Perim Island

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According to other statistics the Cascapedia was coaled on 1 September and only took 140 tons; the second ship to coal did not do so until 29 September, and this was the Embleton.  The hulk Ben Nevis can be seen in the watercolour of the harbour in Perim Harbour 1888.  In 1886 there was an unofficial census of the population on Perim.  Only one of the two able seamen listed as sailors in 1883 was included; the other had been killed in October 1884 when he fell from the crosstrees onto the deck of the Ben Nevis. (See also Perim Cemetery.)

 

Although the Cascapedia had been coaled at the end of August 1883 she had brought stores to Perim. The coaling station was not ready to open for business until  October, when two ships coaled. Three more coaled in November and five in December. Very few steamers were larger than 3,000 tons and only some ships of the Hall Line were in excess of 4,000 tons.

 

1884 started fairly slowly, 43 ships coaling in the first four months.  But with the onset of the monsoon season business picked up, as it was to do every year. In the next four months 94 ships called to coal. The total coaling in the final four months was 48.

 

Of the 207 ships coaling in the first 15 months some 59 belonged to just four shipping lines (William Milburn, Clan Line, Hall Line and City Line.) These were the companies which had reckoned they were being unfairly treated at Aden by having to anchor an above-average number of their ships in the outer harbour (see Dredging the Harbour at Aden).  In the 15 months several of their ships had coaled three times and one, the City of Agra, had coaled on four occasions.

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Perim Coal Company in 1892

In 1892 Hinton Spalding paid a periodic visit from Liverpool to his coaling concession on Perim. On his way home he spent some time in Aden to try to ensure that Luke Thomas was not also granted a coaling concession on the island. This is a description of what he found:

 

“Today Perim can deliver on average 120 tons in an hour for a quantity and during this last monsoon I saw our people handle 1,860 tons to various steamers in 21 running hours, while in 1889 one steamer took 595 tons in five and a half hours. These are the good results of organisation and supervision by practical men at great outlay of capital, and not of a monopoly, as alleged by the Aden coaling firms to be the cause of their loss of business and a sufficient reason for disturbing us in ours.

 

The first steamer with a full cargo of coal arrived at Perim in September 1883 and in October 1883, within six months of the signing of the lease, The Perim Coal Company advertised that they were prepared to supply coals at Perim to any calling steamers. That is to say that ten years ago the managers of the company faced the public, their supporters and opponents with a hulk, two lighters, a steam launch and a boat and a small stock of coals on what has been aptly called a cinder heap, without water, labour or fuel; without landing place, a roadway or habitation; without anything in fact to calculate on but the certain hostility of Aden traders.

 

Today that part of the cinder-heap occupied under the concession is a clean, well laid-out and flourishing settlement, with stone and composite built houses, offices and warehouses with several piers and bunders, good roads wherever required, stone-built native lines including two-roomed quarters for all married natives, with two mosques and a native school, also in stone; stone-built hospitals, latrines and a cemetery; a large composite-built hotel and general supply stores and a stone-built courthouse, police quarters and abkari godowns.

 

Machinery and plant of the newest design were put up last year to keep pace with the increasing demand for water and ice by calling steamers, and we can now produce about 60 tons of condensed water and five tons of block ice daily. Composite sheds on concrete floors protect and preserve coal stocks, which may be taken at 10,000 tons minimum to 16,000 tons maximum according to the season of the year.

 

The deliveries to steamers average about 60,000 tons per annum and 20 large iron or steel lighters are kept in commission to do the work properly by night and day. About 1,800 tons of coal are always kept afloat with three steam launches in attendance and these launches further serve the two steam fresh water tankers of a capacity of 70 tons.

 

The salvage establishment comprises two specially-built and equipped powerful tugs, a sea-going hulk completely fitted out as a workshop and depot, having a portable Gwynne boiler and pumps working up to 700 tons an hour each and carrying diving gear. European divers and assistance in every appliance for rendering prompt and effective aid to vessels in distress. A despatch boat is kept in the harbour ready to get under steam and go to sea with assistance or arrange the same within three hours of a call being received.

 

The pilotage, buoyage, lightage and conservancy of the harbour of Perim are attended to by two English master-mariners with an assistant, also certified, and native staff all supported and maintained at the Company’s expense. The Port Surgeon, as Health Officer, has a charge of the hospital, cemetery and shore conservancy and the general health of the station is exceptionally good under his care. The clerical staff consists of five Englishmen with Eurasian and Somali subordinates.

 

The repairing shops and general workshop are giving employment to a superintending engineer and four other Englishmen, with ten Indian mechanics under them and some 50 natives. There are also Maltese, Greeks and Chinese as painters and carpenters and general utility men. The coal coolies number between 400 and 500 and are under the orders of an English conductor.”

 

It was perhaps fortuitous that 1892 was by far the best year pre-WW1 for coal sales at Perim. In most years sales were between 40,000 and 48,000 tons.

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Death Throes of the Perim Coal Company

It did not take long for the full effects of the recession to bring about the closure of the Perim Coal Company.  In the article Boom and Bust one can see that in the financial year 1930-31 the number of ships calling to coal at Perim (154) were only 40% of the total for the previous year; slightly worse was that the tonnage of coal sold was only 37.5% of the 1929-30 figure. 

 

Although one less ship called to coal in the following year (1931-32) each ship took an average of 19% more coal. This must have given cause for hope in the future, but it was not to be.

 

1931-32 was the last year for which full statistics have been found. 

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Ships coaling in each of the next three years (1932-35) were down to around 130 a year. Worse was to come. In the last full year of operation (to 31st March 1936) only 92 ships coaled which averages out at less than two a week. There must have been quite a few days with no ship being coaled, especially during the traditionally quieter months from October to March. For the last six months of operation a ship was calling only every two to three weeks. 

 

In the last few years of operation the coal company got a bad reputation for delivering on board slightly less than the amount ordered; another  ploy was to ‘accidentally’ spill coal whilst transferring it from lighter to steamer. (See also Perim Chronicle 1936-1948, when in 1938 the police inspector was ordered to dredge for coal.)

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