[Drop Title] CONTRACT FOR COAL. . . . MAY 24, 1860 [with] CONTRACT FOR THE PURCHASE OF COAL. . . . Minority Report (House of Representatives. 36th Congress, 1st Session. Report No. 568) by U. S. House of Representatives. Committee on Naval Affairs - 1860

[Washington, DC], 1860. Soft Cover. Very Good binding. Octavo. 79, [1]; 15 pp., maps. Removed from volume, now in recent plain wrappers. Light and scattered foxing, else clean; large folding maps have closed tears near the stubbing.

Steam-powered naval vessels of the 19th century needed coal and lots of it. The U. S. Secretary of the Navy sought to obtain a reliable and abundant supply for the Pacific and Caribbean fleets through a contract with the Chiriqui Improvement Company of Nueva Granada; coal from the Chiriqui region of what is not Panama was to be extracted and transported for the navy's use to two ports, one on the Caribbean coast and one the Pacific. Present here are the majority and minority reports of the House Committee on Naval Affairs. They are detailed and informative and include three highly important maps of the Chiriqui region.