The SS El Estaro was a Panamanian freighter hauling explosives for the war effort in April 1943 and caught fire due to leaking fuel oil below the boilers. The ship had 1400 tons of explosives aboard. It was being loaded near Bayonne, New Jersey in New York harbor. The ship was gingerly towed to upper New York harbor away from structures and rail barges of boxcars also moving munitions.

Fortunately, a Halifax explosion

Halifax Explosion

The Halifax Explosion occurred on Thursday, December 6, 1917, when the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, was devastated by the huge detonation of the SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship, fully loaded with wartime explosives, which accidentally collided with the Norwegian SS Imo in "The Narrows"...

 event was avoided. Other explosions
did occur in the war, near Oakland, and Columbo devastating the harbor basins.

See also

• Black Tom explosion
  Black Tom explosion
  The Black Tom explosion on July 30, 1916 in Jersey City, New Jersey was an act of sabotage on American ammunition supplies by German agents to prevent the materiel from being used by the Allies in World War I.- Black Tom Island :...
  
  
• SS Greenhill Park
• Bari
  Bari
  Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
  
   explosion
• Port Chicago explosion