Bacon compared fleet colliers with carriers who must consume part of the load they transport. Colliers needed enough speed to accompany the fleet, enough size for their own consumption to be a small share of cargo, and protection or fuel for their return after unloading. Once empty, they still had to steam back under convoy or remain with the fleet carrying enough coal for their own movement. Large colliers were awkward to work alongside even in sheltered harbors, while examples such as the Great White Fleet and the Russian voyage to Tsushima showed the difficulty of depending on mobile coal supply. Modern supply columns reproduce this self-consuming logic because tankers and escorts burn fuel and may expend ammunition on both the outward and return journeys. Greater distance and combat power therefore demand a larger supporting tail as well as more supplies for the fighting force itself.
Chapter · 24:00-29:29
Colliers consumed the coal they carried to the fleet
Coal replenishment required a fast, protected transport force whose ships burned their own cargo and were difficult to use or dispose of after delivery.