Damaged Russian ship with cargo of explosive fertiliser anchored off Margate.

[Humblebee]

Bit of a drift but when I was working in quarries we used ammonium nitrate mixed with diesel as a cheap, fairly powerful explosive. A couple of sticks of gelignite at the bottom of a bore hole to give a clean shear at the base then amfo, as we called it, to give the push needed to blow a few metres of granite clear of the quarry face. I never heard the slightest concern voiced about the safety of handing ammonium nitrate and even when mixed with diesel it needed a blast from the gelignite to set it off.
A handful sprinkled on the lawn was an economical source of nitrate fertiliser!

 

[Slowboat35]

It's a thoroughly good thing some of the more credulous and triggered doom-mongers here have no idea of the nature, frequency and amount of really noxious and potentially dangerous bulk cargoes (as opposed to virtually inert fertiliser) that routinely access our ports, seaways and anchorages - all necessary to maintain a modern industrial economy.
Yet none to date are even mentioning let alone having conniptions about the hundreds/thousands of highly accident-prone petrol or LNG tankers on our roads...

As ever, what's missing - apart from simple common-dog is the most basic sense of proportion.

 

[B27]

It's a thoroughly good thing some of the more credulous and triggered doom-mongers here have no idea of the nature, frequency and amount of really noxious and potentially dangerous bulk cargoes (as opposed to virtually inert fertiliser) that routinely access our ports, seaways and anchorages - all necessary to maintain a modern industrial economy.
Yet none to date are even mentioning let alone having conniptions about the hundreds/thousands of highly accident-prone petrol or LNG tankers on our roads...

As ever, what's missing - apart from simple common-dog is the most basic sense of proportion.

More likely to do damage by leaking nitrogen into the sea producing stinky algae or something?

 

[Gustywinds]

Not sure where the OP got the “3km off Margate” from, but sounds like scaremongering.

The Telegraph and scaremongering are synonymous. I’m surprised they haven’t claimed its crewed by terrorists

 

[capnsensible]

It's a thoroughly good thing some of the more credulous and triggered doom-mongers here have no idea of the nature, frequency and amount of really noxious and potentially dangerous bulk cargoes (as opposed to virtually inert fertiliser) that routinely access our ports, seaways and anchorages - all necessary to maintain a modern industrial economy.
Yet none to date are even mentioning let alone having conniptions about the hundreds/thousands of highly accident-prone petrol or LNG tankers on our roads...

As ever, what's missing - apart from simple common-dog is the most basic sense of proportion.

Don't forget the atom bombs.

 

[Daydream believer]

Not so long ago the IRA would have bitten their hands off for a ship load of that stuff.

 

[14K478]

Not so long ago the IRA would have bitten their hands off for a ship load of that stuff.

Not so; they could and did help themselves from farms, whenever they wanted some. Blew up the Baltic Exchange with a van full of it.

It’s an everyday fertiliser. Just add sugar and diesel

 

[Biggles Wader]

Not so; they could and did help themselves from farms, whenever they wanted some. Blew up the Baltic Exchange with a van full of it.

It’s an everyday fertiliser. Just add sugar and diesel

Barely remembered now but they set off another lorry bomb in London the next night. Several tons of fertiliser under the Staples Corner junction on the North Circular road. The blast was good enough to lift the A5 bridge off it's foundations and send the nearby B&Q shop halfway to Wembley. It took about three years to repair the bridge.

 

[cherod]

Not so long ago the IRA would have bitten their hands off for a ship load of that stuff.

More fantasy

 

[cherod]

The Telegraph and scaremongering are synonymous. I’m surprised they haven’t claimed its crewed by terrorists

Maybe the honourable “ loadstone “ works for them

 

[chrishscorp]

The Telegraph and scaremongering are synonymous. I’m surprised they haven’t claimed its crewed by terrorists

If there are any russians on board it is crewed by terrorists/FSB, wait for it to come into British territorial waters allow the SBS to take it then sink it in the atlantic.
You will be telling us next that the chinese ship that dragged its anchor for some 100 miles and lost its anchor severing European telecoms and data cables was an accident.....
And no the Telegraph isnt fit to wipe my @rse

 

[Gustywinds]

Near enough to make a move on the SS Richard Montgomery? I hope the powers that be are considering this.

That’s a scary thing. A friend of mine worked with the divers who did the survey in 2003.

 

[Daydream believer]

More fantasy

So were the bombs they exploded in London using the stuff I take it then.

 

[PWLS08]

Bit of a drift but when I was working in quarries we used ammonium nitrate mixed with diesel as a cheap, fairly powerful explosive. A couple of sticks of gelignite at the bottom of a bore hole to give a clean shear at the base then amfo, as we called it, to give the push needed to blow a few metres of granite clear of the quarry face. I never heard the slightest concern voiced about the safety of handing ammonium nitrate and even when mixed with diesel it needed a blast from the gelignite to set it off.
A handful sprinkled on the lawn was an economical source of nitrate fertiliser!

Anyone of a certain vintage in the RM and Army is very familiar with ANFO. The peaceful Irish farming community were surprisingly large consumers of artificial fertiliser.

However the origin of this thread seems to have a lot in common with the daytime signal for not under command.

 

[PWLS08]

More fantasy

Wrong

 

[WindyWindyWindy]

I never heard the slightest concern voiced about the safety of handing ammonium nitrate and even when mixed with diesel it needed a blast from the gelignite to set it off.

It's health and safety gone maaad...

It's actually extremely dangerous when badly stored if it gets wet and then dries larger crystals form which can very easily detonate.

Lots of very big AN accidents, Beirut most recently.

The '90s Manchester bomb was mostly AN as well, the largest bomb in the UK since WWII and dwarfed the London bombs. A miracle that no-one was killed.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

On its own it can only be set off by high explosive - breaking up wet solidified ammonium nitrate with dynamite destroyed a large part of some town

If it mixed with fuel and ignited it could go up but no one is so mixing it or igniting it. So Margate can relax.

Sheerness is another matter as the ammo ship has primer detonators on board

 

[PWLS08]

On its own it can only be set off by high explosive - breaking up wet solidified ammonium nitrate with dynamite destroyed a large part of some town

If it mixed with fuel and ignited it could go up but no one is so mixing it or igniting it. So Margate can relax.

Sheerness is another matter as the ammo ship has primer detonators on board

You've not actually read the thread, even the post above yours have you? ALKIADT

 

[oldmanofthehills]

You've not actually read the thread, even the post above yours have you? ALKIADT

AN needs high temperature or shock to set it off. I certainly read the post before mine and rechecked my chemists remembrance. I fail to see how a normal cargo ships cargo could suffer serious percussive shock or high temperature without an extreme event.

Beirut bang was due to major fire or high temperature

Enlighten me more if you would care to

 

[14K478]

Ammonium nitrate is a fertiliser, shipped as cargo around the world, typically in handysize bulk carriers, forty thousand tons or so at a time. Norway exports it because it can be and is made there in a very “green” way by fixing atmospheric nitrogen using hydro electric power, and Norway has been doing so for well over a century now.