StealthSeeker wrote:To my way of thinking coal is going to be a fairly common comodity just about everywhere. I place that belief on the idea that coal isn't just used for heating buildings. I imagine that it is used in stoves for cooking. In the few wood burning stoves that I have seen the "firebox" is separate from the oven so smoke doesn't permeate the food being cooked. Coal would also be used in industry, you can't make weapons if you haven't got coal to heat the hearth. In my mind a lot of that industry, and the associated supply of coal, is going to be near the water front. Another potential reason for the coal being at the water front is because it arrives by ship. Coal in the Safehold world just seems to be universally available.
However, I do agree that you could not depend on coal being available. But I would plan on taking advantage of every opportunity to pilfer coal that I could to extent the effective operation limits of my ships that depend on that coal.
Coal may be common and near the water front, but that does not mean that it can be easily obtained in a quick raid. Steam ships have fuel bunkers measured in tons, moving this requires a lot of time or semi-specialized equipment, often both. Spending too long stripping warehouses means that land based reaction forces can arrive before you leave.
The main problem comes in that coal is likely to be in either large sacks (50 to 100 lbs) or in large piles of loose gravel. The only way I can see a raid getting useful amounts of coal is if it is in a barge or canal boat waiting to be unloaded, in which case the whole container is towed away.