Blue waters and green and the Far East today . here Togo destroyed theRussian fleet, and saw the sun set behind that islandunder which with marvelous skill he hid his shipsuntil he was ready to pounce upon the awoke at daybreak Sunday morning in the open-ing of Nagasaki Harbor. After inspection we moved up and anchored off thetown. Everyone has heard of Nagasaki, as it is thechief naval station of the Islands and cut a greatfigure in the recent war. Besides, the principal coalmines of the islands are near here, and Nagasaki isthe coaling station for nearly all lines on the Pacific.
Blue waters and green and the Far East today . here Togo destroyed theRussian fleet, and saw the sun set behind that islandunder which with marvelous skill he hid his shipsuntil he was ready to pounce upon the awoke at daybreak Sunday morning in the open-ing of Nagasaki Harbor. After inspection we moved up and anchored off thetown. Everyone has heard of Nagasaki, as it is thechief naval station of the Islands and cut a greatfigure in the recent war. Besides, the principal coalmines of the islands are near here, and Nagasaki isthe coaling station for nearly all lines on the coaled there, and the operation was the most in-teresting thing I have seen in the Islands. We moored in the midst of a whole fleet of coalbarges, but there was no apparatus visible to lift thecoal from the barges to the ship. Watch, saidthe Governor; you will see something we swung into our moorings the crowd of bargesmoved into orderly array about us, stern to the ship,pointing outwardly, twelve on each side. This, which [60]. COALING AT NAGASAKI. JAPAN with any other people would have taken unlimitedcursing and quarreling, was accomplished without analtercation, each helping the other with a push here,a drag on the line there. The moment the stern ofa barge touched the ship a man swarmed up a ropeto the rail of the main deck. A board two feet wideand four feet long is handed to him, another joinshim, and they swing this board like a painters ladderwith ropes tied to the rail just below the port-holethat is to receive the coal. Three feet below thisanother is hung, but this is wider and projects beyondthe upper one. Another and another is strung, tillthe barges are reached, and then a stout bamboo islashed to the outer corners of these steps—and thereyou are, a strong, steady flight of steps built in tenminutes without a nail. Still you wonder—the stepsare too far apart to climb; but almost as soon as thesteps are finished men and women both swarm up andsta
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