On April 24, 1943 a fire started in the engine room of the Panamanian freighter SS El Estero. Fire can always represent a danger to a ship, but this fire offered particular concern. The El Estro was carrying more than thirteen hundred tons of high explosives, and was in New York Harbor.
On October 7, 1864 a battle between a Confederate commerce raider and a US sloop of war brought the nation to the brink of a foreign war.