The Dutch protected cruiser Hr. Ms. Holland (1) captain J.H. Zeeman departed on 2 December 1916 at 11.40 o’clock the roads of Nieuwediep, Netherlands towards the Dutch West Indies. Her commanding officer described in his report the coal bunker procedure followed at Havana, Cuba. It was the first harbour where the coal bunker procedure was mechanized. The Havana Coal Company possessed large lighters fitted out with a coal lift comparable with the system of a bucket dredger. The buckets were fitted to a chain of which the ends were connected to each other. The buckets were emptied via a flexible iron tube into the loading ports of the bunkers. This loading went very fast although there was a problem with the arrangement of the bunkers on board of the Holland. The tube had to be moved when a bunker was full and this went considerable slow. On both sides of the ship was the coal loaded resulting in 480 tons in 8 hour or 60 ton/hour.
Note
1. Of the Holland-class protected cruisers consisting of the Holland, Zeeland and Friesland as the 1st subclass and the Gelderland, Noord-Brabant and Utrecht of the 2nd subclass. Laid down at the Rijkswerf Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1895, launched on 4 October 1896, commissioned on 1 July 1898 and sold on a public auction at 11.00 o’clock the navy yard at Willemsoord, Netherlands on Wednesday 21 January 1920.
Source
Jaarboek van de Koninklijke Nederlandsche Zeemacht 1916-1917.
