Naval History Forums

Just had a thought regarding the Japanese Oil shortages and their navy/merchant fleets.

Would it have made more sense to use coal burning vessels for merchants and destroyer escorts?

It seems on the surface that this would have somewhat alleviated the need for oil which hamstrung their navy. I know that coal was not as efficent, requiring either more engine space or a slower vessel, but on vessels where speed was not paramount it would seem to make sense.

Kind of a retro thought like Ben Franklin wanting the continental army to use bows and crossbows, but it seems like it would have many positive results.

The Japanese had no access to high quality coal of the sort the Germans had. It would have been bulky and logistically difficult for the Germans to have exported it to Japan!

Using poor quality coal of course produces huge amounts of smoke which would betray a ships position to a submarine from many miles. And there is also the issue of finding the coolies to shovel the coal and accommodating them on the ships, a logistical problem which would have very harsh implications for such a labour force.