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Book Review: Curse of the Narrows

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Curse Of The Narrows: Laura M. Macdonald


In one of earliest forays onto the blogosphere, I had an email exchange with Stephen Den Beste on the subject of Al Quedas actual capabilities to do damage to the United States. My argument was essentially that Al Queda didn’t need exotic weapons and delivery systems to do significant damage. it just needed the desire to do it and that Mohammad Attas operation was proof of that. One scenario I had proposed was the use of a container ship in harbor filled with explosives and radioactive waste**, which could be gathered from common variety smoke detectors and other off the shelf sources. The model I used was the Mount Blanc Explosion in Halifax Harbour Nova Scotia in 1917. For those of you not familiar with the Mount Blanc, it was a cargo ship that was filled with ammunition and explosives that violently exploded after a collision with another ship in Halifax harbor. The effect of the explosion was staggering. Manhattan project scientists, to estimate the possible effects of the Atomic bomb used the explosion of the Mount Blanc as a model for the damage that might be caused by an atomic bomb. This explosion devastated the towns of Halifax and Dartmouth and was so strong that it generated a Tsunami wave that engulfed areas of the town that had just been leveled by the explosion.

And it was all accomplished with nothing more sophisticated than common turn of the century explosives and a simple maritime accident.

This book is very well written and provides a great deal of insight into the people and conditions prevalent in Nova Scotia at the turn of the century. It is sad that due to wartime censorship that this story is not better know to most people except to history buffs like myself. Remember, that a weapon of mass destruction doesn’t have to be exotic for it to cause “mass destruction”, in the case of the Mount Blanc it was an accident, but the destruction would have been the same had it been done on purpose.

For those of you who are curious how the world survived disasters before the existence of FEMA, this book provides insight as to how the world responded to the needs of the people of Halifax and Dartmouth without the federal governments help.


note: ** - If the damage of ship full of explosives is so damaging, why pack it with small amounts of low level radioactive waste? the purpose of terrorism is fear. The explosion of a large containership filled to the brim with explosives is large enough to render large areas of a harbor like Long Beach or Seattle unusable, but the fear that would be caused by the immediate detection of low level radioactive material would hold off rescue reconstruction staff for the critical 72 hours after the attack. Yeah, I have thought about it, and it does worry me. So does the fact that the US Navy Seal Beach Munitions base is so close to the harbor that sits at the bottom of a valley that contains 33 milllion people.

Posted @ October 22, 2005 11:08 AM | Book Reviews

Comments

Well, heck... I used to work at the missle factory at Bolsa & Bolsa Chica, right across the street from the SBNWS, back in the late 80's - early 90's.

Figured if the Russians 'pushed the button down' ( as Steely Dan phrased it), I'd just go into the office and watch the incoming.

Actually, the loading area is off to the west of PCH, about 100 yards from any building. Some beachfront condos in Sunset Beach (to the south) would be screwed, and perhaps part of the city of Seal Beach (to the north), but I'm not too worried about 33 million folks. On shore breeze would blow any radioactivity across the wetlands to the San Diego freway, north Huntington Beach, Garden Grove and Wesminster. But by the time it had blown 3 miles north, it would have dissipated significantly.

Biggest problem would probably be getting the ships armed to go over & blow up Iran....

Posted by: leelu [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 23, 2005 10:34 PM