It was at Seneca Lake, New York, in the year 1898.
The Onondaga was built in 1860; one of the largest steamers on the Finger Lakes. It was used to ferry soldiers to the south end of Seneca Lake during the Civil War, and later converted into a passenger steamer. By 1898, the boat had been docked. One of its final uses was housing quarantined smallpox victims.
"After that, the townspeople in Geneva decided let's make a big deal out of this."
So to send the boat to a watery grave, the Onondaga was loaded with 500 pounds of dynamite, 300 pounds of blasting powder and a barrel of gasoline.
"So it was quite a spectacle."
Fellow had a fine sense of understatement, didn't he?
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5 comments:
Yep, just a 'tad' understated there... OR he'd made some REALLY big things go boom!
OT thanx for the free blogfodder :)
@Old NFO: 1898 was a very understated time period. No world wars save for Napoleon's had been fought.
What, no pictures? Even in 1898, a planned blast like that shoulda atracted at least ONE photog, maybe a motion picture crew. No pics, didn't happen.
@JohninMD(help?): Photographic state of the art in 1898 was view cameras with glass plates to record the images, with chemicals to be mixed on the spot. This equipment couldn't record action shots or even slight movement, which would result in blurring.
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