IV.--Oil tankers are in profusion on every sea and as England commands the Ocean (_she must command the Ocean to live!!_) she has peripatetic re-fuelling stations on every sea and every oil tanker’s position known every day to a yard! Before very long there will be a million tons of oil on the various oceans in hundreds of oil tankers. The bulk of these would be at our disposal in time of war. Few or none could reach Germany. V.--The Internal Combustion Engine with _one_ ton of oil does what it takes _four_ tons of coal to do![11] And having no funnels or smoke is an _indescribable fighting asset_! (Always a chance of smoke in an oil steam-raising vessel where of course the funnels which disclose a ship such an immense distance off are obligatory. Each enemy’s ship spells her name to you by her funnels as they appear on the horizon, while you are unseen!) VI.--The armament of the Internal Combustion Ship is not hampered by funnels, so can give all-round fire, an inestimable advantage because the armament can all be placed in the central portion of the Hull with all-round fire, and giving the ship better seaworthy qualities by not having great weights in the extremities, as obligatory where you have funnels and boilers. VII.--But please imagine the blow to British prestige if a German warship with Internal Combustion Propulsion is at sea before us and capable of going round the World without re-fuelling! What an _Alabama_!!! What an upset to the tremblers on the brink who are hesitating to make the plunge for Motor Battleships! According to a reliable foreign correspondent, the keel of a big Oil-Engine Warship for the German Navy is to be laid shortly. Krupp has a design for a single cylinder of 4,000 H.P.! He has had a six-cylinder engine of 2,000 H.P., each cylinder successfully running for over a year. VIII.--Anyhow, it must be admitted that the burning of oil to raise steam is a roundabout way of getting power! The motor car and the aeroplane take little drops of oil and explode them in cylinders and get all the power required without being bothered with furnaces or boilers or steam engines, so we say to the marine engineer, “Go and do thou likewise!” The sailor’s life on the 70,000 H.P. coal using _Lion_ is worse than in any ship in the service owing to the constant coalings. It’s an economic waste of good material to keep men grilling in a baking fire hole at unnecessary labour and use 300 men when a dozen or so would suffice!