Page 67
Page 67
39
36
GENERAL List of First and Second Class Coal Depôts, or places where a supply of Coal can be obtained for Her Majesty's ships during War, and if defended or not.
First Class Depôts.
Appendix No 1.
Gibraltar*
Malta*
Sierra Leone*
Ascension*
St. Helena*
Simon's Bay* Mauritius
Aden
Bombay Singapore
Hong Kong* Halifax
Bermuda*
Barbadoes*
Jamaica*
Australia
Esquimalt
"
Second Class Depôts.
Not defended. Ditto.
*
Ditto.
•
Ditto.
Partially defended.
Defended.
Seychelles
每個
J
Ditto.
Labuan*
Not defended.
Fiji Islands
Ditto.
Partially defended.
Antigua* Trincomalee*
•
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
•
Ditto.
to
Ditto.
Ditto.
Defended.
Ditto.
•
**
Partially defended.
Ditto.
Def nded.
Partially defended.
In case of war, the following would have to
be added
Torres Straits Falkland Islands
New Zealand Nassau
Colombo
•
Those marked with a (*) are Admiralty depôts.
At those not marked, coal is supplied by local contractors.
Not defended. Ditto. Uncertain. Not defended. Partially defended.
Appendix No. 2.
(Signed)
A. MILNE.
or minor.
PAPER PUT IN BY SIR LINTORN SIMMONS.
Suggestion for the Protection of Coal Stores at Secondary Stations,
COALING-STATIONS may be classified under two heads-primary, or principal, and secondary, Under the first head are included all stations at which coal is stored in large quantities, and appliances provided for supplying ships with rapidity. These stations will generally possess means, more or less efficacious, for repairing and refitting ships of large size; they will require substantial defences to secure them, and the shipping in them, against attack; and being on the great ocean trade routes they will be of use also as ports of refuge, and for coaling and refitting commercial ships. To render these primary or principal stations secure will require a heavy expenditure of money, and involve demands upon our military forces which will be difficult to meet; the number of them, there- fore, must not exceed what are absolutely necessary to meet the exigencies of war.
Under the second head are classed minor or secondary stations at which coals are kept, but not in such large quantities as at principal stations. It has been urged that coal depôts in other than primary stations are necessary for the use of the navy, which would be crippled in its operations without them; stores of coal, however, if undefended might be used or destroyed by an enemy, and thus be productive of serious mischief by supplying the wants of the enemy and leading our own ships to depend upon an uncertainty.
Like the principal stations, they cannot depend for their security upon the direct protection of ships of war, but must be secured by local defences. These defences, if extemporized, will be compa- ratively insecure, will require larger garrisons than if prepared at leisure, and, moreover, war may be so sudden that there might not be time to establish them.
Permanent defences, if within range of ships' guns, must be capable of resisting their fire; they must be secure against a coup de main, and have the means of offensive action against ships. These conditions involve, as a rule, a large expenditure in works and heavy armaments, and strong garrisons largely constituted of skilled artillerymen; submarine mines and swift torpedo-boats are also extensively required to aid in their defence.
It is suggested, therefore, for consideration, whether supplies of coal might not, under certain circumstances, be kept inland, defended each by a small permanent redoubt, secured by a good escarp against assault, with flank-defence for its ditches. Such a redoubt, being beyond the reach of artillery- fire from ships, would not require a heavy armament, and could not be reduced without regular siege works, which would cause a greater delay than an enemy would probably submit to.
a
The coal might, in such cases, be conveyed, as required, to the water-side on a light tramway, small locomotive, with trucks, being provided for the purpose. A work of this nature would afford no defence for wharves or coaling-barges, nor could it assist in the protection of any vessel while coaling. The tramway might, for the most part, be kept in the redoubt, and a movable staging, to be used as a boat-wharf when required, but the means for shipping the coal would have to be considered.
Page 67
Appendix No. 2.
Page 67
Page 67