The problem of providing coal for passing ships is one of the most important with which the canal authorities will have to deal. The cheaper that commodity can be sold to the ships, the more attractive the route will be. For instance, a 10,000-ton ship which saves a dollar a ton on a thousand tons of coal, saves the equivalent of the cost of operating the vessel for a period of from 24 to 36 hours, and this, with the rates at Suez and Panama on an equal basis, gives at least one day's advantage to the Panama route in figuring on a voyage. Pocahontas steaming coal costs $2.70 per ton laid down at Newport News. Under the carrying agreements with shipping interests that obtained during the construction period, this coal was carried to Panama for $1.395 a ton. It is estimated that the canal colliers, which have been authorized by Congress, with a capacity of 12,000 tons of coal and with a speed of 14 knots, can deliver to the Isthmus a half million tons of coal a year. The saving which will be effected by having the coal carried by Government colliers is a large one. A merchantman would get $368,000 for delivering 264,000 tons of coal, while the cost of delivery by collier for the same amount would approximate $184,000. The average life of a collier is 20 years. The saving effected in these 20 years by the Government carrying its own coal would be large enough to pay back the million dollars which the collier cost, and to yield an additional profit of $2,630,000 during the life of the vessel. The sale of coal at Suez, where an annual shipping traffic of some 21,000,000 tons is handled, amounts approximately to 1,000,000 tons. Thus, it will require two colliers to handle the coal when the canal opens, and two more 13 years later. Not all the ships which use the canal will coal there. For instance, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, which was so forehanded in its effort to get a good share of the trans-Isthmian traffic that it acquired the Pacific Steam Navigation Company long before the canal opened, is building a coaling station at Kingston, Jamaica, where its ships will replenish their bunkers. This coaling station will, of course, always be at the disposition of the British Government in case of war, and of such British merchantmen that choose to pass that way. Some ships will not negotiate the canal under their own power. Many small vessels steer so badly that their masters would be afraid to risk them going through without aid. For instance, the skipper of the Cristobal, one of the 6,000-ton cement-carrying ships bought by the United States a few years ago, declared, in discussing this phase of the matter, that he would be afraid to trust his vessel going through the canal under its own power. To ships not sufficiently responsive to their helms, Government tugs will be furnished.