Comments on: The Halifax Disaster

By: Dr.B.

Dr.B. — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:51:45 +0000

There are some curious similarities between the Halifax Disaster of 1917 and the Texas City Texas Disaster of 1947. The Mont-Blanc in Halifax and the Grand Camp in Texas City were both French registered. The HMS Highflyer was involved in Halifax and the SS High Flyer was involved in Texas City. Both explosions involved ships carrying ammonium nitrate. Both explosions propelled debris miles away from the site of the explosion killing and injuring victims in the process. In both cases a tsunami was generated following the initial explosion. Very little had been learned in the 30 years between these disasters.

By: hat_eater

hat_eater — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:04:33 +0000

I discovered recently this site and while digging in the archive I noticed that people here voiced outrage concerning actions of Haakon From, the captain of Imo. I bothered to read the full story on http://www.halifaxexplosion.org/ and as usual, it isn’t as clear cut as it seems on the surface. While entering the Narrows, the captain of Imo was forced to proceed down the wrong side of the channel because American tramp steamer piloted by Edward Renner decided to pass it on the wrong side and did not yield. Later, Mr From was unable to return his ship to the proper lane because it was passing tug Stella Maris with two barges in tow. And then it was too late – perhaps knowing the effect that the huge 20 foot screw had on the maneuvreability of his vessel the captain figured that the smaller Mont Blanc had bigger chance to evade.
Of course he should have had proceeded more slowly, especially knowing that he goes essentially into the traffic.

By: BenKinsey

BenKinsey — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:59:26 +0000

Playing chicken. I’ve seen it played in old movies but I had no idea it was a watersport. I think that it is hilarious that someone could be SO stupid, I mean come on.

By: Rachelita

Rachelita — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:01:28 +0000

I hope the captain of the offending ship was shot for that… seriously. :(
All of that because he wasn’t following the rules.

By: Jatt

Jatt — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 16:14:19 +0000

That explosion's pretty cool, especially the water plume and the black cloud that shoots out after the main explosion.

It's also funny how those sailors go running for shelter at the end from the water coming...what did they think would happen? :)

By: ronangel

ronangel — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 21:01:26 +0000

Entropy462 said: “uhh … 2,700 tonnes = 5,952,481.08 pounds

your little eod video … while fantastic as it is = 350,000 pounds

so take about 18 of those explosions … and mash ‘em all together”

Here is another underwater explosion of a barge full of ww2 explosives which they did not know about when
blowing up something else. I think the shaking at the end is the seaquake shock wave from below hitting them
notice no disturbance to surface water yet….
http://www.ssrichardmontgomery.com/download/movies/underwater_explosion.wmv
(copy and paste into your browser)

By: Entropy462

Entropy462 — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 19:25:22 +0000

mfilip62 said: "2,700 tons is not much;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaPTTVRavoc"

uhh ... 2,700 tonnes = 5,952,481.08 pounds your little eod video ... while fantastic as it is = 350,000 pounds so take about 18 of those explosions ... and mash 'em all together

By: ronangel

ronangel — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 06:43:37 +0000

program COAST BBC2 (uk) (repeat) 19:00-20:00 weds 20 dec 2006 has interesting piece about ss richard montgomery (in last 10 mins of program)

for those of you that missed the program, or not it uk. link to small (5MB)
4m 14secs clip from program below just part about the ship.

http://www.ssrichardmontgomery.com/download/movies/montbbccoast8.wmv

(copy and paste into your browser)