Are those ships intentionally burning that inefficiently, or was that how it was done back then? An odd sight, to our modern eyes.
I believe that was customary at the time. Many of the ships in the GWF were outdated at the time of the circumnavigation.
Also, they were coal-burning ships.
The ships were pre dreadnoughts, that burned coal to produce steam. Had short ranges compared to the later oil burners, thus the great powers needed coaling stations. That is why the US and many other naval powers competed for control of the Pacific Islands to maintain military presence in their overseas colonies (raw materials).
Coal-fired boilers back then.
All of them should be coal burners, not oil burners. Makes a lot more smoke.
It could be they were “blowing stacks” together for the photo???
Ships periodically “blow stacks” (force air through the exhaust stacks to prevent accumulation of all kinds of nasty stuff) and when they do it is pretty dramatic smoke-wise. When coal burns hot in a fireplace it doesn’t produce a lot of smoke so I wonder if this was done for the photo??
Don’t worry, some FReeper will set us straight.