CHAPTER V
TRANSPORT BY LAND AND SEA
The remarkably perfect methods by which petroleum and its products are transported by land and sea before they reach the consumer may not at first sight appear to be anything but commonplace, but a moment’s reflection will be sufficient to suggest that a vast and complete organization must be required in order that petroleum may be brought from practically the ends of the earth to the consumer in the most remote village in the British Isles. But it is the demands of necessity that have been responsible for the building up of this vast organization of transportation which represents, in the United States alone, the investment of many millions of pounds sterling.
Taking first the methods of oil transportation by land, in no other oil-producing country do we find such an elaborate system for dealing with enormous quantities of petroleum as in America, for it is safe to say that at least 500,000 barrels of crude oil have to be dealt with daily at the present time.
Going back to the time when petroleum first became a commercial commodity—when the first wells in Oil Creek commenced to open up a period of new prosperity for the United States—these wells were situated so close to the water that their product could easily be loaded into canoes and barges, and floated down the Alleghany river. In the dry season, the flow was insufficient to float the craft, and then some hundreds of the boats, carrying each from 50 to 1,000 barrels, would be assembled in a mill-pond near the wells, and the water impounded while the loading was in progress. Then the gates would be opened, and the fleet, carried on the flood of rushing water, would be hurried down the river in charge of pilots. The fleet of creek and river boats engaged in this novel work at one time numbered 2,000.
But, as the production of oil increased, and new districts were successfully tapped, it became obvious that some different method of handling the crude oil would have to be adopted. The inland wells could not get rid of their production, and it is not surprising to find that at one time—about 1862—crude oil prices at the well fell to 10 cents per barrel. A system of horse haulage was initiated, and in time thousands of animals were required to haul the oil from the inland wells to shipping points. The waggon train of the oil country in the pre-pipe-line days at its maximum consisted of 6,000 two-horse teams and waggons, and a traveller in the oil region in those early sixties could not lose sight of an endless train of waggons each laden with from five to seven barrels. The roads were almost bottomless, and the teamsters tore down fences and drove where they liked. These men, always of the roving, picturesque type, would earn anything from 10 to 25 dollars per day, spending the most part in revelry on the Saturday night.
It was at this time that a Bill was introduced into the States legislature authorizing the construction of a pipe-line from Oil Creek to a spot known as Kittanning, but the opposition of 4,000 teamsters defeated the Bill and the first effort to organize an oil pipe-line company. The modest beginning of the present-day system of oil transportation on land by pipe-line was due to the enterprise of a Jerseyman named Hutchings, who laid a 2-inch pipe from some wells to the Humbolt refinery. The teamsters, foreseeing the possibilities of this innovation, proceeded to tear up the line, and warned the oil-producers not to adopt these new methods of oil transportation.
But Hutchings was undismayed, for he laid a second line, this being composed of cast-iron joints caulked with lead. Although this was impracticable, the teamsters again wrought vengeance on the proposition, and completely destroyed it. Hutchings still persisted in his efforts, but died—disappointed and penniless—a genius living a little before his time.
A PRIMITIVE METHOD OF TRANSPORTING OIL
At the end of 1865, a Henry Harley commenced the laying of a pipe-line to the terminus of the Oil Creek railroad, but teamsters cut the pipes, burned the collecting tanks, and retarded the work in every possible way. Armed guards eventually came on the scene, the mob was quelled and dispersed, and the line completed. It was of 2-inch diameter, and laid to handle 800 barrels of oil daily: this was the first successful and profitable pipe-line on record for the handling of oil.