—I was six years old and remember it—it marked the beginning of interest in using ammonium nitrate-fuel oil mixtures as commercial explosives—
Wel, yes ... 8.5 million tons of ammonium nitrate would be about 17 billion pounds. Probably a bit more cargo than any normal ship could carry....
I think the real number is probably 8.5 million pounds?
There’s a really good book about this called “City on Fire”.
BTW Wasn’t there a second explosion that killed a lot of the rescue workers and fireman who had responsed to the first one?
My son recently left the Texas City Fire Dept. after almost 18 years.