U.S. NAVAL OIL STORAGE

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 103, 2 May 1941, Page 8

U.S. NAVAL OIL STORAGE

To get out of sight what nival and military experts concede to be Pearl Harbour’s most vulnerable spot, the United States Navy has announced that preliminary work has begun on a 5,160,000 dollar project to put the naval fuel supply underground. This, when completed, may well be classified as the largest naval underground storage of fuel supply in the United States. At present, according to the former Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Charles Edison, “the oil tanks stand right out as targets and a few bombs might cripple ouY oil supply” in the islands. Naval officials said that 100 hard rock miners, unobtainable in Hawaii, would be brought to Honolulu from the mainland to work on the project. Without the estimated 5-million barrels of oil now stored within Pearl Harbour reservation, obviously the Navy would be crippled. The battlewagons of the Fleet, as well as the large aeroplane carriers, could scarcely steam “full-speed ahead” for more than four days on their present fuel capacity, naval sources has intimated. Naval officials are free to admit that should one of the tanks explode and burn, nearby tanks would almost certainly ignite from the excessive heat of the nearby fire. Naval experts estimate that it will cost a good 20-million dollars to put all Oahu's naval fuel underground.