On the 16th of April, 1947, a small fire started on the cargo ship the SS Grandcamp, while
it was docked at the port in Texas City.
This small fire would begin a chain reaction of fires and explosions that would go on for
two days, and amount to the deadliest industrial accident in the history of the United States
of America, including one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.
Texas City is located on the Texas coast, at the mouth of Galveston Bay.
Galveston Bay is one of the most important shipping hubs in the world.
Founded in 1893, the Port of Texas City quickly became a focal point for industry.
A group of investors secured permission to dredge a channel to link Galveston Bay to
the Gulf of Mexico, massively increasing opportunities for trade.
The economy of the city improved still further when, in 1900, the channel was deepened enough
to accommodate ocean-going vessels.
These massive ships brought a flood of new business into the city, and caused a significant
boom in the economy of Texas City.
The Port of Texas City continued to expand in the years which followed, becoming a truly
international port during the pre-war period of the 20th century.
Ships from England, France and Germany would regularly stop there, and many new warehouses
and storage tanks were built to cope with the new demand.
The port even had a grain elevator and a dedicated electric power plant.
In 1940, Union Carbide built a chemical plant within the port, as chemicals and petroleum
began to replace the traditional cargoes of cotton and grain.
During World War II, the Port of Texas City was used extensively by the US government,
which further increased the prosperity of the area.
As World War II ended, many parts of the world were not so prosperous.
In order to support the recovery of Europe, the US government offered one of their mothballed
ships, the SS Benjamin R Curtis, to France.
France gratefully accepted, and renamed the ship The SS Grandcamp – a name taken from
a beach in Normandy.
The ship was used by the French to transport all manner of goods.
In 1947 it collected ammunition from Belgium before heading to Cuba and Houston to collect
twine and peanuts.
The ship then made its way to Texas City, ready to take on its next load of cargo.
While the SS Grandcamp was docked in the Port of Texas City in April 1947 it was loaded
with 2.3 million kilograms (or 2,300 tonnes) of ammonium nitrate.
This was a very common cargo for ships in the 1940s, as it was a component for many
munitions, and in the post-war era, was also used as fertiliser.
This was added to the existing cargo of twine, peanuts, tobacco, ammunition, engineering
equipment and cotton.
It was noted by workers that the bags of ammonium nitrate were warm when they were loaded onto
the ship, but nobody saw any reason to be concerned by this observation.
On the morning of the 16th of April, 1947, at around 8:00am, workers on the dock spotted
smoke coming from the cargo hold of the SS Grandcamp.
They located a small fire, which they attempted to put out with a gallon jug of water.
When this didn’t work, they tried two fire extinguishers – but these also failed to
completely put out the fire.
By this point, the entire cargo hold had filled with smoke, and the dock workers were ordered
to evacuate by the ship’s captain.
The captain also decided that no more water should be used to try and extinguish the fire,
as too much water would destroy the cargo.
Instead, all of the hatches on the ship were sealed and steam was pumped in – something
which it was hoped would smother the fire.
This operation was carried out by the Texas City Volunteer Fire Department, and was a
recognised method of putting out fires on ships while protecting the cargo.
However, in this case, the heat of the steam may have caused the ammonium nitrate to decompose
into nitrous oxide – a reaction which produced heat and raised the already dangerously-high
temperature and pressure within the ship.
At 8:30am this pressure became so great that several hatches blew off and a column of yellow-orange
smoke billowed out.
The noise and unique colour of the smoke, which could be seen all around the bay, attracted
spectators who lined up along the shoreline, all of them fully believing that they were
stood at a safe distance.
In most cases, they were not.
At 9:12am the combination of heat and pressure within the SS Grandcamp caused the remaining
ammonium nitrate to explode.
The blast destroyed almost everything within 600 metres (or 2,000 feet) – levelling nearly
1,000 buildings.
The shockwave was felt 400 kilometres (or 250 miles) away.
It shattered windows throughout Galveston, and blew two planes cleanly out of the sky.
The SS Grandcamp’s cargo was launched high into the air, some of it at supersonic speeds.
Burning bales of twine and debris rained down on the local area, causing further fires and
destruction.
The ship’s anchor was later found in a crater near the Texas City Railway Terminal – 2.5
kilometres (or 1.5 miles) away from where the ship had been docked.
Some fires on the shore were quickly extinguished by a two-storey tidal wave caused by the explosion.
Enough fires remained burning, though, that first responders were unable to reach the
port to tackle the blaze aboard what little remained of the SS Grandcamp.
The explosion also tore the nearby SS High Flyer from its moorings, causing it to drift
across the harbour.
The crew initially stayed aboard, but left when the smoke from the explosion worsened.
A few hours later, two crewmembers returned to look for injured sailors, and discovered
that the SS High Flyer’s cargo (which also included ammonium nitrate) was ablaze.
Beginning at 11:00pm, attempts were made to move the SS High Flyer away from the docks,
but these efforts were abandoned at 1:00am the following morning: the ship simply wouldn’t
move.
Twelve hours after that, the SS High Flyer exploded, just as the SS Grandcamp had before
it.
Chunks of steel and burning cargo again rained down on a city that was still reeling from
the events of the previous day.
The first explosion is thought to have killed 567 people – including the 40-man crew of
the SS Grandcamp, all but one of the firefighters in attendance, and hundreds of spectators.
The blast was so powerfully destructive that 63 people who died were never identified.
The second explosion – though every bit as powerful as the first – killed only two
further people, as the area had been mostly evacuated.
The number of dead in this disaster is, at best, an estimate.
Indeed, the actual death toll could be much higher.
It is likely that – taking into consideration the number of undocumented workers and visitors
to the port – that many of those killed were never recovered or recorded.
Over 5,000 people were injured, with 1,784 requiring treatment at nearby hospitals.
500 homes were destroyed, leaving 2,000 people homeless.
The cost of the damage was estimated to be around $100 million (over $1 billion in today’s
money) – a figure that does not take into account the huge amount of oil that was burned
up during the double explosion and ensuing fires.
The entire country was shocked by the disaster.
Donations poured in to help rebuild the city, with benefits held featuring stars of the
day, including Frank Sinatra.
Over $1 million was raised, and $4 million more was paid out in insurance claims - but
this still fell well short of covering the $100 million worth of damage that had been
done.
Desperate for compensation to help them rebuild their lives, 1,394 surviving victims filed
a class-action lawsuit against the US Government, which they believed was responsible for the
manufacturing, packaging and labelling of the ammonium nitrate that had contributed
to the blast.
A district court found in favour of the claimants, but this was overturned by the US Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals, a ruling that was affirmed by the Supreme Court.
The decision was controversial.
It was noted that an individual would have been liable if they had caused this disaster.
That the government should be found to not be responsible, therefore, meant that the
government was not being held to the same standards as its citizens.
Despite the judgement, Congress did provide some support to victims via legislation.
By the time the last payment was made in 1957, nearly $17 million had been paid to 1,394
claimants.
Many of the major companies that lost facilities in the blast promised to rebuild – and in
most cases they did.
Some even expanded their operations, retaining dock workers to help with the rebuilding work.
Today, the Port of Texas City is the 14th busiest port in the USA, responsible for over
$10 billion worth of foreign trade each year.
Memorial Park in the city is home to a small cemetery where the 63 unidentified bodies
are buried, and the anchor that was flung across the city stands as a memorial to the
victims who died in April 1947.