On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 08:50:20 -0400, Larry W4CSC
wrote:

Jeff wrote in :

My home berth is a few hundred yards from the local LNG berth. A
tanker comes in every few days with much fanfare, security zones, etc.
Every now and then there's a report about how much of the city would
be obliterated if she blew, but I've been told that the best guess is
that an explosion would not be too disastrous.


I used to work a lot of electronics contracts for US Navy back in the 70s
and 80s. At Norfolk Navy Base, directly next door to the destroyer docks,
there was ALWAYS a Soviet grain ship loading from the grain elevators to
take home to the latest failed 5-year plan.

The XO of the USS Adams caught me screwing off in my AMEX Systems coveralls
on his main deck one day and asked what I was thinking about watching the
Soviet ship. "I'm wondering where and how many nuclear weapons she has
hidden away in the voids in her bilge.", I said pointing out the Soviet
ship. "Sure would make a big dent in the Navy on the East Coast, wouldn't
it?", I continued. "Wonder what frequency they are monitoring where the
instructions will come to set it off?"

All the ships were in port that day. Big carriers, whole squadrons of
cruisers, destroyers, auxiliaries. We didn't learn a damned thing from
Pearl Harbor in '41. Stupid just letting the damned Soviets anywhere near
the entrance to the harbor!


I guess it's a natural reaction, to associate a big object of obvious
foreign national origin and high visibility, close to national assets
- with danger.

What people tend to worry about rather more these days, is the
suitcase, hand-carried most anywhere you would hate to be
exposed to explosions.

Brian W