31 thoughts on “The Day New York City was Almost Destroyed: The 1943 Fire Aboard SS Elestero”
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Have you told the story of the July 17, 1944 ammunition explosion at a Navy pier in Port Chicago, 30 miles NE of San Francisco? Its effects was studied to gauge damage of an atomic bomb before Hiroshima. A “mutiny” by Black sailor ammo handlers in the aftermath sullied the event.
Great remembrance! Glad I wasn't there for the battle to save NY… (a side) I have a cousin named Lance I wonder what the history of the name Lance is? 😀 Thanks for your hard work…
Do you have an episode on Port Richmond explosion and mutiny of black ammo loaders? You left that off your list with Black Tom and Halifax. Also, there was an explosion at a Hercules powder plant in California that killed my great-uncle. Anything on stuff like that?
SS Richard Montgomery, an American Liberty cargo ship, wrecked on the Nore sandbank in the Thames Estuary, near Sheerness, Kent, England, in August 1944, while carrying a cargo of munitions. About 1,400 tonnes (1,500 short tons) of explosives remaining on board presents a hazard but the likelihood of explosion is claimed to be remote.
Sounds like my experience in the early 2000's. A lot of miserable sailors, hating life chipping paint or wiping oil. But when the call came, everyone stepped up. People join the USCG for that kind of mission, and they rush at the chance.
This was a very close call! You only need to learn about the damage to Halifax, N.S, Canada during WWI, when a ship caught fire and blew up, to have some idea of the scope for potential disaster to the New York City area had this ship blown up! It would have been the conventional explosive equivalent of Hiroshima at a minimum. It is very surprising that Authorities allowed such activities to take place in the first place, because we all know that was always require greater amounts of bigger and better explosives. New York is also fortunate that the wreck was removed as soon as possible after the event because there is a ship filled with explosives still submerged in a British harbour and the condition of that ship and its cargo gets worse by the day! Inaction is not a good solution to a problem. Mark from Melbourne Australia
Well had it exploded & NYC was flattened would have been comparable to a small nuclear bomb , a bit larger than the one dropped on Hiroshima (proper pronunciation: hero+she+ma). Considering the mindset of most Americans back then, Germans would of been blamed & who knows if the truth ever would of come out because all eyewitnesses would of died from the initial explosion.
It would of been good for Boston who would become the major eastern port, even better for Chicago who would have to be the nations new financial center. The city of New York, with virtually every high rise crumbled in rubble would have to wait until after the war because there wouldn’t be any men or women available to clean the mountains of debris. The myth the Germans did this would have possibly expedited war efforts speeding up completion of the Manhattan Project, sending scores of nuclear bombs dropping all over Germany & Japan. How could you convince a nation afterwards that we caused this, not the Germans?
When I was stationed at the shipping port of Dammam in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, we, as members of the US Army's Transportation Corp, off-loaded thousands of tons of ammunition of all kinds there. I remember leaving one of the ammo ships one night at the end of a 12 hour shift, when the Iraqis began firing Scud Missiles at the port. The US Patriot Missile Battery's opened up to intercept them, which they did, in mid air right over top the port. The explosions lit up the night skies like the Forth of July, and we were silently praying that none of the flaming metal debris came down on us because there was well over 100,000 tons of ammo already stored on the port, as well as six other fully loaded ammo ships tied up at the dock. The attack lasted for over an hour, and we really did luck out that night because the chain reaction that would have occurred would have resulted in one of the largest ammo explosions ever seen. We thanked our lucky stars to see the sun rise the following day.
Every Boy Scout, every Cub Scout, is taught you don't fight an oil fire with water. You need foam like they have at airports. But water is still pored onto ship fires.
This tale reminds of those hair-raising moments on television & film, like 'Star Trek' or 'MacGyver', where a bomb is set to go off, not allowing adequate time for an escape, but having the only hope for the protagonist and innocents, resting upon staying and diffusing the situation.
Invariably with the explosion stopped and disaster averted only after the countdown reaches :01.😆
2:44 what?? War wasnt coming here even if Germany had won. The allies (including Soviet Russia) made it total war. Taking over Europe was seen as essential to their survival.
Fascinating, hadn't heard of this before. On a related note, to this day there is an old Liberty Ship, the SS Richard Montgomery, just sumberged in shallow waters of the Thames Estuary, where it has been since sinking in 1944. It is still loaded with a formidable amount of explosive material, but it has always been judged too dangerous to try and disarm and remove the explosives from the wreck. Should it ever actually blow, the resulting explosion and shock wave would cause a substantial amount of damage to nearby English towns and faciities.
My Staten Island home overlooks the Kill Van Kull and Caven Point. It certainly would have been at the heart of the would-be explosion. My grandfather also owned a home on a hill in Tompkinsville with an unobstructed view. If it had blown, there's a good chance I wouldn't be here today.
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Have you told the story of the July 17, 1944 ammunition explosion at a Navy pier in Port Chicago, 30 miles NE of San Francisco? Its effects was studied to gauge damage of an atomic bomb before Hiroshima. A “mutiny” by Black sailor ammo handlers in the aftermath sullied the event.
Just look at the explosion in Beirut Lebanon a few years ago. Imagine that times 100.
Great remembrance! Glad I wasn't there for the battle to save NY… (a side) I have a cousin named Lance I wonder what the history of the name Lance is? 😀 Thanks for your hard work…
Do you have an episode on Port Richmond explosion and mutiny of black ammo loaders? You left that off your list with Black Tom and Halifax.
Also, there was an explosion at a Hercules powder plant in California that killed my great-uncle. Anything on stuff like that?
Have you covered the Port Chicago disaster of 1944?
govment is stupidity and corruption magnified
You should check out the story of John Murrell
SS Richard Montgomery, an American Liberty cargo ship, wrecked on the Nore sandbank in the Thames Estuary, near Sheerness, Kent, England, in August 1944, while carrying a cargo of munitions. About 1,400 tonnes (1,500 short tons) of explosives remaining on board presents a hazard but the likelihood of explosion is claimed to be remote.
8:56
Sounds like my experience in the early 2000's. A lot of miserable sailors, hating life chipping paint or wiping oil. But when the call came, everyone stepped up. People join the USCG for that kind of mission, and they rush at the chance.
It's the day to day life that sucks 😂
A fine video, sir.
I teach a Senior Adult class on Little Known Events, People, & Units of WW2. This is on my list of subjects to teach.
This was a very close call! You only need to learn about the damage to Halifax, N.S, Canada during WWI, when a ship caught fire and blew up, to have some idea of the scope for potential disaster to the New York City area had this ship blown up! It would have been the conventional explosive equivalent of Hiroshima at a minimum. It is very surprising that Authorities allowed such activities to take place in the first place, because we all know that was always require greater amounts of bigger and better explosives.
New York is also fortunate that the wreck was removed as soon as possible after the event because there is a ship filled with explosives still submerged in a British harbour and the condition of that ship and its cargo gets worse by the day!
Inaction is not a good solution to a problem.
Mark from Melbourne Australia
Well had it exploded & NYC was flattened would have been comparable to a small nuclear bomb , a bit larger than the one dropped on Hiroshima (proper pronunciation: hero+she+ma). Considering the mindset of most Americans back then, Germans would of been blamed & who knows if the truth ever would of come out because all eyewitnesses would of died from the initial explosion.
It would of been good for Boston who would become the major eastern port, even better for Chicago who would have to be the nations new financial center. The city of New York, with virtually every high rise crumbled in rubble would have to wait until after the war because there wouldn’t be any men or women available to clean the mountains of debris. The myth the Germans did this would have possibly expedited war efforts speeding up completion of the Manhattan Project, sending scores of nuclear bombs dropping all over Germany & Japan. How could you convince a nation afterwards that we caused this, not the Germans?
When I was stationed at the shipping port of Dammam in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, we, as members of the US Army's Transportation Corp, off-loaded thousands of tons of ammunition of all kinds there. I remember leaving one of the ammo ships one night at the end of a 12 hour shift, when the Iraqis began firing Scud Missiles at the port. The US Patriot Missile Battery's opened up to intercept them, which they did, in mid air right over top the port. The explosions lit up the night skies like the Forth of July, and we were silently praying that none of the flaming metal debris came down on us because there was well over 100,000 tons of ammo already stored on the port, as well as six other fully loaded ammo ships tied up at the dock. The attack lasted for over an hour, and we really did luck out that night because the chain reaction that would have occurred would have resulted in one of the largest ammo explosions ever seen. We thanked our lucky stars to see the sun rise the following day.
An interesting footnote in history
Those men showed intestinal fortitude of the highest level.
Every Boy Scout, every Cub Scout, is taught you don't fight an oil fire with water. You need foam like they have at airports. But water is still pored onto ship fires.
I’m curious, would this explosion have been bigger than the 1917 Halifax Harbor explosion?
cigarette smoker i bet. Idiots..
This tale reminds of those hair-raising moments on television & film, like 'Star Trek' or 'MacGyver', where a bomb is set to go off, not allowing adequate time for an escape, but having the only hope for the protagonist and innocents, resting upon staying and diffusing the situation.
Invariably with the explosion stopped and disaster averted only after the countdown reaches :01.😆
Cargo ships still ship 1,000+ tons of ammonium nitrate at the time. There are strict regulations… But still…..
2:44 what?? War wasnt coming here even if Germany had won. The allies (including Soviet Russia) made it total war. Taking over Europe was seen as essential to their survival.
Thanks!
Gimme gimme Gardiner brothers!!!
Even though the hulk was taken out to sea and live fire sunk, have there been any attempts to find and dive on the wreck ?
Bayonne is almost 9 miles from Staten Island and 11 miles from Manhattan…
Newfoundland all over again. Sorry, Halifax NS.
Cold courage indeed! What bravery!!
Fascinating, hadn't heard of this before. On a related note, to this day there is an old Liberty Ship, the SS Richard Montgomery, just sumberged in shallow waters of the Thames Estuary, where it has been since sinking in 1944. It is still loaded with a formidable amount of explosive material, but it has always been judged too dangerous to try and disarm and remove the explosives from the wreck. Should it ever actually blow, the resulting explosion and shock wave would cause a substantial amount of damage to nearby English towns and faciities.
My Staten Island home overlooks the Kill Van Kull and Caven Point. It certainly would have been at the heart of the would-be explosion. My grandfather also owned a home on a hill in Tompkinsville with an unobstructed view. If it had blown, there's a good chance I wouldn't be here today.