The impact of the war
3) Coal, the Admiralty and railways
A recent book hypothesised that the First World War was not won on the Western Front, but by the Royal Navy’s blockade of Continental Europe, ensuring Germany’s weakened state, consequently its politicians sued for peace before social revolution embroiled the country.71 If this could be proved, then could it similarly suggest that the GWR, which initiated the movement of coal upon which the RN depended, might justify a claim for a share of this?
As early as the 1840s the Royal Navy, experimenting with steamships, designated South Wales Dry Steam Coal as the favoured fuel for its ships72. Despite politicking by other coalfield interests, the RN was resolute in favouring steam coal from the Rhondda and Cynon Valleys for capital ships. By 1900 an Official Admiralty List of supplying colliery companies had been compiled, designating two grades:
i) Best or Premier Grade having a carbon content of over 83.4% for use in large fighting ships and escorts in the Grand Fleet.
ii) Second Grade with carbon contents of over 77.2% used in smaller vessels, including convoy escort ships, some destroyers and supply ships.73
By 1914 most of the ‘best’ coal came from the Rhondda and Cynon Valleys and collieries in the study area on the Admiralty list are shown in Table 3.
Prior to August 1914 RN ships coaled either at South Wales ports or naval ports mostly on the south and east coasts, to which coal was transported by ship from South Wales. The Agadir Incident (1911) alerted the Admiralty to possible conflict, whereupon a review of coal transport needs was undertaken. Appreciating the vulnerability to attack of shipping coal to the East Coast naval bases, the GWR was involved in a planning role for rail transport from South Wales as early as 1911. Indeed, The Times reported a trial run from south Wales to Scotland, 74 highlighting many potential problems of such an operation, which formed the basis of a GWR ‘Special Notice’ in January 1912. Complicating matters, in the weeks prior to the war’s declaration, the Grand Fleet moved to bases in Scotland, including Rosyth and Invergordon, with Scapa Flow (Orkney Islands) being the principal anchorage.75 During the war, as Table 4 shows, South Wales coal was despatched by rail to several ports, especially in Scotland, from where it was loaded into ships and carried to the Grand Fleet’s bases.76
Emerging during the trial and continuing throughout the war was the availability of suitable coal wagons. Its agents at Cardiff, William Mathwin & Sons, initially hired 4,000 wagons from H. G. Lewis &Co.Ltd., of Cardiff. These were of ten-or twelve-tons’ capacity with enddoors for unloading, customarily used on short-distance trains from the Valleys to the docks. The general condition of private owner coal wagons was moderate at best, as exemplified in RR accident reports – eight incidents relating to such wagons were reported within the study area in 1914 and nine in 1915, mostly involving broken couplings or drawbars (reported as being ‘flawed’), 77 workings were hampered by frequent breakdowns, need for regular inspections of grease axle-boxes and slow operating speeds – 25mph maximum. They persevered and as sea lanes became more hazardous more wagons had to be obtained. Ultimately about
