposed by
governments in other parts of the world.
A glance at the list of such stations as it stood at the end of the
year 1919 shows how much petroleum has done to extend the influence
of the United States of America on the sea. Exclusive of the domestic
establishments on the Atlantic seaboard and in the Gulf of Mexico,
bunkering stations have been established by American initiative at all
the chief ports of Canada, whether on the Atlantic or on the Pacific
Coast, the Great Lakes, or the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in South America,
at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Montevideo, Uruguay; Campana and Buenos
Aires, Argentina; at Valparaiso and five other ports on the long coast
line of Chile; and at three ports in Peru. Bunkering facilities have
also been established at both approaches to the Panama Canal and at
many points in the West Indies, including Bermuda. There are nine such
stations in Great Britain; three in Norway; two in Sweden and three in
Denmark, covering effectively the North Sea and the Baltic. Those on
the Mediterranean include five in Italy; one in Tunis (Bizerta) and one
in Egypt (Port Said).
These stations are designed to promote those peaceful and happy
relations which should follow on the development of international
trade, and to assure facilities for America’s expanding seaborne
commerce.