Converting Ocean Liners from Coal to Oil

Ocean Liners had been fueled by coal for decades, but after World War I, ships were slowly converted from coal to oil. It was a significant investment for shipping companies, but the benefits outweighed the costs. Find out what the pros and cons were of oil-fired ships versus coal-fired ship as well as what the extensive conversion process entailed.
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Sources:
- “Down Amongst the Black Gang,” by Richard de Kerbrech
- “Titanic Hero: The Autobiography of Captain Rostron of the Carpathia,” by Arthur Rostron
- “The Only Way to Cross,” by John Maxtone-Graham
- “RMS Titanic: Owners’ Workshop Manual,” by David F. Hutchings and Richard de Kerbrech. Haynes.
Have something to say? Leave a comment!
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[@TheGreatBigMove]

Merry Christmas Eve! I know this is a difficult holiday season for many people, so this video is a week early to brighten the mood in whatever tiny way I can. Enjoy the video and happy holidays!

[@thekmsbismarck7875]

Happy holidays man!

[@daftywooshoes3709]

Same to you. Merry Christmas!

[@adragol_cabaret]

You too, hope you have a good christmas.

[@edwardj.ximipa3125]

Merry christmas kind sir!

[@harrold.j.marakta.1505]

Happy holidays and Stay safe!

[@JohnnyWednesday]

"The BTU of even the best Welsh coal" - My grandad would of been so proud that the welsh seams are known even in America :)

[@K9TheFirst1]

For me at least, that's due to Thomas the Tank Engine.

[@hearsebulance9601]

as a welshie, with all my family being from wales, i know my great grandparents would be proud too. they did well and helped quite a big part with the ocean liner industry even though they are not in the spotlight of it all

[@HoennMaster]

But of course! It's the type of coal that Henry needed to make enough steam before te accident! 😂😂

[@peterdavy6110]

Welsh seams were know the world over! There's many ships logs on the India run where the captain complains of the quality of Bombay coal and wishes he had some good Welsh steam coal!

[@davegeraghty2187]

*would have

[@lsswappedcessna]

RMS Olympic: *gains a tenth of a knot* Also RMS Olympic: *disappointed because there are no more u-boats to ram*

[@diegosilang4823]

Also got scrapped before WWII, great relief to the U-Boat commanders.

[@FriskMeemur]

"as the Olympic looked upon the breadth of it's achievement... she wept... for there were no more U-boats to ram."

[@TheEldritchHyena]

@@FriskMeemur Though she did ram a Lightship on a foggy day in 1934...

[@danielbishop1863]

If Cunard-White Star could have just kept her around for a few more years, Olympic would have gotten another chance to sink a U-boat.

[@lsswappedcessna]

@@danielbishop1863 and it'd have been glorious, to say the least, if she had.

[@toddteagarden2200]

If you type in “Raising Steam” there’s a fantastic old WW2 training film about how to start up Oil fired boilers!

[@keithgutshall9559]

I was a boiler tech in the US Navy. In the early 1970. We had 1200 psi boilers

[@Marylandbrony]

Seymour Skinner raised steamed when he steamed those Hams.

[@BeachsideHank]

@@keithgutshall9559 '69- '73 this Tin-can sailor steamed Babcock & Wilcox 600 p.s.i., 800 degree superheat "M" type boilers, could take a lickin' and keep on tickin'.☺

[@dsc0273]

@@Marylandbrony That's good

[@dsc0273]

Thanks Todd

[@callumlumsdon8113]

My grandad worked on the Queen Mary back in 1949-1967. He also worked on the Queen Elizabeth 2 as well for a 20 years. However I have a book with all the photos he took on his job. But this will shock you: He actually worked on the Queen Mary again when it got turned into a hotel, but sadly he passed away at the age of 70 during the early stages of his dementia and also a stroke. However I will always remember this famous line in his book of pictures from his years at work:'My dad always smelt the coal and he said that at one point he had his fire place on in house'. I will always remember him. Merry Christmas grandad and to everyone i know.

[@skovner]

Put the pictures in a book. I'd seriously consider buying it.

[@MrMattumbo]

My grandfather was one of the ironworkers who worked on decommissioning the Queen Mary. That was a job he took great pride in.

[@callumlumsdon8113]

@@skovner I'm very sorry but as my amazing and loved grandad has died I will not sell the book, even if I'm offered a million pounds. Enjoy your new year Callum

[@callumlumsdon8113]

@@MrMattumbo That must be an awesome job just like how my Grandad actually worked on the Queen Mary during her passenger voyages, but returned to service on her after the war. I hope you have photos of him like I do to keep memories. However he actually worked on the Queen Elizabeth for 3 1/2 years during world war 2!

[@skovner]

@@callumlumsdon8113 I was thinking you could publish the book, not sell the original, but if not, that's OK.

[@PsPuNkS]

10:45 Damn, Mauretania's boiler room after its oil conversion is actually cleaner than my bedroom

[@dillonpierce7599]

Makes my room look like the actual black gang I guess 😅🤷🏻‍♂️

[@billietyree6139]

Yes, I was comparing it favorably to my kitchen.

[@zachogdahl210]

Most engine rooms are kept very clean.

[@shorelockhomes943]

Same here. I use my room for a store room, office, bedroom, office, and extra pantry. So that ship after conversation has me beat. Doc. Watson's room is also multipurpose, yet much less crowded then my room. lol

[@Mondo762]

That photo was taken after completion of the boiler room and before any black oil was introduced to the furnaces. There is still much more needed to make it a working fire room (burners, torches, etc.) I've worked on some ships with very clean boiler rooms but this one appears unused.

[@augustosolari7721]

Passengers would have noticed not having coal flakes incrusted un their eyes. Also, less work for the medical staff.

[@lawrencebohlen8170]

Ships doctors removed many a cinder from the eyes of passengers on coal burning ships.

[@news_internationale2035]

Yeah like fuel oil doesn't soot...

[@barryallenporter8127]

@@news_internationale2035 Not like Coal it doesn't. You ever ridden on a coal burning steam locomotive with windows open? your face gets full of coal dust and water. Now imagine that on something the size of an ocean liner.

[@news_internationale2035]

@@barryallenporter8127 You ever work around diesel trucks before they came out with DEF?

[@marcelocoelho4107]

@@news_internationale2035 As someone that lives in Brazil and have a lot of said trucks around, yes. And it's only really bad in very cold days or if you stuck your face to the exhaust pipe. And while the fuel oil used on those ships would have been even "dirtier" than diesel, nearly smokeless combustion was possible, as proved by many military vessels of the time.

[@billietyree6139]

I spent the summer of 1951 working as a coal passer on an iron oar boat on the Great lakes. This ship was built in 1914 and used coal to power to generate steam for her three cylinder, three phase steam engine. We worked 4 hours on and 8 hours off. My job was to get the coal from the bunker down to the fireman, shovel ashes into the Ash Gun, a steam powered venturi in the bottom of a hopper, which shot the ashes up and out the side of the ship, and to run around and pull the proper chains which turned the wheels that moved a steam nozzle over the flues in the furnace and blew out the soot into the ships funnel. We were rightly called 'the black gang'. it was a filthy and unhealthy job that was a lot of fun for a young man. We made regular runs from Duluth or Escanaba to Gary, Detroit or Conneaut.

[@MacMcCardle]

Sadly the automatic ash ejector was removed from our vessel. We have to pass the ash buckets into an ash hoist installed in the port side ventilator shaft, haul them up. Thankfully, as a historic vessel we only generate enough ash to warrant cleaning once a week - or three days of sailing having burned 8t coal. 8t Would have been a typical shift in her service life.

[@josephforest7605]

Valley Camp Coal , Port Colborne, Ontario .

[@FriedrichWilhelmViktorAlbert]

I am am absolutely nuts over great lakes maritime history, it is great to know people like you are still around and active.

[@johnrickard8512]

Well well well I did not expect to find a real life trimmer in this channel, but thank you very much for sharing your own history.

[@bluenecross]

I am a Petroleum Inspector in the Pacific North West US. Modern ships are now using a bunker fuel called LSFO or VLSFO which stands Low Sulfur Fuel Oil or Very Low Sulfur Fuel Oil. This fuel is made by a blend of marine gas oil (Which is basically diesel) and heavy fuel oil. The sulfur content of the fuel depends on how much diesel is blended in.

[@rosiehawtrey]

And it's great for trashing engines..

[@CaptOrbit]

Certainly had the added benefit of making the boiler room so more pleasant place to work. The wide open spaces before had been absolutely crammed with great mounds of coal everywhere. After conversion they became instead just wide clean spacious passageways without all the clutter, trip hazards, and dangerous dust.

[@steffenschiller3189]

One more small advantage you forgot - coaling was very dirty. One open window and the cabin was black. I think you mentioned that in your video about coaling. Nice video by the way - please keep them coming!

[@samuelfellows6923]

🤭

[@jhomrich89]

He did an entire video on it

[@STScott-qo4pw]

fascinating! I thought that converting from coal to oil would have involved changes but I didn't know it would take 8 months! Anti-sloshing baffles, liquid tight riveting... Still. the boiler room of the newly converted ship looks positively... pleasant? compared to what had been before. btw, you're right: a new respect for the black gang after new tech installed - should have been there all along.

[@aahillakhani399]

I'm extremely happy I found this channel since I've always been looking for videos about ocean liners like titanic that went beyond the stale, extremely repetitive information that's extremely common.

[@HorseCrazieGirl15]

There’s a carferry in USA still running on coal. It is called SS Badger.

[@gregorymalchuk272]

I don't think it's allowed to dump ash overboard anymore, and having to pay for ash disposal raises the cost of running these things.

[@sd70m2man]

On Lake Michigan?

[@HorseCrazieGirl15]

@@sd70m2man yes, sails from Michigan to Wisconsin

[@robertedwardlee8227]

nice!

[@beboboymann3823]

Shhhhh..........best not tell AOC.

[@McHeisenburger]

“This is more of a feature than a bug” Easy there, Todd Howard.

[@cybersquire]

_Sixteen times the detail_ The horror.

[@Tempusverum]

“Got couple bugs in here, some broken scripts right there The fans will fix it anyway so we don't care. It just works, it just works Little lies, stunning shows People buy, money flows, it just works!”

[@cunard61]

Where on earth do you find these wartime clips of the liners? Your clip of Aquitania starting at 6:05 is entirely new to me, and it's so clear; easily one of the best views of the old ship underway that I've ever seen.

[@scurly0792]

Could you do a video on the paddle steamers of the 1830s-50s soon?

[@IsaacSmelcZhan]

same

[@andymunns2579]

Great video - Another big improvement with oil fuel was the removal of the need to clean the fires - Cleaning fires of clinker and ash happened to each furnace as frequently as once per shift if the coal was bad. This would take say 15 minutes and the firedoor would be letting in cold air during this time. The firebed also had to be rebuilt with fresh coal afterwards and it would be another 20+ minutes before the furnace was well alight. Oil fired furnaces did not need this regular cleaning, and as well, there was less soot to clean out. The downside was that oil soot was blacker and stickier...

[@MicahtheDrumCorpsPseudoboomer]

Where did they chuck the ash after it was extracted?

[@andymunns2579]

@@MicahtheDrumCorpsPseudoboomer Three methods - Some ships like Titanic had a dump bin in the bottom of the hull - Firemen could shovel the tons of ash generated each watch into a hopper - A water tight lid was closed and bottom doors opened. Other ships had a Sees ash ejector, which was like a big cast iron toilet - Ash was shoveled into the hopper and a high pressure jet of seawater blew the ash overboard from an opening just above the water line. Others had an ash hoist that pulled buckets of ash up to deck level where the crew manhandled the ash overboard.

[@airline.pictures]

I’m an aviation guy, but I just got into boats as well and your videos are so amazing and informative.

[@sunlight-sky151]

Boats!? It's a ship!

[@kiwitrainguy]

@@sunlight-sky151 It's always amazed me the number of people who say "boat" when they mean "ship". My mother used to do that and her Father was in the Merchant Navy from 1905 to 1919. I wonder if she ever did that in his company.

[@johnrickard8512]

I have found that ships are full of just as much fascinating tech as airplanes are, if not in many cases far more! It is also a much older technology, and as such you can trace back its evolution to quite a distant point.

[@frankgentile5383]

My grandparents were passengers on the "Conte di Savoia" (shown in drydock) during a 1938 NY-Napoli voyage. They were visiting the ancestral town in the Abruzzi.

[@pairojeans]

We moved from burning oil in boilers to make steam to drive turbines, to burning oil directly in the engine to drive the propeller. Now we are burning gas in engines to drive propellers, or in some cases burning LNG in turbines. I have worked on both oil, gas, diesel powered ships using turbines and engines over my 40 year career in the Merchant Navy as a seaman later as a Deck Officer.

[@zachfenton608]

Soon ships will be battery powered

[@pairojeans]

@@zachfenton608 You will not be able to move huge volumes of raw materials like Iron ore across thousands miles of ocean due to cargo weight and volume, versus battery density storage and space they will take on big cargo ships. They will be OK in smaller vessels. But large tankers and bulk carriers and container ships are a long way from battery power yet.

[@keithw4920]

I assume the boiler rooms of the coal fired ships with the open fire-pits were also much more hellish and hot (ignoring the coal dust and grime) than oil fired boilers?

[@EcoMouseChannel]

Let's not forget that there was a smoldering coal fire in one of the bunkers that had started 10 days prior to the inaugural passenger run of the Titanic. Which probably played more of a role in the ship actually sinking, than just an iceberg strike alone.

[@user-kd2br5bi9q]

Yep, it weakened the hull on the excact spot where the iceberg struck

[@robertschultz6922]

There is huge debate as to the exact extent the fire had on the sinking. It's been overly sited.

[@ChrisIsAPotato]

Another great video! The quality is getting better each video for such an interesting channel! You deserve more subscribers man these topics are interesting for me as an Ocean Liner fan! Keep up the good work!!!

[@dimesonhiseyes9134]

My grandpa used to tell how my great grandpa worked in London during WW1. Coal soot and smoke was so bad at times that you would have to take an extra shirt with you to change into because it would make your clothes so dirty. I like the smell of a coal fire and all but I'm rather glad we dont have as bad of air quality as that any more

[@williamwingo4740]

I was a kid in Birmingham, Alabama in the 1950's, when it was still a big iron and steel center burning a lot of coal and coke. Even in the upper-scale suburbs you had coal smoke, odors, and dust. But they had some beautiful multicolored sunsets.

[@admiraltiberius1989]

Always love your videos, definitely excited when a notification from your channel pops up. Merry Christmas to everyone, Godspeed.

[@Duchy_Warsaw]

When I see The Great Big Move upload: *SONIC SPEED*

[@laniesadualan4728]

so true

[@sammywithtrainsandships]

Exactly what happened to me! I added this video to my queue the second I saw it.

[@detroitdiesel1776]

AHEAD FULL

[@callumlumsdon8113]

Weird

[@shirleymental4189]

This is my top 4 maritime KZbinr's in no particular order. The Great Big Move: For in depth logistics such as this. Casual Navigation: I come for the Liners and stay for the rest. Drachinfel: The best for warships and particularly the Dreadnought era. Titanic Animations: For my Titanic fix. Of course, your mileage may vary. Merry Christmas.

[@TheGreatBigMove]

Thank you! Means a lot.

[@julieclark1765]

I'm one of titanic's moderators

[@johndonaldson3619]

If you type in “LMS Little and often" there’s a fantastic training film about how fire a steam engine with coal

[@PeterJ-de4wk]

Fantastic video! I would just add two points in regard to efficiency. The accumulated saving in fuel with oil burners, is that changes in steam demand, are met almost immediately with a reduction in oil flow to the atomisers. With coal firing, you need to know in advance if the engine speed is going to be reduced or stopped, otherwise you have large amounts of coal already burning in the furnace going to waste, and the result is that boiler pressure exceeds the limit of their design, and the safety valves blow off wasting precious fresh water too. Of course the same is true if demand increases. You need more coal burning ahead of time to meet demand. With oil, you just open up the valves. The second point, is that of draughting. Coal requires primary air to be drawn through the fire to burn properly and with maximum heat and efficiency, and unlike a railway locomotive, their is no steam exhaust blast up the funnel inducing a draught on the fire, as on a ship, the steam is in a closed cycle, i.e. Reused in a continuous loop. Some different methods were used in coal burning ships, including partially pressurising the boiler rooms, stokers and all. There is no need with oil burners as the oil is, in effect sprayed into a mist by the atomisers, providing enough continuous pressure for combustion and naturally drawing in the rest.

[@TheGreatBigMove]

Thanks for the additional detail! I might one day do a video on raising steam and managing the boilers, etc. throughout a voyage.

[@myparceltape1169]

Yes, raising steam before needing it was still necessary, for ships and steam powered railway locos. At the end of the journey they would know how soon to turn off the burners before they weren't needed. On a coal fired loco the firemen could actually drop the burning coals in the pit below the engine if he had miscalculated, but this practice was frowned upon.

[@ThePeachJames]

Nope. Forced draft on oil boilers is needed as well- you have to think that if you are burning say, 7050 lb/hr of fuel per boiler, you need 7050*14=98 000 lb of combustion air, or about 1.3 million cubic feet of air per hour. (so 22 000 cubic feet per minute of combustion air). We ran at up to 25-28 inches of water of air pressure for the boiler casings, with the boilers being surrounded by the casings and the boiler room generally running at about .3-.5" WC in comparison to the engine room & ship interior. 200 HP per side for the FD fans :). (& 15 HP for the fuel oil pumps, and 70 lb/burner/hr of steam for atomizing steam...).

[@Thx1138sober]

Really loved your coal bunkering video, I had no idea what an involved process that was.

[@g1a1r1y3]

You covered the employment and environmental aspects of coal-to-oil conversion. Your videos are always thorough! Thank you and have a great holiday!

[@mebeasensei]

Request! Please do a story on 20th Century commercial sailing ships. I don't think people realize that sailing ships remained viable on some routes beyond the First World War and through the inter-war period.

[@Hidfors]

I worked as a Process Operator at a refinery for 13 years, running the destillation unit and all related utilities such as the boilers. The oldest boiler we had was from 1928 xD Anyway, depending on what oil you use, and how pure the coal is, by *weight* oil has around 10-15 times as much potential energy compared to coal. Coal being all lumpy also has a worse packing-coefficient, meaning there's air between the lumps. Something that doesn't happen to oil. Keeping in mind that I'm talking about modern fuel oils here, not *any* oil. I have no idea what quality of oil was used on ocean liners, nor the related costs and its transport chain. I can only compare modern oil to coal, but for those of you who are interested in a closer look, here it is :D Another quick point: all dust can explode. Coal-dust is very dangerous and unpleasant on more levels than just causing black-lung. Oil is safer. Not *safe.* It's sensitive to getting statically charged from a certain free-fall height (on the refinery I worked at, we never let oil free-fall more than 1.5 meters (whatever the hell that is in american made-up measurements, you'll have to do some maths). But it's still safer than coal in many, many ways.

[@morg777]

Most fuel oil in ships was (and is) bunker C, so bottom of the barrel stuff. And you're right, it's much safer than coal firing. Coal dust fires and explosions were fairly regular occurrences back in the day, and in fact may be the real reason the USS Maine blew up in Havana in 1898. As far as the made up measurements, we were just using what the British gave us way back when. Though with all the international work I've done, I can easily work with either.

[@ThePeachJames]

Check your math- #6 (aka Bunker C) has listed as 152400 btu/gal, so about 19050 btu/lb. Coal is dependent on seam- harder coals have higher btu/lb, at up to about 13700 btu/lb. Packing density is definitely an advantage- as a ton of coal is often quoted as 42 cubic feet, which would be about 2x that of fuel oil. (1 CuM of F76 (Diesel) = 820 kg, in metric...) There are many reasons why the majority of steam ships post 1910 were oil fired...ship owners were a canny lot, and if it didn't pay, they'd have carried on burning coal as SS Badger does still.

[@jacksonclavierproductions]

Great video as usual!

[@TheGreatBigMove]

Thank you!

[@hlkids2846]

Yes. I just finished watching the coaling video for the fifth time.

[@DanielReyes-nm3lw]

Oh-

[@alexandrealonso2849]

I was very much expecting a video on this subject! Thank you and merry Christmas!

[@lylec7755]

This educates me more than school

[@computiNATEor]

It helps a ton when you’re interested in the subject 👍🏻

[@Ethan-iv8fs]

Im genuinely excited about this video

[@adragol_cabaret]

Hello, I'm a big fan of your videos and Ocean Liners. Just wanted to make a video suggestion, the Cap Arcona or the Bremen. The Cap Arcona is mostly not well known, and I'm in love with it. The Bremen has a larger community than the Cap Arcona, but is still not that well known compared to ships like the Lusitania. It would make me and others happy if you did. Thank you.

[@Steve14ps]

I have seen railway steam locomotives converted to oil burning. CIE in Ireland did so in the 1940s, the Ffestiniog Railway did so to prevent forest fires.

[@maxmusterkann6057]

What a great Christmas present. Tank you for the video!

[@jalapenochomper]

Love the icon!

[@allinmyhead]

I just love this channel so much. Fits my interests in shipping so well. Thank you for doing this ! Happy Christmas.

[@TheGreatBigMove]

Thanks, Peter!

[@PhilORourke]

To say your channel is superb is a vast understatement. Many thanks. Phil. UK

[@michaelbujaki2462]

On the railways, it was still just as good to use coal because a coal tender could be loaded in seconds instead of minutes.

[@morg777]

Like so many things in life, it depends on the railroad and what was easily and cheaply available. In the western half of the United States, coal deposits were scarce and of low quality, certainly not the good anthracite or bituminous that was plentiful back east. Many railroads like the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe ran almost exclusively with oil burning steam engines because oil was available at a lower cost to these railroads than having to ship coal from the east.

[@phantomsoldier497]

It depended on environmental problems as well. Many places limited coal fired trains to avoid forest fires to cinders and soot pollution in cities

[@pieguy6992]

I can't stop watching this channel. WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME?!

[@davidschaftenaar6530]

I will never drop my irrational, baseless love for steam-powered technology ;) Though I have to admit you made a strong case for the use of Mesozoic-dead-fish-juice over the classic Carboniferous-dead-tree-chunks.

[@davinp]

The RMS Olympic - the only surviving Olympic class ship of the White Star Line was converted from coal to oil in 1919. Olympic scrapped in 1935 after 24 years of service

[@lionwag]

Well done. Zero ego factor!

[@seanplace8192]

Coal bunker fires was a fairly big issue with coal ships too. That was another benefit to switching to oil.

[@richardsmith2879]

Brilliant. So often these essential subjects are disregarded by historians.

[@davidperryassociates]

Great overview! Well done. Thanks!

[@rich7787]

This was the first video of yours I’ve seen and it was excellent, I am now subscribed. Keep up the good work!

[@gregt8638]

Excellent tutorial! Thank you for posting.

[@danielbishop1863]

In hindsight, it's hard to believe that such an extremely labor-intensive, polluting, and dangerous system as coal-fired boilers remained in use for so long. But at the time, it was the best technology available.

[@sonnyzeitgeist2570]

Excellent. Merry Christmas.

[@zenotoffali3251]

Me *Studying* Great big move *Publishes a video* Me: “Aight imma head out* Btw I’ve Just finished a 1/700 Titanic kit from Revell, so cool.

[@kundeleczek1]

That was informative.

[@Chr.U.Cas2216]

Dear TGBM 👍👌👏 Thanks a lot for all the informations. Also for making, uploading and sharing this great video. Best regards, luck and health.

[@thehistoryconisseur1154]

I can't believe ships were using coal for that long.

[@randybobandy9447]

Your commentary is fantastic. A enjoyable video to watch.

[@FreedomLovingLoyalistOfficial]

Merry Christmas everyone.

[@baronvonjo1929]

I mean the one thing about coal is that the look of massive amounts of smoke pluming out of the funnels in old photos looked cool even if it was very bad for the environment

[@Menta2ity]

yes, lets fuck up the planet so it looks nice in some photos!

[@baronvonjo1929]

@@Menta2ity Well good thing they dont do it anymore....

[@gregorymalchuk272]

It's a sign of very poor combustion and insufficient air for complete combustion.

[@commonsense1907]

Great video. Thank you for sharing.

[@naterosen9786]

Great video! I can't wait to see your next one.

[@Sebi076]

Wonderful, also Merry Christmas!

[@masaharumorimoto4761]

Back in Newfoundland during my College days, Corner Brook had a big 2 foot diameter heated Bunker C pipeline from the big field of tanks to the pulp and paper mill, in the middle of winter we would drink beers on the pipeline, it was always warm up there!!!!!

[@foxstarline4997]

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

[@astridvallati4762]

Back in the 1930s, my Paternal Grandfather ran a Grain Threshing business, with British Ruston Locomobiles, and Welsh Coal, imported to Northern Italy. With WWII, he had to rely on German permitted Polish Coal, of lower Quality, having to use twice as much for the same work. ( from invoices and documents found in my Grandmother's home after she passed in the late 70s)

[@rosiehawtrey]

Might have been German coal because the Polish stuff is in the same field. Germany has low grade black coal and lignite (peat with delusions of grandeur). Welsh stuff is anthracite (the only reason for Wales existence) and if Anthracite is the equivalent of the best chocolate on the planet, lignite and German/Polish black coal would be cheese..

[@freddieellis8449]

Drachinifel also does a great long-form video on naval boilers, both coal and oil. Not to disparage this one whatsoever, as it is equally as fascinating! 👍🏻😇 One disadvantage to conversion for warships was that the sheer bulk of coal gave some extra resistance to shell penetrations. Not a massive increase but it did provide a slight increase in protection.

[@goldenstateaviation2861]

Merry Christmas!

[@MrFreakRite]

I was never really interested In boats. I was always more of a plane guy. But these videos I find extremely interesting. Thank you.

[@TheGreatBigMove]

Glad to hear it, Ozzy! More aviation videos will be coming in the future.

[@sarcasmo57]

Food for thought. I'll watch the bunkering process.

[@tbamagic]

Well done!!

[@elstevobevo]

Dude! Great topic!

[@walterburger5281]

Just like the railroads conversion from coal to diesel.

[@user-de2wn3he5s]

Except, this is taking advantage of the multi-fuel capabilities of steam engines. And this is just converting to burning a cleaner fuel.

[@Bartonovich52]

Pretty much anything can be multifuel. Run wood or coal through a gasifier and internal combustion engines will run on that too-in fact, just about everyone from Americans on the home front dealing with gas rations to Germans dealing with the complete destruction of their POL reserves did just that. Lots of railways had oil fired steam trains. While UP Big Boys were (mostly) coal-fired up until retirement… CPs Royal Hudsons and Selkirks were oil fired starting in the 1920s. The big drive to dieselization was to reduce maintenance and labour costs. WWII intervened where oil and diesels were required for the war effort (as well as things like steam turbines and gears which is why Liberty Ships used anachronistic Triple Expansion reciprocating steam engines) which slowed the process, but the post-war economic boom accelerated it. Diesels didn’t need hours to build up steam or to have a fire continuously going. They didn’t require boiler tube cleaning or replacement. They didn’t need an army of oilers and wipers for exposed rods and linkages. They didn’t produce corrosive steam and smoke which greatly limited their lives. And they didn’t produce hammerblow wear on the rails as a result of uneven power application and unbalanced reciprocating assemblies. Steam was replaced in ships for largely the same reasons. Diesels were quicker to respond and more economical to run and maintain. Where speed or size was a drawback, gas turbines were used instead mainly in warships starting in the 1960s.

[@Lawrence330]

@@Bartonovich52 Regarding gas turbines (GTEs), absolutely! GTEs start up much quicker than boilers of any kind, and are typically pretty efficient, too. Imagine coming in to work days ahead of time to fire boilers and build up a good head of steam before your ship gets underway, then compare that to, essentially, going out to your driveway and starting your car.

[@ItsaRomethingeveryday]

Very informative, Liked ,, Also Subscribed to your channel

[@NonsensicalMRZKAM]

Ngl quite good Christmas gift for us

[@cyberp0et]

Quite informative :)

[@ryanphillips5688]

Great channel!

[@peterdavy6110]

Not all of Society benefited from the switch to oil (5.03). It started a depression in the South Wales coal mining community that it hasn't recovered from yet. When the Royal and Merchant Navies switched to coal many thousands were out of work

[@alec4672]

Not only did the coal have to be distributed evenly and the right amount of coal in a boiler, additionally the air intake had to be tuned right, the dampers had to be open just the right amount but not too much, effects like gasification could occur if there were organic material still in the coal, ect. Probably about 50 factors in getting a coal boiler burning good. Now multiplied by up to 20 boilers, that's allot of ducks to keep in a row.

[@Zirkobi]

The Great Big Move, you and Historic Travels (a newly rising star in terms of history channels on KZbin, who do loads of Titanic videos as well) I'd love to see you two teaming up and working together on a Titanic video 😁

[@TheGreatBigMove]

Interesting, I'll check him out. Haven't heard of that channel until now.

[@stephensabo5900]

Great video!

[@felipe258929]

Love your videos. Please make one about the big four. I't would be fascinating!

[@TheGreatBigMove]

I will!

[@spacebeans4985]

deserves way more views

[@skovner]

And I suggest anyone interested, look up Rudyard Kipling's poem about the dour Scots engineer. McAndrew's Hymn is easily found on the internet, and even brings up the differences in different types of coal. "A bonus on the coal I save? Ou ay, the Scots are close, But when I grudge the strength Ye gave I'll grudge their food to those. (There's bricks that I might recommend - an' clink the fire-bars cruel. No! Welsh-Wangarti at the worst - an' damn all patent fuel!)"

[@10gamer64]

Thank you for the video

[@lewisdoherty7621]

I help maintain a 1921 oil-fired standard gauge steam locomotive. Comparing our activity to the coal locomotives and their maintenance schedules, I also think there also was a much larger problem with creosote and soot buildup in the coal locomotives compared to oil ones. It tends to build up and reduce thermal transfer from the fire to the boiler. The engine crews often throw sand into the pipes to scour out some of this material which also eats up the pipes, but it is also necessary to actually clean them when the equipment is in maintenance. So there must be a mad rush to do it in ports, because otherwise out a sea, it would be necessary to always have a percentage of boilers out of service being cycled through maintenance at any time and not nearly have the full use of all of them.

[@allinmyhead]

Keep em coming !

[@davidvanniekerk356]

Dankie/ Merci. Your video was educational. I didn't know that BTU's came for the coal industry. I thought it was only used in Aircons. (A/Cs). BTU=Britch "Termol" Unit.

[@Cleveland.Ironman]

BTU - British Thermal Unit

[@billogrady882]

Though I haven’t read each and every comment (yet), I am think a point was missed; the conversion of naval ships to oil (Great Britain being the first, under First Sea Lord Churchill?). The US was an oil exporter until after WW2, so US strategic needs were secure throughout WW1 & 2. Great Britain had coal, but no oil. That was only available from colonies in the Middle East (Iraq/Iran, et al), and the Suez Canal. That influenced events in WW1 (Ottoman Empire & Lawrence of Arabia), and WW2 (Africa & Mediterranean Campaigns). Also influenced Japan and their SE Asia Campaign, with Germany going into the Caucaus.’ All because oil was a strategic need for the navies.

[@keithalaird]

There was a mention of possibly achieving a slight increase in speed from an oil conversion. If marine boilers behave similarly to land based boilers, you can generally achieve a higher firing rate, and therefore a higher output on oil than you can with hand fired coal. I have done several conversions of hand fired coal boilers to oil/gas, and the published rating was usually about 5-10% higher for oil firing than the anthracite coal muzzle loader rating.

[@jamiemartinello6436]

THANK YOU!!

[@sky-adrian_38]

I live at southampton where the titanc left and my great grandad worked at the port and he loved the smell it's no where as iconic bow but still legendary

[@jetsons101]

Great Video. Anyone that works no matter what they do deserves respect. The workers make the world possible. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a socialist by any means, I just respect people that work.

[@JR1300r]

Mike Marin... Totally agree Every job is important and everyone should be proud of what they do for work Cheers mate from Australia.....

[@jimmywrangles]

Excellent.

[@Zeppflyer]

Great video! I'd been wondering about this subject and specifically the reduction in manpower. On warships, the significant downsides to oil were that coal served as ersatz armor (something like 8-10 inches of coal = 1 inch of steel) and the lack of infrastructure in place in some areas to store and handle oil. Did civilian shipping companies experience any direct downsides aside from cost and the social impact that you mentioned? Perhaps in terms of logistics? How long did it take for oil infrastructure to reach smaller ports around the world?

[@zachogdahl210]

The beautiful thing about bunker c is that it is made up of the leftovers from refined oils. These leftovers were typically disposed of but ships and shoreside plants would end up burning it. Ships still use it today however its not good for the environment so regulations state that the ships need to switch to regular diesel before coming in to port. This has the advantage of cleaning the fuel system out before entering port where majority of the maintenance is done.

[@mgalegacy1266]

Merry Christmas 🎄🎅

[@dimitrismile5379]

Really intresting vid ! Will you do any vids talking about the ss Normandie and ss France?

[@TheGreatBigMove]

Absolutely!

[@dimitrismile5379]

@@TheGreatBigMove can't wait then !!