Is 300 rounds of ammunition correct? It seems so much smaller than the quantities of the other items. --rmhermen
Really TNT? I don't think it was in widespread use in WWI, not even sure it had been invented then. In any case it doesn't usually detonate as a result of fire, it just burns. From other sources read and forgotten long ago, i think the main explosion may have been due to Ammonium Nitrate, a cheap chemical widely used as fertiliser, and in civilian explosive applications. This forgotten source said the freighter was carrying perhaps thousands of tons of the stuff, which is about what would be needed to cause such a large explosion.
I didn some fact-checking: 300 rounds is correct. And the TNT is also correct. It's likely that what you read about [ammonium nitrate]
? was refering to the chemical being mixed with the TNT; see
http://www.encyclopedia.com/printablenew/24223.html. --
STG
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