Video: 'The USS Mount Hood explosion'

(Friday, November 10, 1944, 8:55 a.m. Papua New Guinea Time; during World War II) — The ammunition ship USS Mount Hood (AE-11) exploded today while moored in Seeadler Harbor at Manus Island in Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific.

The blast annihilated the Mount Hood, named after Mount Hood, a volcano in the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Oregon, and damaged nearby vessels, leaving 45 confirmed dead and 327 missing and presumed dead.

An official Navy report concluded that “the most likely cause of the explosion was careless handling of ammunition” aboard the ship.