CALLING STEAMERS

To avoid masters of steamers incurring frustrating delays from the time steamers anchored in the harbour to the first lighter arriving alongside to begin coaling, the Perim Coal Company evolved a set of very efficient procedures, both by day and by night. In 1896 the operating procedures of the coaling station were as follows:

As soon as a ship was sighted the signal station on the concession (near the ETC offices and at about 100 feet above sea level) signalled by semaphore or ball the direction the ship was sailing in. This was essential as down in the harbour itself steamers could not be seen until they were close to.

When a signal was hoisted at the signal station every man on the concession kept a close eye on it and by the time it was changed to denote a calling steamer, a pilot boat, a doctor’s boat, the coolies and launches were all ready to attend to the requirements of the steamer. These would be signalled by the pilot who had boarded her outside the harbour, by a series of blasts on the steamer’s whistle.

At night the signal station kept a night watch to look out for the blue light on a steamer to show it was calling. The replying blue light of the signal station warned the watch at the pilot house. Launches then whistled the alarm so that everybody required was ready when the steamer came and anchored.