CHAPTER XI

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.