Introducing the Hellburner: The 16th Century 'Nuclear Weapon'

Steve Weintz

Security, Europe

Hundreds of years before the Manhattan Project, an Italian weapons expert in the pay of the English government created the 16th century equivalent of a tactical nuclear weapon.

Some of the largest non-nuclear explosions on record — in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1917, Port Chicago, California in 1944 and Texas City, Texas in 1947 — involved huge accidental blasts at harbors and aboard ships.

But what if a similar explosion occurred by intent rather than accident? A really powerful bomb, as big as a ship, could change history.

A bomb disguised as a shipping container — mixed in with the great volume of traffic and cargo passing through a major seaport — makes for a scenario that keeps U.S. Homeland Security officials awake at night. An entire ship converted into a floating bomb makes for nightmare fuel.

The really scary part? It wouldn’t be unprecedented.

Hundreds of years before the Manhattan Project, an Italian weapons expert in the pay of the English government created the 16th century equivalent of a tactical nuclear weapon. After Federigo Giambelli’s offer of services to the Spanish court received a lukewarm reception, he moved to Antwerp and settled down.

In 1584, Dutch separatists began a bloody 80-year-long war of independence from the Spanish Empire that England was only too happy to encourage. The Duke of Parma besieged the rebel city Antwerp with all the might of a superpower. Imperial troops lashed together ships to make an 800-foot-long wooden bridge barricading the Scheldt river.

Antwerp would have starved, but Giambelli determined otherwise. As he prepared the city’s defenses, he offered his talents to Queen Elizabeth I and came to the attention of her spymaster and private secretary, Sir Francis Walsingham.

To break the siege of Antwerp, Giambelli needed to destroy Spain’s wooden ship-barrier. His genius combined two newer technologies — clockwork and gunpowder — with a vessel into a terrifying new weapon.

It was the hellburner.

Huge Bomb, High Tech:

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