The Canadian way of dealing with hazards to navigation : Blowing up of Ripple Rock...

[Rhyddid]

As some relief of the seriousness of navigation in the U.K. I thought some may find this edited version of the largest non-nuclear explosion at the time, to shift some underwater "mountains" which got in the way of the shipping lanes of Seymour Narrows, B.C. Canada. Now a safer place even with 15 knot currents at times......

http://youtu.be/6W9PV_s_zF4

Jack

Here's a guy who I expect failed to time his passage through.....

http://youtu.be/1mCR5wYpMnw

 

[AndrewB]

I went through there with 6 knots of tide, just a few minutes before slack water was predicted! It's easy to get wrong. But with the rock gone, it's no worse than a thrill ride. Other narrows in the Desolation Sound area are worse. One reaches 24 knots. (Blog of sailing this area at http://www.yachtsentinel.co.uk/Desolation/desolation.htm).

Blowing it up may not have been the biggest bang ever, but it was certainly an incredible engineering feat.

 

[Rhyddid]

I went through there with 6 knots of tide, just a few minutes before slack water was predicted! It's easy to get wrong. Over 100 boats have been lost here. But with the rock gone, it's no worse than a thrill ride.

Other narrows in the Desolation Sound area are worse. One reaches 24 knots!

(There's a description of sailing this area on my blog at http://www.yachtsentinel.co.uk/Desolation/desolation.htm).

Lived in Campbell River for many years. Always enjoyed sailing the East coast of the Island...... Many fond times!
Jack

 

[Uricanejack]

1950's. Quite different today. Just imagine the environmental studies, protests, you might kill a few starfish. Never mind the salmon, whales and others. It would never be approved today.

 

[sailorman]

As some relief of the seriousness of navigation in the U.K. I thought some may find this edited version of the largest non-nuclear explosion at the time, to shift some underwater "mountains" which got in the way of the shipping lanes of Seymour Narrows, B.C. Canada. Now a safer place even with 15 knot currents at times......

http://youtu.be/6W9PV_s_zF4

Jack

Here's a guy who I expect failed to time his passage through.....

http://youtu.be/1mCR5wYpMnw

wasnt this bigger

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...&mid=290F4F4B8BF48B4541B2290F4F4B8BF48B4541B2

 

[AngusMcDoon]

I thought that the Heligoland explosion was the biggest, certainly a lot bigger than the Canadian one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6hKwjoKa-c

My Dad went in after the explosion to survey the rubble. It was part of calibrating nuclear explosions to see what a really big TNT explosion did.

7000 tonnes at Heligoland compared to 1300 tonnes at Ripple Rock. Still, it's not uncommon for Americans/Canadians to claim whatever they do or did is the biggest/first/best, is it?

 

[lustyd]

1950's. Quite different today. Just imagine the environmental studies, protests, you might kill a few starfish. Never mind the salmon, whales and others. It would never be approved today.

I'm pretty sure our navy still blow up anything on the seabed which may cause issues. Not sure we've done rocks, but certainly wrecks are flattened when necessary.

 

[JumbleDuck]

As some relief of the seriousness of navigation in the U.K. I thought some may find this edited version of the largest non-nuclear explosion at the time, to shift some underwater "mountains" which got in the way of the shipping lanes of Seymour Narrows, B.C. Canada. Now a safer place even with 15 knot currents at times......

Maybe community action could do something similar to the Wood Farm Rock. Hollow it out, funnel in the top, passing yachts lob in expired flares till it's full, someone throws a match in. Boom. Bingo.

 

[michael_w]

The big bang was the 1917 one in Halifax harbour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion

 

[rotrax]

I went through there with 6 knots of tide, just a few minutes before slack water was predicted! It's easy to get wrong. But with the rock gone, it's no worse than a thrill ride. Other narrows in the Desolation Sound area are worse. One reaches 24 knots. (Blog of sailing this area at http://www.yachtsentinel.co.uk/Desolation/desolation.htm).

Blowing it up may not have been the biggest bang ever, but it was certainly an incredible engineering feat.

Desolation Sound-was there last year, looking down from the bridge over the narrow bit.

When the tide got going, you could see a step in the water-and the Bridge started trembling!

After launching a West Wight Potter from Whidby Island-Langley IIRC-I said to the owner that I had checked the charts the night before and was sure there was not a sandbank to the north of the slip.

He looked, agreed with me, went below and got the chart. We inspected it.

Deep water everywhere.

We looked back at the sandbank, just in time to see it vanish.

It was the barnacle encrusted back of a Grey Whale..............................

 

[Cruiser2B]

I thought that the Heligoland explosion was the biggest, certainly a lot bigger than the Canadian one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6hKwjoKa-c

My Dad went in after the explosion to survey the rubble. It was part of calibrating nuclear explosions to see what a really big TNT explosion did.

7000 tonnes at Heligoland compared to 1300 tonnes at Ripple Rock. Still, it's not uncommon for Americans/Canadians to claim whatever they do or did is the biggest/first/best, is it?

One would hope you'd know that Americans and Canadians are not the same nationality. From my reading, it's 4000 tonnes of surplus ammo versus 1375 tonnes of Nitramex - I don't know what the TNT equivalent of both are, or which is in fact the larger boom, but at least we succeeded in destroying our chunk of rock.

Did you dad go to BC too? According to Wiki:

Although not planned as a test for nuclear weapons purposes, this large underground explosion at Ripple Rock was of interest to nuclear weapons scientists at the United Kingdom's Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston, which sent a delegation to Canada and set up various monitoring instruments to record data from the explosion. Little more is known of their objectives, although there are detailed accounts in two declassified documents in the National Archives in London

 

[JumbleDuck]

From my reading, it's 4000 tonnes of surplus ammo versus 1375 tonnes of Nitramex - I don't know what the TNT equivalent of both are, or which is in fact the larger boom, but at least we succeeded in destroying our chunk of rock.

The RAF Fauld explosions was about 3,500 tonnes of ammunition, of which about half is reckoned to have been high explosive and the rest casings. I'd expect roughly the same proportions to apply to the Heligoland bang.

 

[A1Sailor]

Maybe community action could do something similar to the Wood Farm Rock. Hollow it out, funnel in the top, passing yachts lob in expired flares till it's full, someone throws a match in. Boom. Bingo.

It is certainly an idea, but one of the issues is that they would just make the rock into lots of smaller rocks. I have a feeling the rock in the anchorage at Eilean Mor in the MacCormaig Isles, near the entrance to Loch Sween, got attacked by the bomb squad many years ago. It was debateable whether it was of benefit...

 

[MM5AHO]

The Corryvreckan could do with some of this treatment.
While there they could tackle a few others too....
That one south of Burnt Isles in the Kyles...
Ferry Rocks in sound of Kerrera
Rock off Cardingmill Bay
where do we stop?
That annoying rock off Ayrshire?

 

[AngusMcDoon]

One would hope you'd know that Americans and Canadians are not the same nationality.

Only as much as the Americans/Canadians are aware of the difference between England and the UK.

I don't know the TNT equivalent either. I wouldn't like either to go pop in my back garden though.

Father did not go to BC to watch the Ripple Rick pop. He was a surveyor, not a nuclear weapons expert. His job was simply to record the size of the hole. The objective, apart from disposing of surplus explosives, was to prevent Heligoland being used as a naval base again, and in that they succeeded. Whether there would be any island left after the event was unknown before it happened.

 

[JumbleDuck]

That annoying rock off Ayrshire?

Hands off the Wee Cumbrae!

 

[bikedaft]

It is certainly an idea, but one of the issues is that they would just make the rock into lots of smaller rocks. I have a feeling the rock in the anchorage at Eilean Mor in the MacCormaig Isles, near the entrance to Loch Sween, got attacked by the bomb squad many years ago. It was debateable whether it was of benefit...

they got it 2nd time round. you are now very unlikely to hit the pile of rubble on the bottom, about 2.5m underwater at LW

 

[A1Sailor]

they got it 2nd time round. you are now very unlikely to hit the pile of rubble on the bottom, about 2.5m underwater at LW

Excellent! :encouragement: