Posted on: Monday, July 9, 2001

Torpedoes idle longshore workers

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

Matson Vice President Bal Dreyfus said torpedo shipment was not dangerous. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

Matson longshoremen dropped one end of a 20-foot container rack of four U.S. Navy training torpedoes about 18 inches onto a similar rack yesterday, then retreated and called supervisors because of hazardous and explosive materials labels on the shipment.

Officials said there was little danger, but about 100 longshoremen and crew of the Matson container ship Maui at Pier 53 on Sand Island were idled much of the day while experts from Matson, the Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Honolulu Fire Department examined and stabilized three racks containing 12 training torpedoes.

The Navy was removing the racks and delivering them to its own facilities late yesterday. They had been shipped to the Navy here from Oakland, Calif.

Matson Navigation Vice President Bal Dreyfus said the men did the right thing, but that there was no danger and that work resumed as soon as the racks were stabilized.

Navy spokesman Jon Yoshishige said such training torpedoes are not armed with any explosive weapons charges, even for demonstration or marking purposes, and that any real armed torpedoes would be unloaded by the Navy at Pearl Harbor.

The Navy, which has conducted torpedo drills off Nanakuli, normally recovers the elaborate devices after they are used.

But the torpedoes did contain fuel materials that can explode under some adverse conditions, officials said.

Dreyfus said the materials were classified as level 1.4 by the United Nations international classification system, or "substances and articles which present no significant hazard."

HFD Capt. Carter Davis of the hazardous materials team said each torpedo contained about 30 gallons of "Otto" fuel and .57 pounds of ammonium perchlorate.

Otto is a thermal propellant that burns leaner when mixed with the ammonium substance, and the two materials are used in combination by both the British and the United States to power their torpedoes.

Designers of the British system using hydroxyl ammonium perchlorate warn that inadvertent mixing of the two fuels in storage would eventually cause "a spontaneous and potentially violent reaction."

For that reason, elaborate containment systems are used to keep the fuels apart until they are mixed for propulsion.

HFD spokesman Capt. Richard Soo said the training torpedoes appeared to be about 20 feet long. They were packed in cases about 30 inches in diameter.

Davis said both the Navy and Matson appeared to have met strict requirements for packaging and shipping of such materials.

While the incident occurred at about 8:45 a.m., and was not reported to the HFD until about 11 a.m., Davis said Matson was following its own safety procedures in the interim and then made the choice to have the department's experts check and clear the scene before allowing any personnel back on the vessel.

Firefighters in protective clothing went aboard and determined there had been no release of materials from the torpedoes or containers, he said.

"The likelihood of a breach was minimal, but we went through the whole drill before allowing any of the workers back aboard because we want to err on the side of caution," Davis said.