e. This, of course, is one of the inevitable
conditions of the secondary base system, the object of which is
to keep in stock a quantity of the article needed. Putting the
purchase price of the coal as low as 15s. a ton, a deterioration
due to repeated handling only of 10 per cent. on 50,600 tons
would amount to L3795.

There is nearly always some loss of coal due to moving it. I
say 'nearly always' because it seems that there are occasions
on which coal being moved increases in bulk. It occurs when
competitive coaling is being carried on in a fleet and ships
try to beat records. A collier in these circumstances gives out
more coal than she took in. We shall probably be right if we
regard the increase in this case as what the German philosophers
call 'subjective,' that is, rather existent in the mind than in
the external region of objective, palpable fact. It may be taken
as hardly disputable that there will be less loss the shorter
the distance and the fewer the times the coal is moved. Without
counting it we see that the annual expenses enumerated are--

Establishment charges L6,500
Landing and re-shipping 5,060
Deterioration 3,795
-------
L15,355

This L15,355 is to be compared with the cost of the direct supply
system. The quantity of coal required would, as said above, have
to be carried in twenty colliers--counting each trip as that of
a separate vessel--with, on the average, 2300 tons apiece, and
five smaller ones. It would take fully four days to unload 2300
tons at the secondary base, and even more if the labour supply
was uncertain or the labourers not well practised. Demurrage
for a vessel carrying the cargo mentioned, judging from actual
experience, would be about L32 a day; and probably about L16 a
day for the smaller vessels. If we admit an average delay, per
collier, of eighteen days, that is, fourteen days more than the
time necessary for removing the cargo into store, so as to allow
for colliers arriving when the ships to be coaled are absent, we
should get--

20 X 14 X 32 L8,960
5 X 14 X 16 1,120
-------
L10,080

as the cost of transferring the coal from the holds to the
men-of-war's bunkers on the direct supply system. An average
of eighteen days is probably much too long to allow for each
collier's stay till cleared: because, on some occasions, ships