Fuelling stations, also known as coaling stations, are repositories of fuel (initially coal and later oil) that have been located to service commercial and naval vessels. Today, the term "coaling station" can also refer to coal storage and feeding units in fossil-fuel power stations.[ citation needed ]
Initially named a coaling station due to the use of coal for steam generation, a fuelling station was built for the purpose of replenishing coal supplies for ships or railway locomotives. The term is often associated with 19th and early 20th century seaports associated with blue water navies, who used coaling stations as a means of extending the range of warships. In the late 19th century, steamships powered by coal began to replace sailing ships as the principal means of propulsion for ocean transport. Fuelling stations transitioned to oil as boilers moved from being coal-fired to oil- or hybrid oil-and-coal-firing, coal being completely replaced as steam engines gave way to internal combustion [1] and gas turbine power plants.
The need for naval fuelling stations was a key driver of colonialism in Oceania. [2] : 127 The American-German dispute over the Pago Pago coaling station was the driving factor behind the 1887-1889 Samoan crisis. [3] The Melanesian island of New Caledonia, with its local coal mines, enabled maritime transport within the second French colonial empire [4] and spurred rivalries with Japanese and Australian naval interests. [5]
Countries with large naval forces must maintain means for fuelling their fleets in times of conflict, to this end defended fuelling stations were set up around theaters of operations. Examples of such fuelling stations were almost any of the principal ports of the British Isles, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, British Africa, or India. In addition, there were facilities for coaling vessels at St. Helena, Ascension, and the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic; at Jamaica and Bermuda in the North Atlantic, at Gibraltar, Malta, and Port Said in the Mediterranean; at Aden, on the Gulf of Aden; at Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); at Singapore; and at Labuan in the China Sea; at Hong Kong on the Chinese coast; at Chagos, Seychelles, or Mauritius in the Indian Ocean; at Thursday Island and Suva, Fiji, in the South Pacific: (British) and at Honolulu, Pago Pago and Manila in the Pacific for the United States. [6] While defense of naval fuelling stations has historically focused on attack by other naval powers [7] the USS Cole bombing in the Yemeni port of Aden in October 2000 has focused attention on the importance of ship defense during refueling operations even in friendly fuelling stations. [8]
As international trade grew a defined set of fixed routes, sea lanes were established with fuelling stations appearing at strategic points along these routes. Since most fuelling stations did not possess natural resources in coal or oil the "bunkering" trade of transporting coal and oil to fuelling stations consumed a considerable portion of shipping tonnage. [9] As shipbuilding progressed to ever-larger ships, additional fuel storage capacity was incorporated into ship design that afforded greater range between refueling stops. Today most oceangoing vessels have the ability to fuel for an uninterrupted ocean crossing at their terminal locations before setting to sea.
Pago Pago is the capital of American Samoa. It is in Maoputasi County on Tutuila, which is American Samoa's main island.
The Bab-el-Mandeb, the Gate of Grief or the Gate of Tears, is a strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. It connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and by extension the Indian Ocean.
A replenishment oiler or replenishment tanker is a naval auxiliary ship with fuel tanks and dry cargo holds which can supply both fuel and dry stores during underway replenishment (UNREP) at sea. Many countries have used replenishment oilers.
USS Kanawha (AO–1) was the lead ship of her class of replenishment oilers of the United States Navy. She was commissioned in 1915 and sunk on 8 April 1943 by Japanese aircraft off Tulagi, Solomon Islands.
USS Cuyama (AO-3) was a tanker of the United States Navy launched 17 June 1916 by Mare Island Navy Yard; sponsored by Miss M. Offley; and commissioned 2 April 1917.
USS Tippecanoe (AO-21) was a Patoka Replenishment oiler of the United States Navy.
Underway replenishment (UNREP) or replenishment at sea (RAS) is a method of transferring fuel, munitions, and stores from one ship to another while under way. First developed in the early 20th century, it was used extensively by the United States Navy as a logistics support technique in the Pacific theatre of World War II, permitting U.S. carrier task forces to remain at sea indefinitely.
USS O'Brien (DD-415) was a World War II-era Sims-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy, named in honor of Captain Jeremiah O'Brien and his five brothers, Gideon, John, William, Dennis and Joseph, who captured HMS Margaretta on 12 June 1775 during the American Revolution.
USS Kaskaskia (AO-27) was a Cimarron-class fleet replenishment oiler serving in the United States Navy, named for the Kaskaskia River in Illinois.
The second USS Kangaroo (IX-121), an Armadillo-class tanker designated an unclassified miscellaneous vessel, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the kangaroo, a family of herbivorous, leaping, marsupial mammals of Australia, New Guinea, and adjacent islands. Her keel was laid down as Paul Tulane under Maritime Commission contract by Delta Shipbuilding Company, New Orleans, Louisiana, on 28 September 1943. She was renamed Kangaroo 27 October 1943, launched on 6 November 1943 sponsored by Mrs. Rufus C. Harris, acquired by the Navy on bareboat basis 17 December, and commissioned on 20 December.
USS Kankakee (AO-39) was a Kennebec-class fleet oiler of the United States Navy. The ship was built as SS Colina by Bethlehem Steel Co., Sparrows Point, Maryland, launched on 24 January 1942, sponsored by Mrs. D. A. Little, acquired for the Navy on 31 March through the Maritime Commission from her owner, Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, New York City, and commissioned as Kankakee at Norfolk, Virginia, on 4 May.
USS Chepachet (AO-78), originally named SS Eutaw Springs, and later known as USNS Chepachet (T-AOT-78) until disposition, was a Suamico-class fleet oiler, of the T2-SE-A1 tanker hull type, serving in the United States Navy during World War II. Originally a namesake of the Battle of Eutaw Springs when laid down 1 November 1942, she was renamed for the Chepachet River located in a village of Glocester, Rhode Island bearing the same name.
USS Caliente (AO-53) was a Cimarron-class fleet oiler built during World War II for the U.S. Navy. During her career in the Pacific Ocean, Caliente participated in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. She was highly decorated for fulfilling her dangerous mission of carrying fuel into battle areas. She received ten battle stars for World War II, four for the Korean War and eight campaign stars for the Vietnam War.
USS Ashtabula (AO-51) was a Cimarron-class fleet oiler of the United States Navy in service from 1943 to 1991. She survived three wars and was awarded eight battle stars for World War II service, four battle stars for Korean War service, and eight campaign stars for Vietnam War service. In the mid-1960s Ashtabula became the lead ship of her class, when she and seven other Cimarron-class oilers were lengthened ("jumboized"). She has been the only U.S. Navy ship to bear the name Ashtabula, after the City of Ashtabula which was named after the Ashtabula River in northeast Ohio.
USS Atascosa (AO-66) was an Atascosa-class fleet oiler acquired by the U.S. Navy for use in World War II. She had the dangerous task of supplying fuel and ammunition to ships in and near, combat areas in both the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.
USS PGM-8 was a PGM-1 class motor gunboat that served in the United States Navy during World War II. She was originally laid down as a SC-497 class submarine chaser on 2 November 1942 by the Wilmington Boat Works in Wilmington, California and launched on 1 May 1943. She was commissioned as USS SC-1366 on 12 August 1943. She was later converted to a PGM-1 class motor gunboat and renamed PGM-8 on 10 December 1943. After the war she was transferred to the Foreign Liquidations Commission in May 1947. Her exact fate is unknown.
Maritime history of Somalia refers to the seafaring tradition of the Somali people. It includes various stages of Somali navigational technology, shipbuilding and design, as well as the history of the Somali port cities. It also covers the historical sea routes taken by Somali sailors which sustained the commercial enterprises of the historical Somali kingdoms and empires, in addition to the contemporary maritime culture of Somalia.
USS Hassayampa was a Neosho-class fleet replenishment oiler in service with the United States Navy, and the United States Merchant Marine from 1955 to 1991. A veteran of the Vietnam and First Gulf War, she served for 36 years before being laid up in the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet in California. Her keel was laid on 13 July 1953.
Naval Base Upolu was a naval base built by the United States Navy in 1942 to support the World War II effort. The base was located on Upolu Island, Samoa in the Western Pacific Ocean, part of the Samoan Islands's Naval Base Samoa. After the surprise attack on Naval Station Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the US Navy was in need of setting up more advance bases in the Pacific Ocean. At Naval Base Upolu the Navy built a sea port, an airbase and a seaplane base.
Naval Base Samoa, codename Operation Straw, was a number of United States Navy bases at American Samoa in the central Pacific Ocean. The bases were used during World War II to support the island hopping Pacific War efforts of the allied nations fighting the Empire of Japan.
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