Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (
More info?)
BManx2000 <bmanx2000@yahoo.com> wrote in
news:ky8Ee.140306$9A2.64709@edtnps89:
> Gabriele Neukam wrote:
>>
>> You want some?
>>
>
> Halifax. December 6, 1917. The ship Mont Blanc, which carried a
> top-secret cargo of explosive chemacals[1], collided with the
> belgian relief ship Imo as it was entering the harbor. The highly
> flammable Benzol fuel caught fire immediately, and 20 minutes later,
> it exploded with a force greater than any man-made explosion before
> it. Unfortunately, many people went right up to the dock to watch
> the burning ship. According to the web site,
There was a vaguely similar incident in the US in the late 40's.
Edited from
http://www.texas-city-tx.org/HistoryTCDisaster.pdf
The morning of April 16, 1947 can still be remembered by many of the
citizens of Texas City. A ship in the Texas City harbor, the Grand
Camp, bearing a cargo of ammonium nitrate fertilizer destined for war
torn Europe, caught fire. The fire department was on the scene helping
to put out the fire, and a crowd of people (many children) had
gathered to watch the firefighters. The bright orange color that came
out of the black smoke seemed to catch everyone's attention. The crowd
must not have known that ammonium nitrate is highly explosive or they
didn't know what was in the cargo hold of the ship. The standard plan
for towing a dangerously burning ship from the harbor was not
implemented until it was too late, and the tugboat didn't arrive in
time to prevent what happened next. A little after 9:00 a.m. the Texas
City Disaster happened as the Grand Camp exploded. A great column of
smoke shot up an estimated two thousand feet, followed in about ten
seconds by another, and even more violent shockwave. Within moments of
the second blast, the Monsanto Chemical Plant was in flames that
resulted from broken lines and shattered containers. As entire
buildings collapsed, trapping people inside, fires quickly spread to
the refineries that made up the Texas City industrial complex.
Another catastrophic event happened when a miniature tidal wave
resulted when the water from the bay, which had been driven out by the
explosion, rushed in over the docks and continued as far inland as one
hundred and fifty feet, sweeping everything in its path with it. All
day long the work of caring for the injured and fighting the fires was
underway. By nightfall, the town was filled with rescue workers, and
ambulances had been making repeated trips to area hospitals.
Darkness did not stop the efforts to find those who were still trapped
in the wreckage. Throughout the night, fear mounted because another
firefighter, the High Flyer, which was also loaded with ammonium
nitrate as well as sulfur, had also been burning all day. Tugs had
tried in vain to tow her out of the ruined harbor. At 1:00 a.m. on
April 17, everyone was ordered away from the area. At 1:10 a.m. the
High Flyer exploded in the most violent of all the blasts, taking with
her another ship, the Wilson B. Keene. It also destroyed a concrete
warehouse and a grain elevator and triggered even more fires. Almost
the entire fire department had been lost in the first explosion, along
with plant workers, dockworkers, school children, and other
bystanders. Windows rattled in Baytown and a fine mist of black oil
rained in Galveston.
, but they 
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