Dynamite

Yesterday Tarapardo asked me a question about the plaque above my kingsize bottle Jack Daniels. That wooden plaque has a blown up steelfragment glued on of the broken bulk carrier Trade Daring. It happened this year 20 years ago; a 145.000 tons bulk carrier broke her back and snapped in two whilst loading ore in Sao Luis, Brazil. This terminal is one of the biggest in the world and the wreck of the bulk carrier kept a berth occupied for more than 6 weeks. In november 1995, our company was asked to assist with the salvage and scuttling of the two broken parts of the ship. We towed both parts of the wreck with the Retriever to deep water and blew this part up with 250 kg dynamite. It was enough for sure, but the charges were placed a little bit too high in the wreck, so it rained steel fragments after the explosion. This fragment has the exact silhouet of South America so we kept this one. It hanged in the cabin of Chief Engineer Albert Klijn for years, but Albert retired and when the Retriever was replaced by the Kolga, there was, beside me, nobody left who knew the story, so i took it home. The picture of the actual explosion of the aft-ship is seen below.