Our Navy at war

by Josephus Daniels

There were two intermediate pumping stations, and fuel oil could be pumped in a cold state at the rate of 100 tons per hour. At the Old Kilpatrick terminal sixteen large tanks were constructed, each with a holding capacity of 8,000 tons. At the opposite end the oil was pumped into large reservoirs, easily accessible to oil-burning ships at Grangemouth and Forth ports.

The U-boats seemed, as I have stated, to have some uncanny way of finding and sinking tankers carrying oil to Europe. When unable to hit transports and cargo ships, their aim at tankers seemed unerring, particularly when the ships were going around the north of Scotland to carry oil to the fleet in the North Sea. And oil was more valuable to the fleet than radium. In fact it was the prime essential. The construction of the pipe line became a pressing war need for three reasons:

1. To reduce the sinkings of tankers proceeding around the north of Scotland or up the English channel.

2. To secure quicker trans-Atlantic voyages by eliminating the necessity of the tankers going into the North Sea.

3. To increase the flexibility in the distribution of reserve stocks between the west and east coasts, and vice versa.

Its completion secured a continuous and adequate supply of fuel oil for the naval vessels operating in the area it served. The building of this pipe line appealed to the Navy Department. As soon as the plans were ready, the order, "Push it!", was sent to every bureau which could assist in hastening construction and furnishing the officers and men. The order was obeyed.

When the formal opening of the line was celebrated a telegram of thanks was sent to American Naval Headquarters at London. Admiral Tothill, the British Fourth Sea Lord, who turned on the steam that started the pumps going, in his speech stated that this line, the longest in Great Britain, had been completed in about six months time from placing of order in the States, and that the U. S. Navy had in that time enrolled a special unit to lay the pipe, and completed the work in a much shorter time than had been expected.

In his report Commander Barstow said that "during the past year the Allied governments' requirements amounted to 2,900,000,000 gallons, of which large total the United States has furnished 80 per cent, or about 2,320,000,000 gallons." The fact that eighty per cent. of the oil required had to be transported across the Atlantic shows the importance of the pipe line across Scotland which our Navy had a large part in constructing, and equally proves the value of the patrol of the Caribbean and Gulf Coast by our squadron in those waters.

In March, 1913, in answer to a letter from the Navy Department as to whether the Navy would be justified in constructing all its ships as oil burners, the Secretary of the Interior advised that the Geological Survey's estimates of the available source of oil showed that it was ample. The policy of "all oil-burners" was adopted by the Navy in 1913 and, when it was organized, the Shipping Board adopted the same policy. It was found that four ships burning oil will do the work of five ships burning coal. From the coal mine to the fireroom the use of oil saves fifty men per ship. Oil is the super-fuel. It does effectively and economically all that coal can do, and more. Its use makes possible the highest service of the two hundred and seventy-five destroyers built or contracted for during the war.

Foreseeing the larger use of oil for naval purposes, in the latter part of 1912, President Taft withdrew certain lands in California from public exploitation and set this land aside as Naval Reserves, No. 1 and No. 2. On April 30, 1915, President Wilson issued an order setting aside Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 3, in Wyoming. The preservation of these reserves intact for naval use is of such importance that the Government has fought the many adverse claims and refused the persistent applications of claimants and others to open wells on these reserves. It will soon be recognized that the nation which controls the oil supply of the world has an advantage in naval operations and in the carrying of water-borne commerce which will give it supremacy. The Navy Department appreciated this fact in 1913. After the war it recommended that this Government take steps not only to keep a large reserve of American oil stored in the ground but also to acquire wells in every part of the world where oil is produced.