Black Diamonds for the Battle Fleet: Welsh Steam Coal and the Logistics That Kept the Dreadnoughts at Sea
Oil, ammunition and dockyard labour dominate accounts of the Grand Fleet's sustainment, yet the greater part of its tonnage was still coal — and the best of it came from South Wales. This article follows the fuel from the valleys to Scapa Flow and asks why the quality of a seam in Aberdare mattered to an admiral in the North Sea.