I Do Apologise For Quoting Shakespeare
Seemed apt, somehow. Okay, let us have a look at ammonium nitrate for starters. That this stuff is potentially dangerous is evinced by the 'Nitrate' part, because humble inert nitrogen when paired with oxygen and hydrogen becomes explosive. Very explosive. Art!
It's also great as a fertiliser, which is when one gets a feeling that chemistry shouldn't have such a sense of irony. You probably recall the appalling disaster in Beirut that happened when long-neglected ammonium nitrate in storage exploded, despite warnings having been issued for years about it. Art!
The Lebanese authorities had absolutely no excuse for this blatant disregard, because there was an equally appalling disaster in South Canada, dating back to 1947, and also involving ammonium nitrate. Your Humble Scribe hadn't heard of it before today, which is surprising, since it was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.
It began with a ship, the SS Grandcamp. Art!
This baby was loaded with 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate (only slightly less than the amount stored at Beirut), loaded by dockers who smoked like chimneys on the job. After all, what could possibly go wrong? It was only fertiliser, right?
O so very wrong. The first sign of a problem was when smoke was noticed rising from the hold the next morning, so the captain shut the hatches and crossed his fingers, because putting water on the fertiliser would cost money in lost product!
After an hour - you are probably ahead of me here - the whole cargo went up in an enormous explosion, killing over 500 people and completely disintegrating the Grandcamp. Art!
The ship's anchor, which weighed two tons, was found a mile and a half away. The explosion caused lots of secondary fires and explosions, and whilst you may be thinking it can't get any worse, it did. Enter the SS High Flyer (more dark irony), carrying 850 tons of ammonium nitrate and 1,500 tons of sulphur. The initial explosion set the HF's cargo alight, which nobody seems to have noticed, presumably because they were all dead. The HF exploded a couple of hours after the Grandcamp, leaving the port practically flattened. Art!
Found a mile inland. With puny human for scale
It's regarded as the worst industrial accident in South Canadian history - 541 dead and 6,000 injured. And a sterling example of why you DO NOT treat fertiliser with complacence or familiarity.
Back To "The War Illustrated" Of 1943
I suppose in any logically-arranged blog the blogger would have gone back to Volume 1 and started from scratch, not dived in at Volume 7 four years into the Second Unpleasantness.
Well this is BOOJUM! and we sneer mockingly at logic, common sense and orderliness. Bring on the dancing hearses!
Allow me to explicate. That photo at top port is of General Anderson, OC First Army, and General Omar Bradley, one of the South Canadian's better commanders, having a bit of a chinwag. Next to it is a photo of South Canadians awaiting orders to advance, and Conrad can tell that they're using the 1903 Springfield, which was issued and used before the mighty Garand M1 came into use. Art!
The bottom photo is captioned "A British patrol out looking for snipers" and it doesn't look or feel staged to Your Humble Scribe. For one thing, all their weapons are unslung, which is done when you might need to use them at a moment's notice. Secondly, they're all keenly looking about in different directions, best practice if you're out in disputed territory. Thirdly, the patrol leader is carrying a tommy-gun (literally - a Thompson sub-machine gun) which will throw out a death-ray of lead in the case of a contact, allowing the rest to spread out and also engage.
And Now For More Pacific Matters
Thanks to the BBC's 'On the water' theme - Ha! Do you see what I - O you do. Art!
Courtesy Neils Andersen
This is one of the harbours in Greenland*, Ilullissat. No, it doesn't normally run to as many pieces of ice as there are boats. There had been a storm overnight, bringing pack ice into the harbour. Whilst it may be bright and sunny, it will still take a long time for that ice to melt. One of the pleasures of living on a continent-sized iceberg!
More Mundane Matters
As you should surely know by now, Conrad likes his food. It is a sad fact that MI5 or UNIT will doubtless ensnare him using a trap baited with - food, for the big greedy biffer cannot resist free food <the horrid truth courtesy Mister Hand!>.
Has that piker Mister Hand been traducing me again? The treacherous appendage!
ANYWAY let Art show you an artefact.
Neat, hmmmm? As an ex-biscuit tin it makes a fine lunchbox, with the salient feature being that it is LARGE. Conrad needs his viands, he's a growing lad**.
"The Sea Of Sand"
I should point out that all the period-specific kit mentioned is authentic and accurate, because Conrad is 1) thorough and 2) has a library of books about the Second Unpleasantness in North Africa.
Sighing, he pushed another
barrowful of sand up the spoil heap, reflecting that his puzzlement at least
had the benefit of passing the time. In
an hour or so the sun would be at it’s zenith and the whole team would spend
the hottest part of the day lying under canvas shelters, or make their way back
to camp.
Having
managed to put the most recent collection of sketches in order, with annotations
about them in the log book in English, schoolboy French and laborious Italian,
Roger went back into his tent to lie down and read for a little while. The sun was not yet at it’s peak and the
endless vistas of level rock, dust and sand quivered and throbbed with
heat. He continued with his dog-eared
volume of Keats, until boredom made him sit up again.
How dull and
dead this landscape was! The Nile valley
was positively idyllic compared to this,
he told himself, looking out of the unlaced tent. Even a breeze would only stir up the fine
dust outside, giving everything the appearance of being floured. Sure enough, the winds were blowing from the
north and stirring up a dirty grey blanket of grit.
‘It’s a
truck!’ he exclaimed in surprise a full minute later. ‘The supplies must be here early!’
Slowly the
moving dust cloud drew nearer, trailing a long hanging plume of grey behind
it. Roger saw a small car leading the
truck, making him frown. Who could that
be? Makan Al-Jinni was so remote that
there was no passing traffic. Only those
with business here ever travelled out this far – the supply truck, in the first
instance.
It's a salient point that this day is 20th June 1940. Go look it up.
Finally -
It's a good job I checked Rob's e-mail about tomorrow's tasks, since Conrad - confusingly also known as 'Rob' in the office - is off tomorrow, presumably because I'll be working Saturday. Except I'm not down on the rota for Saturday. Should I mention this or not? O the agony of my moral dilemma!
One decent thing about working on the weekend is that there is NO PHONE WORK, so I can play my music in the background. The Mars Volta here we come!
Hairy AND scary!
* Be advised, Greenland isn't green.
** Mostly horizontally! <Mister Hand strikes again!>
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