[libstripper]

This kind of an explosion is probably what sank the Lusitania, accoding to Bob Ballard, the man who found the wreck of the Titanic. His theory is that Luistania was at the eend of her crossing from the USA to the UK with mostly empty coal bunkers, the engine room crew had been moving the coal about constantly to maintain the ship's trim, and the bunkers were therefore filled with clouds of highly explosive coal dust. Thus, when the German torpedo hit the ship, the blast from the torpedo was like a detonator setting off an explosive, and Lusitania sank in about 15 minutes, her entire bottom being blown out.

[nuconvert]

Hadn’t heard that before. Interesting.

[FrogBurger]

Yeah, and 1271 cases of ammo helped the coal dust quite a bit:

http://www.lusitania.net/deadlycargo.htm

Don’t forget that Britain was forced to import a quarter of its ammo and most of its guncotton (cannon propellant). Every US ship heading to GB carried some war supplies.

[Harold Shea]

That dust in the air can be extremely dangerous

The Crescent Furniture factory exploded killing 3 from dust in the air in

Our town.Plus the Hoagenes plant has killed 5 so far,dust again

It seems like it had been a long time since a grain silo explosion

I had hoped they were tragedy of the past....guess not

[lacrew]

Interesting...but are there any reports of ships in that era accidentally blowing up, due to coal dust?

When I was a teenager, we would have an annual ritual - our neighbor’s father would recount his experience on the Luisitania. At the time, he was 16 y/o, and living in NY...but born in Britain. He was on the ship to go to England, lie about his age, and serve in WWI (all of which he did do, even after the sinking).

Sort of ironic that the Germans claimed that this was indeed a troop ship...and the US denied it.