There was a recent thread on /r/InfrastructurePorn involving speculation about how it was operated based on close examination of a single high resolution photo.
Do we know or have accounts about how it was operated? Do we know if the coal is in an artificial lake (there was discussion of storing coal under water) or in a cement yard with some surface water?
Let me point you to a few articles from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. This one from Sept. 1, 1914, talks about a German cruiser that stops in port for coal and how no Japanese laborers were allowed to coal the ship, due to the war between Germany and Japan. Then you have this one from November 1914 that talks about the system for loading coal in more detail.
