2-974-540 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Rapenburg, Leiden, three Days after the Explosion of a Powder Ship on 12 January 1807, (1807). A ship laden with 37,000 tons of gunpowder exploded on the Steenschuur, a canal in the centre of Leiden. It was a national disaster: 150 people died and many houses were destroyed. On the bridge in the foreground are spectators and soldiers, several men carry a victim on a stretcher. Household goods piled on the right.