Collier is a bulk cargo ship designed to carry coal, especially
for naval use by coal-fired warships. In the late eighteenth
century, a number of wooden-hulled sailing colliers gained fame
after being adapted for use in voyages of exploration in the
South Pacific, for which their flat-bottomed hulls and sturdy
construction made them well-suited. The first aircraft carrier
in the United States Navy was a converted Collier, fitted with a
large elevated flat deck, used before the invention of purpose
built aircraft carrier hulls. Coaling at sea was critical to
navies and speed of coal transfer was an important metric of
naval efficiency. In 1883, forty tons an hour was considered
fast and it would take over twelve hours to restock half the
bunkers of a typical ship, HMS Collingwood (1882). Coals from
Newcastle  For many years, the Durham and Northumberland
coalfields supplied the rapidly expanding London with vast
tonnages of coal, and a large fleet of coastal colliers
travelled up and down the east coast of Eng