The future of the oil-burning ship depends directly upon the supply of fuel, a question that at the moment is giving both the oil men and the steamship operators a good deal of concern. In recent months, owing principally to the changes effected by the intrusion of salt water in the Mexican fields, it has been a difficult matter for vessels not protected by contracts to obtain fuel oil. The advantages of this method of raising steam are so considerable that it will prove a great economic loss if, through failing supplies, it becomes necessary for oil-burning ships to revert to coal. It would be a mistake to think that other great commercial powers are not alive to the possibilities of oil on the seven seas, but Americans may take pride in the fact that their own business men are playing a foremost part in the sea-chapters of the wonderful epic of the petroleum industry. Through their foresight and enterprise the oil bunkering station is being established at home and abroad to perform the same function that coaling stations have performed for the world’s maritime commerce in the past. Although displacement of coal by oil in any wide measure is perhaps the most recent development in the story of petroleum; and the construction of oil-burning in place of coal-burning ships is the latest phase of maritime architecture, American oil producers have already anticipated the change in events by establishing oil-bunkering stations in various parts of the world. Here again American enterprise has shown itself alive to the needs of international trade by providing supply depots at ports where American oil-bunkering ships are likely to call. It is highly important that vessels under the Stars and Stripes should not be wholly dependent upon foreign agencies for filling their tanks. The United States Shipping Board has shown much interest in the development of an organized plan whereby bunkering facilities shall exist to render American ships independent of the vexatious restrictions sometimes imposed by governments in other parts of the world.