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Admiral CONE. Yes, sir. Our original plan was for the testing, among other things, of large steam circulating pumps. They probably will be obsolete in a few years, and we will handle oil engines and turbines and things like that. The plant is planned with a definite object in view and has, up to date, been planned to handle solely the machinery that we use in the Navy. There has been no attempt made to equip it for the testing of anything that we are not likely to use in the Navy.

The CHAIRMAN. You speak of oil engines, et cetera. Please state to the committee, Admiral, the relative distance that a battleship burning oil would sail and a battleship burning coal would sail at the same

cost.

Admiral CONE. At the present price of oil?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes, sir; take the oil and coal at any day.

Admiral CONE. At the present price of coal and oil on the east coast of our country, a ship can steam three and one-half times farther by the use of coal than she can by using oil. At the present price of coal, oil would have to be sold at a price of 1.4 cents a gallon to equal the performance of a ship burning coal. That is on the east coast of the United States. Of course, the condition is reversed on the west coast of the United States.

The CHAIRMAN. Please give it to us on the west coast.

Admiral CONE. On the west coast of the United States at the present time oil is sold for 1.6 cents a gallon, which would make it practically as cheap to steam a ship on the west coast with oil as it would to steam a ship on the east coast with coal. It costs on the west coast about three and one-half times as much to steam a ship with coal as with oil.

Mr. BATHRICK. Have you looked into this question of the Alaska coal?

Admiral CONE. That comes under another appropriation. When I get to it I have prepared a statement, but I have not looked into it with reference to the cost of coal there, because I do not know what it costs to get the coal out of Alaska.

Mr. ROBERTS. What is the relative cost of equipping a battleship, original installation, to burn coal and to use oil?

Admiral CONE. It is hard to answer that question, but it is cheaper to build a ship to burn oil.

Mr. ROBERTS. How does the expense of maintenance compare? Admiral CONE. Leaving aside the cost of the fuel, it is much less in case of an oil-burning ship than in the case of a coal-burning ship, depending, of course, on the ship.

Mr. ROBERTS. How much less is it, Admiral? Give us the proportion or the percentage.

Admiral CONE. I can not give you the percentage; it is different in each ship.

Mr. ROBERTS. Take sister ships, one burning coal and the other oil? Admiral CONE. In sister ships, one burning coal and the other oil, the engine-room crew would be the same; that is, for the Navy. Í am not speaking of the mercantile marine. The crew in the fireroom would be one-half what it would be in the case of coal.

Mr. ROBERTS. Do the boiler tubes burn out faster with coal or oil or about the same?

Admiral CONE. The tubes deteriorate faster in burning coal, because one cause of deterioration in the tubes is the corrosion from the outside, and, of course, coming in contact with the ashes, they deteriorate much more rapidly when burning coal than oil.

Mr. ROBERTS. Taking all the elements into consideration, what is the relative cost of steaming on the east coast with coal and with oil? Admiral CONE. We have not any way of finding that out. We have no big ship burning oil on the east coast, and therefore have no way of making the comparison. It is more expensive per mile burning oil than coal on the east coast.

Mr. ROBERTS. That is because the oil costs so much more than the coal?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir.

Mr. ROBERTS. Taking all the expenses into consideration, would it not be in favor of oil even on the east coast?

Admiral CONE. Not at the present price of oil.

Mr. HOBSON. What is the present price of oil on the east coast? Admiral CONE. Oil is costing the Navy on the east coast 4.4 cents a gallon for delivery alongside. If we take it at Port Arthur it costs 3 cents.

Mr. BATES. How is it delivered on the west coast?

Admiral CONE. It is delivered alongside; delivered at the navy yard at Mare Island.

Mr. TALBOTT. With which can you supply a vessel for the longer cruise, coal or oil?

Admiral CONE. Oil.

Mr. TALBOTT. What is the difference?

Admiral CONE. The ratio is about 14 to 9.

Mr. TALBOTT. That is, a ship supplied with oil could sail 1,400 miles, while one supplied with coal could only sail 900 miles? Admiral CONE. Yes, sir; for the same weight.

Mr. TRIBBLE. Which is more secure in time of battle?

Admiral CONE. Of course, the coal is more secure in time of battle, but the way we are designing the ships now we are putting the oil in remote parts, and saving enough weight in the boilers and fuel to increase the protection by the use of armor. It is my opinion that the oil ship will be better protected.

Mr. ROBERTS. What is the fireroom force on a ship like the Delaware; how many men?

Admiral CONE. On the oil ships Nevada and Oklahoma, which we are building, they have in their complement 124 fireroom crew, and the sister ship, which burns coal, has 234 in the fireroom crew. The 124 are only necessary for the care and upkeep of the plant. Only 9 of that number are actually necessary to run the fires while under

way.

Mr. ROBERTS. Compared with how many to run the fires on the other ship?

Admiral CONE. 234. You do not have them on all at once.
Mr. ROBERTS. But you require them?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir. Of course, in running the fires in the oil burner it is only absolutely necessary to have one man in each fireroom to run the burners.

Mr. ROBERTS. It seems to me that with the reduced number of men, the reduction in rations and all those expenses, that you should operate the oil burner more economically on the east coast.

Mr. GREGG. Where do you get the oil, Admiral?

Admiral CONE. We are now getting our oil from the Texas Oil Co. at Port Arthur. We hope to get it from some one else if they keep raising the price.

Mr. BATHRICK. You are paying 4 cents a gallon?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir. The price was raised last year 60 per

cent.

Mr. BATHRICK. That is over $2 per barrel?

Admiral CONE. There are about 42 gallons in a barrel, about $1.84. Mr. BATHRICK. What grade of oil is that, is that known as the Pennsylvania oil?

oil.

Admiral CONE. No; it is known as the Texas oil, an asphaltum base

Mr. BATHRICK. The price in the Ohio fields is much less than that, is it not?

Admiral CONE. No, sir; I suppose it is higher, because this contract was let on an annual contract, and the Texas Oil Co. bid lower than any other bidder.

Mr. BATHRICK. Is that a Standard Oil subsidiary?

Admiral CONE. I do not know, sir.

Mr. GREGG. They say not.

Mr. BATHRICK. What is your opinion?
Mr. GREGG. I do not think it is.

Mr. HOBSON. They are competitors?

Mr. GREGG. I do not think they have any connection at all. Relative to the cost of operating ships with coal and oil, is it not a fact that we are now consuming about twice as much oil as we are producing in this country?

Admiral CONE. When we went into the question of oil burning in the Navy I was assured by the officials in another department that they could give us notice 25 years before there would be any chance of running out of oil. I am not an expert along that line. I think these large companies-this is simply my opinion-control the supply of oil in this country, and they make the proportion of supply to demand whatever they wish.

Mr. GREGG. I think the increased price is going to continue because the production is very much less than the consumption.

Admiral CONE. The President has set aside within the last year by two proclamations two tracts of oil lands in California for a naval reserve in the richest oil-bearing land in California. We were assured by the expert geologists that the first one of the tracts set aside contained at least 250,000,000 barrels, which would run a navy twice as large as ours over 20 years.

The CHAIRMAN. That is a short time in the life of a navy?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir; but about the length of life of any particular ship. The President by proclamation set aside another large tract of land, which is located in the oil region of California, with pipe-lines running across it and around it, and I presume it would be the policy of the department in the years to come, if the price of oil goes too high, to take some of that oil.

Mr. HOBSON. Is it not a fact that the Government has also instituted a suit to recover vast tracts of oil lands?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir. I also assume that if the price of oil does not go too high the Government will hold that land as an oil

reserve. While I know nothing except what is told me by other people as to the oil deposit, it seems to me that we are probably just as liable to run out of coal as of oil.

The CHAIRMAN. You speak of the relative cost; how is it on the question of speed as between a coal burner and an oil burner?

Admiral CONE. Of course, the speed of any vessel depends on the size of the boilers and the engines.

The CHAIRMAN. Take sister ships with the same engines, two ships, one burning oil and the other burning coal, which one should have the highest speed?

Admiral CONE. They would both have the same speed, but the oil-burning ship would be able to maintain that speed as long as the fuel lasted, while the coal-burning ship would not, owing to the difficulty of the firemen to handle the fires. To answer your question in a different way, two ships can be built of the same size and of the same weight, but with different sized machinery, that will steam the same distance at the same speed and have the same radius of action, but one ship could have machinery to steam about 2 knots faster with the same weight.

The CHAIRMAN. With oil?
Admiral CONE. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. That would be by having more powerful engines? Admiral CONE. Yes, sir; and a little different design of hull. In a battleship of about 30,000 tons the weight of oil-burning machinery could be designed to drive a ship 2 knots faster than with the same weight in the design of a coal-burning ship, due largely to the saving in boilers and fuel.

Mr. ROBERTS. And in order to get the 2 knots with the coal you would have to have more weight?

Admiral CONE. More weight in the boilers.

Mr. HOBSON. But not more weight in the total machinery?
Admiral CONE. Yes; more weight in total machinery,

Mr. BATES. What is the ratio of 9 to 14 based on-the knots? Admiral CONE. No, sir; there is as much heat-producing power in 9 pounds of oil as in 14 pounds of coal.

The CHAIRMAN. How does the 9 pounds of oil on the east coast compare with the 14 pounds of coal?

Admiral CONE. They are of equal value; 9 pounds of oil will make as much steam as 14 pounds of coal, but will cost on the east coast 3 times as much as coal.

Mr. KOPP. Is the difference on the east and west coasts wholly one of transportation?

Admiral CONE. I do not know, sir.

Mr. KOPP. What other element is there?

Admiral CONE. I do not know of any other element, unless there is more competition on the west coast.

Mr. GREGG. Oil is cheaper and coil is higher on the west coast? Admiral CONE. Yes, sir; and coal is cheaper and oil is higher on the

east coast.

I would like to suggest the following proviso in the appropriation for steam machinery:

Provided, That so much of the foregoing appropriation and of the current appropriation for steam machinery as may be necessary may be used in the development of a type of heavy oil engine suitable

for use in one of the fuel ships authorized by act approved August 22, 1912; but the expenditure thus incurred shall not be a charge against the limit of cost of this vessel.

In other words, if there is any money to spare I want to use some of this appropriation for steam machinery in the development of an oil engine at a navy yard.

Mr. BATHRICK. An internal-combustion engine?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir. In my opinion the time has now arrived to buy the rights of some one of these concerns that has gone furthest and produced the best engines, to buy the plans and to start in building the engine at a navy yard for installation in one of the fuel-oil ships appropriated for last year. The development of this engine at a navy yard will in all probability cost a good deal more than can be allotted for the construction of the machinery under the limit of cost placed on this ship by Congress. If we have the money to spare from steam machinery, I want the privilege of using some of it in going ahead with the development of this engine. There is a precedent for this in the acts of May 13, 1908, and March 3, 1909.

I have hesitated for three years in going into this development in a Government yard in the hope that some private concern in our country would undertake it, but I do not believe that the shipbuilding industry of this country is now sufficiently profitable for any concern to undertake to spend the considerable amount of money necessary in the development of this engine for naval purposes.

Mr. HOBSON. Has any large development of power been made in engines for land purposes in this country?

Admiral CONE. Not in oil engines. All the oil engines constructed in this country have been small engines.

Mr. HOBSON. How large are the largest engines abroad?

Admiral CONE. In successful operation in a ship there is one of 1,500 horsepower and there is one building of 1,800 horsepower. Mr. GREGG. In Germany?

Admiral CONE. The development is largely in Germany and Belgium, and also in Denmark. There are under construction abroad. two engines that I know of, with 2,000 horsepower in each cylinder, or about 6,000 horsepower for an engine with 3 cylinders. These engines, I am quite sure, have not passed the experimental stage. Mr. ROBERTS. Heavy oil engines?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir; an internal combustion engine. As to the development in this country, there is one concern that has gone quite extensively into the installation of oil engines in submarine boats, and they are also building an engine a little larger than that for submarine boats for a submarine boat tender.

Mr. ROBERTS. That is called the Nuremburg engine?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir.

Mr. ROBERTS. And what horsepower has been developed?

Admiral CONE. About 450 horsepower for each engine, in a submarine. The engine for the tender will be about 900 horsepower. Mr. HOBSON. That is a good long step in advance, to make an oil engine of 6,000 horsepower?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir.

Mr. BATHRICK. Three cylinders?

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