Great Eastern not quite sighted
Lee Ayrton
Briefly: the Great Eastern liner was a "cursed" ship that never turned a
profit and was disaster-prone. Here's a fairly standard recitation:
http://uniquenurses.blogspot.com/2008/04/ghost-ship-great-eastern.html
The reason given is that one of the shipyard workers was accidently sealed
up in her double hull during construction and discovered when she was
being broken up for scrap.
So it was with great surprise that I spotted this vessel while I was
working on the waterfront in South Boston (not my photos):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wbur/2543571822/in/set-72157605384680369/
Great Eastern tanker. Wonder if the crew knows the legend of the other
vessel?
For what it is worth, the tugs shown in the photo stream are up for sale.
Being single-engine vessels the DHS doesn't want them working on the same
waters as an LNG tanker (the GE is not an LNG tanker). Oh, and if you
attempt to photograph the LNG tanker transiting the harbor the USCG will
chase you down with an armed pursuit boat and yell at you. Never argue
with a someone in military uniform and pointing a .50 at you no matter
what you think your rights are.
Ad absurdum per aspera
> chase you down with an armed pursuit boat and yell at you. Never argue
> with a someone in military uniform and pointing a .50 at you no matter
> what you think your rights are.
Indeed, even if the uniform is from our burgeoning supply of public
and private police-like figures, and the gun is less formidable than
"Ma Deuce."
Could it be that what they were actually mad about was violating an
nnn-meter "moving exclusion zone" around such a tanker?
But back to another digression from the intended substance of your
posting: "...Being single-engine vessels the DHS doesn't want them
working on the same
waters as an LNG tanker..." Does DHS not think they can
successfully restrict what kinds of tugs work what kind of ships? Or
have malfunctioning single-engine tugs, helplessly adrift with the
current, been identified as a risk? Or what? I missed something
there...
(Not that the idea of LNG tankers coming into urban harbors rather
than specialized offshore terminals hasn't worried some people, from
various standpoints, since long before 9/11...)
--Joe
Lon
LNG? BOA?
I'd be more worried about a freighter full of fertilizer
Keith F. Lynch
> LNG? BOA?
Liquid Natural Gas. Ban On Acronyms. You're welcome.
> I'd be more worried about a freighter full of fertilizer
I'd be more worried about a freighter full of explosives.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.
Ad absurdum per aspera
> > I'd be more worried about a freighter full of fertilizer
> I'd be more worried about a freighter full of explosives.
> Seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion
Ammonium nitrate, especially if confined, *is* a (low detonation
velocity) explosive and is widely used as such, especially in a
mixture with fuel oil.
Though Halifax, which involved military munitions (including rather a
lot of picric acid, not much used in bulk anymore but an important
military explosive in those days) ranks as the worst single disaster
of that nature, ammonium nitrate has it by count, and has been
involved in several "there but for the grace of God" events, where a
massive blast was averted or muffled in some way or occurred well away
from a city.
--Joe
Canth
Galveston Texas April 16, 1947
SS Grandcamp -
- Exploded 2300 tons of Ammonium Nitrate & small Arms ammunition,
- Ignited bales of sisal twine on deck blown across city, as was 6,000
tons of steel.
By chain reaction:
SS High Flyer -
- Exploded 960 tons of ammonium Nitrate & 1800 tons of Sulphur
- Exploded Additional ammonium nitrate in warehouses adjacent, plus
the Monsanto Chemical plant and other refineries.
AS! ds++:+++ a++ c+++ p++ t+ f-- S+ p+ e++ h++ r++ n++ i+ P+ m++ M
Hatunen
<jtc...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> > I'd be more worried about a freighter full of fertilizer
>
>> I'd be more worried about a freighter full of explosives.
>> Seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion
>
>Ammonium nitrate, especially if confined, *is* a (low detonation
>velocity) explosive and is widely used as such, especially in a
>mixture with fuel oil.
Ammonium nitrate was the explosive used in the Oklahoma City
bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. It was also the explosive
that caused the 1947 Texas City disaster.
http://www.local1259iaff.org/disaster.html
--
************* DAVE HATUNEN (hat...@cox.net) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *
Ad absurdum per aspera
> Ammonium nitrate was the explosive used in the Oklahoma City
> bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. It was also the explosive
> that caused the 1947 Texas City disaster.http://www.local1259iaff.org/disaster.html
Another one in the "could have been much worse" (but for some bravery
in towing a burning ship as far out of the harbor as they could)
category was in Brest just a few months later. There have also been
several examples of chemical plants, making either fertilizers or
munitions, blowing up as they did one thing or another with ammonium
nitrate, and of truck trailers and so forth catching fire and blowing
up).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_nitrate_disasters
It ain't nitro, but it can and does brew up (even straight rather than
mixed with fuel oil), and because of its uses, people tend to haul
around or store quite a bit of it in one place. Occasionally, whether
due to poor handling and storage practices, malfeasance, or bad luck,
this humble and useful chemical turns on its masters and bites hard.
--Joe
Lon
Other than Texas City, perhaps.
Richard Casady
wrote:
>Other than Texas City, perhaps.
Killed my father.
Casady
David DeLaney
>Lon <lon.s...@comcast.net> wrote:
>>Other than Texas City, perhaps.
>
>Killed my father.
My condolences. Belatedly.
Dave "also, 'six fingers / prepare to die'?" DeLaney
--
\/David DeLaney posting from d...@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.
Richard Casady
DeLaney) wrote:
>Richard Casady <richar...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>>Lon <lon.s...@comcast.net> wrote:
>>>Other than Texas City, perhaps.
>>
>>Killed my father.
>
>My condolences. Belatedly.
I was born three weeks later. He was the manager of Monsanto's finest
plant. Seven hundred feet from the ship. The raw material came in a
pipe from Union Carbide. My mother married a guy from Des Moines a
year later. So I know very little about it compared to those who hung
around. It was a French ship with French " No Smoking " signs. Bags
were labeled " Fertilizer ". Today most blasting is done with the
stuff, as it is dirt cheap. Today the taconite miners shoot hundreds
of tons at a time.
Casady
Casady
Mac
> On Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:41:27 -0500, d...@gatekeeper.vic.com (David
>
> DeLaney) wrote:
> >>Lon <lon.stow...@comcast.net> wrote:
> >>>Other than Texas City, perhaps.
>
> >>Killed my father.
>
> >My condolences. Belatedly.
>
> I was born three weeks later. He was the manager of Monsanto's finest
> plant. Seven hundred feet from the ship. The raw material came in a
> pipe from Union Carbide. My mother married a guy from Des Moines a
> year later. So I know very little about it compared to those who hung
> around. It was a French ship with French " No Smoking " signs. Bags
> were labeled " Fertilizer ". Today most blasting is done with the
> stuff, as it is dirt cheap. Today the taconite miners shoot hundreds
> of tons at a time.
At "almost the same" time. Even anfo needs a little care in
staggering in competent rock, or you might have some unexpected
results.
Mac
PS: or were you talking about coyote blasting?