Since 1911 the merchant fleet of the United States has been consuming 15 million barrels annually. Nearly all the nations have followed this example,[3] especially those which dream of the dominion of the seas for the use of oil in their warships gives them an incontestable superiority. The presence of a squadron sailing under coal is disclosed at a distance of more than 10 kilometres by enormous clouds of smoke; under oil its presence is almost imperceptible; it becomes visible only at the moment when it is about to attack. Ease of approach is enormously increased; and even if an enemy vessel is discovered by marine or aerial scouts it is very difficult for the gunners of the threatened vessel to take their aim at so vague a target as an almost invisible horizontal silhouette. "No smoke, not even a funnel!" exclaimed Lord Fisher in his strenuous campaign for the transformation of the British Navy. Many years elapsed, however, before he saw the triumph of the new fuel. It has been objected that ships lose a little of the protection which is conferred upon them by their belts of coal bunkers; but this criticism is valueless. For, as they gain considerably in lightness, it is possible to increase the thickness of the armour plate and the size of the guns. The abolition of funnels permits of a considerable increase in the field of fire of the artillery. Moreover, with oil fuel fleets acquire an extreme mobility.[4] Half an hour after receiving the order to raise steam the ship is ready to start. Thirty-five minutes afterwards it is going at full speed. In six minutes it can pass from normal to maximum speed. Eleven minutes are needed to get a boiler under full pressure. A voyage at forced speed entails no extra fatigue for the crew: with coal it is hell! Thus, since 1912, oil has been constantly used on twenty-eight German battleships, almost the whole of the fleets of Great Britain and the United States, and the Russian squadrons in the Baltic and the Black Sea. _The American Navy has completely abandoned coal for its new units._ And France? France, which was the first to conceive the idea, had, at the moment when war broke out, only a few small boats burning oil, and not a single powerful modern vessel comparable with the _Queen Elizabeth_. And yet, as early as 1864, it was France that built the first ship, the _Puebla_, sailing under Lieutenant Farcy, to use the new fuel, which aroused so much curiosity during the Second Empire. But the selfish opposition of our coal-owners overcame those who were favourably inclined, including Napoleon III himself. No one gives a thought to these facts at the present time. France often points the way of progress; she never profits by it. * * * * *