Coaling stations were set up for steamships to stop over and refuel. Coolies from coaling ships would lug large baskets of coal suspended from a thick bamboo pole, with an average load rate of about 200 tonnes an hour. Major international steamship companies, such as Peninsula and Oriental (P&O), had established offices in Singapore by the 1880s. Singapore was the only regional port with such extensive facilities, as shown in this woodblock print, until well after 1914.
