🚨MV Ruby just shifted anchorage closer to shore and inside the territorial waters of England. The weather is probably the factor with 20+ knot winds and 6 foot swells. It moved in closer for calmer water. It is now 10 nautical miles NE of Margate.🚨 CORRECTION: The ship off London is the SS Richard Montgomery vice Robert Montgomery.
@@wgowshipping maybe it worth making a video about that ship - work should have started to take stress off the wreck last/this year but it was never stated - they were going to remove the rigging/poles/cranes from the wreck
I've been angry with the way our (I'm in the UK) media has covered this. They are low-effort, lazy, chumps. It's been sensationalised nonsense, infuriating.
What is the media? Everyone is tuned in to their own stations. Fear mongers crying wolf, distracting us, while it already feasts on the flock. Back to word of mouth but with upvotes and subscribes. I trust this guy because it all adds up with everything else I know, he asks proper questions and knows proper protocol for fuck ups and failures. Which means he knows shit which is more than I can say for half the media, or at least the half they try to show me.
I always had a nasty feeling when I sailed past the wreck. Something my boat did while she was stationed the Thames Estuary carrying out parachute mine patrols WWII. She moored at Queensburgh and Chatham.
Thanks for putting this media story into perspective. You mentioned you had worked with supply ships at Dieago Garcia. Have you considered a video about Dieago Garcia? What it is, why it is important for military maritime logistics, the international politics at play there, and China's influence via Mauritius and that country's sovereignty claim to Dieago Garcia.
Without having a fuel, Ammonium nitrate isn't that much of a risk. Mining typically used AmFo(Ammonum nitrate(oxidizer) plus fuel oil_fuel)) as their explosive of choice, the same as was used in the Oklahoma City bombing in the 90's.
@@robg9236 That stored cargo had become unstable from humidity etc and the explosion although spectacular in its intensity was not as powerful without an accelerant like diesel which 'raven' speaks of. Texas was Anhydrous ammonia set off after a gas line rupture.
Not quite true. As it decomposes into (from memory) Nitrous Oxide (Ooops) it is an exothermic reaction (creates HEAT) just like a runaway lithium battery it goes Boom. And this boat off england has 7x the quantity of the Beruit ship.
Thank you Sal you are an international treasure. I have been following Maritime Executive’s postings. I sincerely hope your post gets vast distribution to underline that transport of dangerous goods by sea is business as usual, and there are rational everyday mitigations to address the risks of bulk ammonium nitrate. Maritime Executive speaks to the possible offloading of the cargo onto smaller vessels so that Ruby can safely enter dry dock for repairs. Your illustration of the blast potential was particularly helpful. Needless to say, of equal or greater concern is the potential environmental damage should the vessel go down, and the disruption to shipping in such a case where shipping lanes will have to shift to prevent further contamination of surrounding waters by the action of maritime traffic. Thank you for bringing the temperature down on this one 🇨🇦
Im not sure why this is even a story. People need to visit Houston/Galveston ports, channels, the ICW. My grandfather was in Texas City the day the Grandcamp was burning, calling on his customers. They wanted him to go down to the docks and watch the ship burn. He was a contankerous Scotch-Irishman, with and attitude and a small child at home and no time or patience for such BS. His friends/customers perished. My son is a MM and sailed on coastal shuttle tankers hauling crude and refined product. I asked him which he considered more dangerous, Crude or Gasoline. Answer: Crude.
What business did this captain have demanding Norway provide him with a harbor? He had sailed from a Russian port with a Russian cargo. This was a Russian problem. He should have returned to Russia. Any scheme to deal with this sort of problem should, first and foremost, impose demands on the exporting country not this confusing array of holding companies etc.
Ammonium Nitrate is does not become explosive at temperatures below about 260 degrees Celsius. This is why it is considered generally "safe" and therefore finds so much use in the mining industry, where it is being use as in "Teriary" form meaning, two more ingredients are needed to turn it readily into explosive. In such case the actual explosive compound is mixed with long-molecular-fuel (such as mazut) and a more sensitive initiator (like PETN) is used to start the blast. On the other hand the "Ruby" carries 20,000 tons of AN, while the famous 2020 Beirut explosion is reported to be composed of (only) about 2750 tons of AN. Of course, no one yet knows what else the Hisbullah was hiding around the bulk silos where the AN was stored. The real present danger is unlikely to come from the Russians, rather the true danger could come form non-state actors who can take advantage of the AN and turn it with relative ease into ANFO, using the Mazut taken from the ships fuel tanks.
That is what confused me with the whole thing as their is more AN held at a couple of ports in the UK than is on the Ruby. You also need other other components to make it really go boom because it is an oxidizing agent not an explosive but then you have daft headlines everywhere here like Russian bomb ship anchored off of the coast. I do wonder if some of it is a remnant of the fertiliser bomb being the go to during the troubles
My family is from Halifax. The only reason that I am here today is because my great grandfather went to sea at 12 years old and was not there when the disaster took place taking out the entire town.
When government bureaucrats get involved, anything thing is possible! The ship itself and its cargo is not currently a problem! Unless the government turns it into one!
Tow it to Kaliningrad or St Petersburg (Leningrad in old money). I'm sure that load will be better behaved in a Russian Port. After all they loaded it.
@@markkulehtinen4733 The Russians don't want it there either. The reason it sailed from Kandalaksha was because the Russians were worried about a Ukrainian drone hitting something like this in a big port.
Sal I would never would ? You on your knowledge on anything to do with shipping. I have learned so much from you since the incident with the Dali, & the Francis Scott Key bridge. Thank You for keeping us informed on what is going on with shipping.
Good job giving factual information based on research, I’ve found others on YT news channels saying things like it’s carrying 7x more fertiliser than that which exploded in Beirut, therefore, the blast would be 7x greater, I’m sure physics is not that simple. The environmental hazard presented by this ship as you say, is much more of a concern and longer lasting.
LNG... I was at an academy in the late '80s into the '90s. I remember people talking about the extra rules that LNG carriers had to follow. Even in the early days of tracing and monitoring vessels, those LNG tankers had to be tracked live by satellites. One day, one of the blips on the screen disappeared. When it came time to search for jobs, I was fortunate to find work on other types of vessels. But I've always thought of that crew that disappeared from existence in seconds. MV Ruby has brought awareness to new laymen about hazardous cargo. But they ignore the thousands of trains that run past their doorsteps daily. I have turned down residence opportunities in great accommodations when I learned how close they were to railyards and junctions. The potential for various cargos to interact in a disaster is not something that I take lightly. In all transportation, we have designed many safety features and procedures to keep us safe. But I'll keep that extra buffer of mileage and terrain for when systems fail.
I live in Alaska where we have a plant that used to make amonium nitrate. They would have a ship come in every 2 weeks to load it and leave. This plant made 15,000 tons of amonium nitrate a week. In the 30 years the plant was operational there wad never an issue. There is a natural gas liquification plant right next door and a major oil refinery a half mile away.
Maybe somebody on this channel knows how to run geoclaw to simulate the waves that would result from such an explosion. I can eyeball it enough to know it would not be worse than a big storm in aggregate, but I don't know if that position and the shoreline and the underwater landscape might amplify it in some particular areas.
That area was used to unload explosives prior to ships going into Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and load them prior to deploying . Large ships could not go up to Concord Naval Ammunition Depot. During the Viet Nam war people would see the ships being loaded and constantly call saying that the ship had a bomb on it .
@@fox280-c4p I can’t say whether that should be a concern as I don’t know enough about the situation. But I think grounding in poor weather or being dumped on the UK to deal with because there’s no other option is a real risk. I’ll look tomorrow to see if it’s made it through the channel
@@fox280-c4p oh no, it’s not in that direction. The channel is the gap between England and France. It’s a busy area as any shipping going south/north Europe needs to pass through the channel, as well as traffic between the Dover and Calais. If they get through the channel then they need to head south either into the Bay of Biscay which is pretty rough at the moment or out to the Atlantic. If it’s damaged that might not be possible
TLDR but my under stand from this video is: Nitrogen fertilizer has never ever been transported portioned across a single boat.. and in particular this boat has a nuclear bomb.
I would have thought if it was a Russian plot they would have chosen the chose point between Dover and Calais then you'd get a trio (UK, France and Belgium) with further disruption to the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.
As a former battle watch captain I was never directly involved with the anchoring with the preposition ships but was aware of the responsibility. I burst out laughing with your long form version of, “how do I know, when I was at MSC this was in charge of this”.
The Beirut consignment was bagged, in a heap in the middle of the warehouse, about 2700 tonnes, which degraded. A load of fireworks was next door. Someone welding set fire to them, spreading an accelerant over the bags, which detonated sympathetically. This ship has about 20 000 tonnes of unknown ancestry. The nuke calculator is for land-based explosions - detonation waves over water don't degrade, although the cubic expansion remains the same. Different things. More importantly, the ammo's underwater.
There are two types of ammonium nitrate. There is a farm grade which can't explode and a commercial grade which is used for mining and other commercial uses. It would be nice to know which is on that vessel.
They are essentially the same and this could be used for either but it has almost certainly been purchased for fertilizer. It is a fairly stable product, it requires a sizable secondary explosive to set it off.
Timothy Mcvay, used"farm grade AN" so it can indeed go bang. Having said that straight AN isnt as common on farms anymore. Often times calcium is added to the mix to make CaAN, the calcium helps stabalize and safen the AN and as a side benefit is also benefitial to crops.
@@criticalevent In America, at least in certain states, farmers can buy the commercial grade and use it as fertilizer. I am not sure about the price difference or difference in crop performance. In many countries (i.e. Canada) the commercial grade is restricted and controlled so only certain companies can get it
@@ramrod9556 I think the main difference is the explosive is reduced to a powder and the fertilizer is granules with a lot of air space. Once you mix it with fuel oil for illicit purposes though, I don't know if it makes much difference.
The Navy has been developing USVs. It seems to me having a large USV that could pull up alongside a ship in distress to offload a dangerous cargo is an ideal solution. Obviously, that’s years down the road, but something to work on.
A close friend that was responsible for coordinating and routing in the transportation sector for 30 years told me if people knew how fragile the distribution network was with "just in time" they wouldn't be able to sleep at night.
So many of these ships are just floating liabilities. And every time something goes wrong, its up to the unlucky government where it happens to deal with the problems and pay the bills.
I read a science fiction book a few years ago where a bad guy planned to secretly a ship loaded with LNG would be taken into a Japanese port. Then a large hole would be opened so the frigid liquid gas would pour out and fill the harbor with a layer several feet thick and miles across. Then at some point the inevitable spark would set it off. The harbor was surrounded by mountains, and the huge blast would level the entire city. I don't recall the name of the book.
Thank you for the clarity and accurate information on this. There is so much hyped up information on any topic these days that rational, factual information is so important. Yes, I was one who asked about it😊
The photo showing the Denmark Straight and a ship about to pass under the Storebaelt Bridge. Just about where the ship is there's a railroad tunnel runs from Halsskovvej to the isle of Sprogo where it then runs alongside road traffic on the viaduct.
Thanks Sal! Wish more people would understand and communicate this as well as you! The blast in Lebanon was actually in a warehouse right in the middle of a built up area- not miles away from shore. And to be fair, the stuff sat their for months before someone put a firework into it. Also, lets face it...Lebanon isnt the most secure place in the world!
I don't expect governments, especially the UK, to act sensibly, to react seems to be more their style. I am not a seaman, so this is more in nature of a question. Would it not be possible to send tenders alongside to offload the fertilizer? It is not as though they couldn't use it. Don't be chintcy, pay a reasonable price, and get it done.
I see 0 chance that this is a Russian ploy. Russia needs the hard currency from exports, setting off a ship with one of these export items shuts that currency pipeline down. Bottom line the currency is more important then anything an explosion would yield.
I agree with everything but the thought that the AN is bagged. I’m betting it’s bulk. The way to tell was how long it was at the dock. Second you could do a satellite view and see if there are bags of AN on the docks or warehouses.
I live in Portsmouth and due to a risk of an accident during bombing up shipping especially in the age of sail we have another area away from the main port (the area is now a museum called explosion)
"we" ? I noticed you say "we" a lot , are you actually involved in the investigation in all these issues on the world's oceans? Or is we just everyone that reports on them?
I would argue that Mother Nature is our greatest threat, but we have no control over her. We do have some control over this, so we must exercise that control to keep the ocean safe and to prevent the loss of life.
🚨MV Ruby just shifted anchorage closer to shore and inside the territorial waters of England. The weather is probably the factor with 20+ knot winds and 6 foot swells. It moved in closer for calmer water. It is now 10 nautical miles NE of Margate.🚨
CORRECTION: The ship off London is the SS Richard Montgomery vice Robert Montgomery.
Is there any danger to the uk
@@wgowshipping maybe it worth making a video about that ship - work should have started to take stress off the wreck last/this year but it was never stated - they were going to remove the rigging/poles/cranes from the wreck
Do u have to go through London to get to the Dover straight
Not as bad as it was first made out to be by The Thames Newspaper, Times Radio, thank goodness. Thx Sam
@@fox280-c4p only if it goes bang
I like the Freudian slip - "ammunition nitrate" lol
Oops
I caught that as well.😂
Serenity Shipping …Really ..? Cause I don’t got a peaceful easy feeling… ..
Sounds a bit like "Outer Fringe Exports"..
I've been angry with the way our (I'm in the UK) media has covered this. They are low-effort, lazy, chumps. It's been sensationalised nonsense, infuriating.
What is the media? Everyone is tuned in to their own stations. Fear mongers crying wolf, distracting us, while it already feasts on the flock. Back to word of mouth but with upvotes and subscribes. I trust this guy because it all adds up with everything else I know, he asks proper questions and knows proper protocol for fuck ups and failures. Which means he knows shit which is more than I can say for half the media, or at least the half they try to show me.
I would be more concerned about the SS Montgomery than the Ruby.
Are they never going to resolve that one?
Bari vs Halifax on the Thames
The SS Montgomery has been dangerous for years. It was partially unloaded years ago, but too hazardous to totally unload.
I always had a nasty feeling when I sailed past the wreck.
Something my boat did while she was stationed the Thames Estuary carrying out parachute mine patrols WWII. She moored at Queensburgh and Chatham.
@@janwhite6038 they were going to remove the masts June 2023 and take some other measures to make the wreck more stable but that work was not started
You took the request right out of my mind Sal. Much appreciated. You pre-empted most of us with this very timely presentation!
Fun fact: Wikipedias list of "Largest accidental artificial non-nuclear explosions" is about 50% Amonium Nitrate.
Wikipedia is also full of bullshit information, don't believe everything you read
Dont forget about the SS Richard Montgomery!
If these two meet...
Ah you mentioned it!
Sound sense and reporting from you, Sal.
what could go wrong?!
Excellent, level-headed, analysis. Thank you Sal! 👍
Credit to Dr. Alex Wellerstein for the Nuke Map
In Texas City, 15 miles away. Used to be Anchor Park.
Thanks for putting this media story into perspective. You mentioned you had worked with supply ships at Dieago Garcia. Have you considered a video about Dieago Garcia? What it is, why it is important for military maritime logistics, the international politics at play there, and China's influence via Mauritius and that country's sovereignty claim to Dieago Garcia.
Have a look back to 1917 Mont-Blanc explosion near Halifax, Nova Scotia for another bad day.
excellent! Thanks for the completely sane account of matters. No need to get all worked up about this>
I more worried about the SS Montgomery
Nobody seems to want a date with this girl.
Without having a fuel, Ammonium nitrate isn't that much of a risk. Mining typically used AmFo(Ammonum nitrate(oxidizer) plus fuel oil_fuel)) as their explosive of choice, the same as was used in the Oklahoma City bombing in the 90's.
What about Beirut?
And the the texas explosion sal mentioned.
@@robg9236 That stored cargo had become unstable from humidity etc and the explosion although spectacular in its intensity was not as powerful without an accelerant like diesel which 'raven' speaks of. Texas was Anhydrous ammonia set off after a gas line rupture.
Not quite true. As it decomposes into (from memory) Nitrous Oxide (Ooops) it is an exothermic reaction (creates HEAT) just like a runaway lithium battery it goes Boom. And this boat off england has 7x the quantity of the Beruit ship.
@@madpete6438 2 NH4NO3 > 2 N2(G) + O2(G) + 4 H2O(G)
Thank you Sal you are an international treasure. I have been following Maritime Executive’s postings. I sincerely hope your post gets vast distribution to underline that transport of dangerous goods by sea is business as usual, and there are rational everyday mitigations to address the risks of bulk ammonium nitrate. Maritime Executive speaks to the possible offloading of the cargo onto smaller vessels so that Ruby can safely enter dry dock for repairs. Your illustration of the blast potential was particularly helpful. Needless to say, of equal or greater concern is the potential environmental damage should the vessel go down, and the disruption to shipping in such a case where shipping lanes will have to shift to prevent further contamination of surrounding waters by the action of maritime traffic. Thank you for bringing the temperature down on this one 🇨🇦
Never mind the potential explosion, how far would the wave surge go?
Serenity now!
lol
Im not sure why this is even a story. People need to visit Houston/Galveston ports, channels, the ICW. My grandfather was in Texas City the day the Grandcamp was burning, calling on his customers. They wanted him to go down to the docks and watch the ship burn. He was a contankerous Scotch-Irishman, with and attitude and a small child at home and no time or patience for such BS. His friends/customers perished. My son is a MM and sailed on coastal shuttle tankers hauling crude and refined product. I asked him which he considered more dangerous, Crude or Gasoline. Answer: Crude.
Thanks so much Sal Well explained.I was worried about the back and forth.
It's good to rely on a knowledgeable person describing an issue in measured tones. Thanks!
There would be a Tsunami from the explosion. Would that be enough to damage the land areas? My guess, probably not.
Wouldnt cause a tsunami
not beruit...Halifax. in 1917, Mont-Blanc Collided with SS Imo and detonated with a force of 2.9 kilotons. Beruit was 1.1.
Thanks Sal for clearing up the BS British news was passing out.. Jon from UK..
What business did this captain have demanding Norway provide him with a harbor? He had sailed from a Russian port with a Russian cargo. This was a Russian problem. He should have returned to Russia. Any scheme to deal with this sort of problem should, first and foremost, impose demands on the exporting country not this confusing array of holding companies etc.
33 knot winds and high seas forced him to seek shelter.
Any port in a storm!
Ammonium Nitrate is does not become explosive at temperatures below about 260 degrees Celsius. This is why it is considered generally "safe" and therefore finds so much use in the mining industry, where it is being use as in "Teriary" form meaning, two more ingredients are needed to turn it readily into explosive. In such case the actual explosive compound is mixed with long-molecular-fuel (such as mazut) and a more sensitive initiator (like PETN) is used to start the blast. On the other hand the "Ruby" carries 20,000 tons of AN, while the famous 2020 Beirut explosion is reported to be composed of (only) about 2750 tons of AN. Of course, no one yet knows what else the Hisbullah was hiding around the bulk silos where the AN was stored. The real present danger is unlikely to come from the Russians, rather the true danger could come form non-state actors who can take advantage of the AN and turn it with relative ease into ANFO, using the Mazut taken from the ships fuel tanks.
I've been watching this one, too. Looks like the UK isn't panicking, but where can it offload? You can't be sparking with welding on the hull...
I sailed with Sealift Command as well
That is what confused me with the whole thing as their is more AN held at a couple of ports in the UK than is on the Ruby. You also need other other components to make it really go boom because it is an oxidizing agent not an explosive but then you have daft headlines everywhere here like Russian bomb ship anchored off of the coast.
I do wonder if some of it is a remnant of the fertiliser bomb being the go to during the troubles
My family is from Halifax. The only reason that I am here today is because my great grandfather went to sea at 12 years old and was not there when the disaster took place taking out the entire town.
bigger problem is, if it gets offloaded and cargo put in temp place and ending up in legal limbo,
think UK version of 2020 Beirut explosion
When government bureaucrats get involved, anything thing is possible!
The ship itself and its cargo is not currently a problem!
Unless the government turns it into one!
All 11/2 mile anchors should get a plaque.
Thank You for everything that You do 💙💜🎯🎯
Tow it to Kaliningrad or St Petersburg (Leningrad in old money). I'm sure that load will be better behaved in a Russian Port. After all they loaded it.
The ship is not going through the Danish Channel. Nobody, maybe except the Russians, want's in the Baltic Sea.
@@markkulehtinen4733 The Russians don't want it there either. The reason it sailed from Kandalaksha was because the Russians were worried about a Ukrainian drone hitting something like this in a big port.
Another great report, thanks Sal!
They ship AN all the time. It's only dangerous if the cargo is sprayed with diesel or another accelerant.
Not really, Ammonium Nitrate will decompose explosively if heated high enough!
It does have to get pretty hot.
Sal I would never would ? You on your knowledge on anything to do with shipping. I have learned so much from you since the incident with the Dali, & the Francis Scott Key bridge. Thank You for keeping us informed on what is going on with shipping.
Good job giving factual information based on research, I’ve found others on YT news channels saying things like it’s carrying 7x more fertiliser than that which exploded in Beirut, therefore, the blast would be 7x greater, I’m sure physics is not that simple. The environmental hazard presented by this ship as you say, is much more of a concern and longer lasting.
The Ruby is underway but seems to be heading north. The port of Felixstowe maybe? Edit: it was underway but now it’s showing at anchor again.
LNG...
I was at an academy in the late '80s into the '90s. I remember people talking about the extra rules that LNG carriers had to follow. Even in the early days of tracing and monitoring vessels, those LNG tankers had to be tracked live by satellites. One day, one of the blips on the screen disappeared. When it came time to search for jobs, I was fortunate to find work on other types of vessels. But I've always thought of that crew that disappeared from existence in seconds.
MV Ruby has brought awareness to new laymen about hazardous cargo. But they ignore the thousands of trains that run past their doorsteps daily. I have turned down residence opportunities in great accommodations when I learned how close they were to railyards and junctions. The potential for various cargos to interact in a disaster is not something that I take lightly. In all transportation, we have designed many safety features and procedures to keep us safe. But I'll keep that extra buffer of mileage and terrain for when systems fail.
I live in Alaska where we have a plant that used to make amonium nitrate. They would have a ship come in every 2 weeks to load it and leave. This plant made 15,000 tons of amonium nitrate a week. In the 30 years the plant was operational there wad never an issue. There is a natural gas liquification plant right next door and a major oil refinery a half mile away.
Maybe somebody on this channel knows how to run geoclaw to simulate the waves that would result from such an explosion. I can eyeball it enough to know it would not be worse than a big storm in aggregate, but I don't know if that position and the shoreline and the underwater landscape might amplify it in some particular areas.
Thanks for the info. You’re sooooooo much better than the news blurb I heard about this topic.
Sal nice shirts Cap
Flying anchors are very much an oxymoron sight to see
Thanks Sal
Thanks Sal for expert coverage!
Don't give the state dept any excuses....
Halifax called and asked " hey what are we, Chopped Herring?"
he ends with it at 13:50
@@scout2nutLove comments without watching the whole video.
Ruby needs to calm down
Ruby, for God's sake, turn around. 🎶🎶
Thanks for doing this one Sal!
When you don't know what to do do nothing
Russia needs to deal with its bomb
Am I another Beirut?
Not a ship I'd want to be on
Good afternoon Sal.
"Tormsø" or "Tromsø"?
Nice work sal
Can't believe you claim to know more than some guy that lives in his moms basement and spends all day on social media. Leave it to the experts Sal! 😊
You are right. Stupid me.
Seem to recall there was an area of San Francisco Bay East of the SF Bay Bridge to anchor ships with explosive cargo.
There is. It was for Naval Weapons Station Coronado
That area was used to unload explosives prior to ships going into Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and load them prior to deploying . Large ships could not go up to Concord Naval Ammunition Depot. During the Viet Nam war people would see the ships being loaded and constantly call saying that the ship had a bomb on it .
Sunion, not So-union, Saaaal.
😊😊😊
The Greek place is "Σούνιον".
USNS Arctic
Exactly right Sal... They have been shipping fertilizer for so many years... The port explosion was a way different situation and the root cause...
Just seen the latest and the ruby is on the move how would it reach the Dover straight
Yeah looks like it’s underway (seems to have a tug along side). Wind and rain down here on the channel so not ideal conditions
@@VonononieI'm genuinely scared incase it is to do with Russia
@@fox280-c4p I can’t say whether that should be a concern as I don’t know enough about the situation. But I think grounding in poor weather or being dumped on the UK to deal with because there’s no other option is a real risk. I’ll look tomorrow to see if it’s made it through the channel
Dose the channel go through London though
@@fox280-c4p oh no, it’s not in that direction. The channel is the gap between England and France. It’s a busy area as any shipping going south/north Europe needs to pass through the channel, as well as traffic between the Dover and Calais. If they get through the channel then they need to head south either into the Bay of Biscay which is pretty rough at the moment or out to the Atlantic. If it’s damaged that might not be possible
Thanks!
Hey Sal…
I’m
Building
My
LEGO
Globe
As
I
Watch…!👍🏽❤️
Guys...Ammonium nitrate isn't the same as ANFO...
no fo
ANFO is a mixture of AN and diesel fuel ( fuel oil, the FO in ANFO)
Doesn't England have enough time bombs - counting the SS Richard Montgomery sunk by incompetence in the Thames during WWII?
Why didn't they just turn around and go back to where they came from. I mean they grounded right after leaving port.
TLDR but my under stand from this video is: Nitrogen fertilizer has never ever been transported portioned across a single boat.. and in particular this boat has a nuclear bomb.
I would have thought if it was a Russian plot they would have chosen the chose point between Dover and Calais then you'd get a trio (UK, France and Belgium) with further disruption to the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.
As a former battle watch captain I was never directly involved with the anchoring with the preposition ships but was aware of the responsibility. I burst out laughing with your long form version of, “how do I know, when I was at MSC this was in charge of this”.
When I was in the USN on nuclear submarines, whenever we pulled into Hong Kong we always had to pull into the "Dangerous Goods" anchorage.
4:25 It is the RICHARD Montgomery, not the ROBERT Montgomery.
The Beirut consignment was bagged, in a heap in the middle of the warehouse, about 2700 tonnes, which degraded. A load of fireworks was next door. Someone welding set fire to them, spreading an accelerant over the bags, which detonated sympathetically.
This ship has about 20 000 tonnes of unknown ancestry.
The nuke calculator is for land-based explosions - detonation waves over water don't degrade, although the cubic expansion remains the same. Different things. More importantly, the ammo's underwater.
There are two types of ammonium nitrate. There is a farm grade which can't explode and a commercial grade which is used for mining and other commercial uses. It would be nice to know which is on that vessel.
They are essentially the same and this could be used for either but it has almost certainly been purchased for fertilizer. It is a fairly stable product, it requires a sizable secondary explosive to set it off.
Timothy Mcvay, used"farm grade AN" so it can indeed go bang. Having said that straight AN isnt as common on farms anymore. Often times calcium is added to the mix to make CaAN, the calcium helps stabalize and safen the AN and as a side benefit is also benefitial to crops.
@@criticalevent In America, at least in certain states, farmers can buy the commercial grade and use it as fertilizer. I am not sure about the price difference or difference in crop performance. In many countries (i.e. Canada) the commercial grade is restricted and controlled so only certain companies can get it
@@ramrod9556 I think the main difference is the explosive is reduced to a powder and the fertilizer is granules with a lot of air space. Once you mix it with fuel oil for illicit purposes though, I don't know if it makes much difference.
The Navy has been developing USVs. It seems to me having a large USV that could pull up alongside a ship in distress to offload a dangerous cargo is an ideal solution. Obviously, that’s years down the road, but something to work on.
We'll take your word for it with regards to shipping Sal. Just don't wire up homes just yet.
A close friend that was responsible for coordinating and routing in the transportation sector for 30 years told me if people knew how fragile the distribution network was with "just in time" they wouldn't be able to sleep at night.
The Halifax explosion was the largest explosion before the Nuclear age.
Ship exploded and was amplified by the shallow channel.
So many of these ships are just floating liabilities. And every time something goes wrong, its up to the unlucky government where it happens to deal with the problems and pay the bills.
Ammonium nitrate-Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 😢😢😢😢😢😢
I read a science fiction book a few years ago where a bad guy planned to secretly a ship loaded with LNG would be taken into a Japanese port. Then a large hole would be opened so the frigid liquid gas would pour out and fill the harbor with a layer several feet thick and miles across. Then at some point the inevitable spark would set it off. The harbor was surrounded by mountains, and the huge blast would level the entire city. I don't recall the name of the book.
Thank you for the clarity and accurate information on this. There is so much hyped up information on any topic these days that rational, factual information is so important. Yes, I was one who asked about it😊
The photo showing the Denmark Straight and a ship about to pass under the Storebaelt Bridge. Just about where the ship is there's a railroad tunnel runs from Halsskovvej to the isle of Sprogo where it then runs alongside road traffic on the viaduct.
Thanks Sal! Wish more people would understand and communicate this as well as you! The blast in Lebanon was actually in a warehouse right in the middle of a built up area- not miles away from shore. And to be fair, the stuff sat their for months before someone put a firework into it. Also, lets face it...Lebanon isnt the most secure place in the world!
I don't expect governments, especially the UK, to act sensibly, to react seems to be more their style. I am not a seaman, so this is more in nature of a question. Would it not be possible to send tenders alongside to offload the fertilizer? It is not as though they couldn't use it. Don't be chintcy, pay a reasonable price, and get it done.
Can she be offloaded at sea? Small freighters tking the AN to safe places.????
Could us bound vessels instead of them going through the middle east go up the pacific and if so why aren't they
At your age the phrase, " another Beirut," should have a very different connotation. 😊
I see 0 chance that this is a Russian ploy. Russia needs the hard currency from exports, setting off a ship with one of these export items shuts that currency pipeline down. Bottom line the currency is more important then anything an explosion would yield.
I agree with everything but the thought that the AN is bagged. I’m betting it’s bulk. The way to tell was how long it was at the dock. Second you could do a satellite view and see if there are bags of AN on the docks or warehouses.
I live in Portsmouth and due to a risk of an accident during bombing up shipping especially in the age of sail we have another area away from the main port (the area is now a museum called explosion)
"we" ? I noticed you say "we" a lot , are you actually involved in the investigation in all these issues on the world's oceans? Or is we just everyone that reports on them?
Could it be offloaded while at sea? Yes, that would be slow and require calm waters, so maybe not. But if it could, then the ship could be docked.
I would argue that Mother Nature is our greatest threat, but we have no control over her. We do have some control over this, so we must exercise that control to keep the ocean safe and to prevent the loss of life.
Texas had one too! Took out a harbor.
Great salt water and ammonium nitrate, What could go wrong.