COALING

At Aden all coaling had to be done using lighters as it was impossible for ships to come alongside coaling wharves. As can be seen in the first photograph a lighter was really quite capacious. Getting the coal on board was the difficult part: the two obvious methods were to put the coal in baskets or in sacks.

The next two photographs show the former method in use, both at Port Said. In the coloured picture the deck of the ship is low and a simple gangplank will suffice to get the coal on board from what appears to be more a platform or barge rather than a proper lighter.

The other photograph of coaling at Port Said needs much more organisation and highlights the difficulty of loading onto a high-decked liner. Both gangways are being used for carrying baskets up onto the ship. Perhaps there was a third ‘down’ gangway to the right of the picture?

This photograph is also a good illustration of coaling being a dirty business. Note the sacking that has been put up to try to stop coal dust spreading; one can also make out what appears to be a cloud of coal dust at the far end of the bridge as the baskets are tipped into the bunkers.

The third photograph shows a warship being coaled at Aden. The procedure is completely different. To provide extra stability two lighters have been moored alongside the ship and a ramp of sacks of coal erected to reduce the height to the deck. In fact two ramps as two coolie gangs are at work, one at each end of the lighter. Sacks are being passed from the outer lighter to the inside one, before being loaded one sack at a time by two coolies up to the next two, and so on by a chain onto the deck, where more coolies must be waiting to either continue the chain or carry the sacks to the bunkers. There appear to be eight links in the chain between the outer lighter and the deck. A coolie gang usually consisted of 60 men. Bearing in mind the coolies on the deck of the warship and those in both the lighters, there appears to be one complete gang hard at work.