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1947 Texas City Disaster

• Galveston County, Texas

anchor from Grandcamp

April 16 was not a good day. The French ship, a cargo ship, Grandcamp was being loaded with ammonium nitrate. Early in the morning April 16, 1947 a worker on the French ship, SS Grandcamp noticed some bags of ammonium nitrate on fire. He notified the Captain who did not want them to use water on the fire, as it would ruin his load of merchandise. They closed the hold, opened the valve to release steam. The fire grew larger. The captain ordered the crew to abandon ship and called for help. The cause of this was not certain. It might have been a cigarette, or other cause that started a small fire, that smoldered, then broke out.^[1]

Texas City, Texas had a small fire department. Firemen sprayed the ship. School children and a crowd gathered to watch.

the Grandcamp BLEW UP!!

SS Grandcamp in port

Grandcamp exploding and fire

• Debris blew upward 3 miles.

• Citizens in Galveston, Houston and further away heard the blast.

• The blast set off a chain of fires as well as a 15-foot (4.5-metre) tidal wave.^[2]

• Two airplanes that were circling were blown apart by shrapnal. The blast was heard 160 miles away. It shattered all the windows in Texas City and half of windows in Galveston, 10 miles away.

• A piece of the ship's propeller landed 2 1/2 miles away. Another piece of the propeller blew 5 miles away..^[1] Mulltiple blasts and fires followed

• The crew and captain were killed, The dock was completely gone.^[1]

• 20 waterfront blocks, ( 12 ) miles inland were flattened. ^[1]

• Then flaming debris ignited the oil, gas and chemical tanks at the sprawling Monsanto complex and three nearby oil companies.^[1]

• People were killed either blown up by the blast, burned alive, decapitated by metal, or crushed by falling buildings. Thousands were injured. ^[1]

• Many fire departments came from nearby cities, the Red Cross set up a national response. Temporary hospitals and also morgues for the dead. ^[1]

• The fires burned on from the oil, gas, and chemicals. The Disaster had not stopped.

Identification of dead was hindered by the removal of clothing. Jester-173 16:30, 31 August 2016 (EDT)

The missing and unidentifed include nineteen members of the Volunteer Fire Department, thirty-one members of the crew of the Grandcamp, and several school children who had been on the pier watching the fire, longshoremen; employees of Monsanto, Republic, and the Texas City Terminal; sightseers; and others whose fate it was to be in the plant or on the dock that day and Victor Wehmeyer, the funeral director; H.J. Mikeska, President and General Manager of the Texas City Terminal Railway. Jester-173 16:30, 31 August 2016 (EDT)

April 17, The next day, Highflyer which was anchored in the bay near the Grandcamp, caught fire . This Highflyer cargo ship caught fire due to its proximity to Grandechamp. Its cargo was 2,000 tons sulphur and 1,000 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in hold #3. (Ammonium nitrate is more volatile when combined with sulfur.) When the Highflyer fire seemed out of control, tug boats began to pull it out of the harbor.

However the first explosion of the SS Grandcamp had pushed the Highflyer into ship #3, (the Wilson B. Keene which had been loading sacked flour. This blocked the exit for the other ships.

Highflyer blew up!!

Highflyer Cargo Ship, Texas City

Wilson B Keene demolished in the blast  !!

Wilson B Keene

Policemen from Other Police Departments Requested

The Police were sent from San Antonio, Texas were sent to .^[3]

405 identified dead

Wall of Names

Statistics:

Firefighters

The 27 firefighters killed that day were:

• Henry Baumgartner Fire Chief Henry Baumgartner

• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Fire Chief Joseph Braddy
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Captain William Johnson
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Captain Sebastian Nunez
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Lieutenant William Pentycuff

• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private Llyod Cain
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private Zolan Davis
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private Roy Durio
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private Archie Emsoff
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private Virgil Fereday
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Departmen Henry Findeisen Private
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private Edward Henricksen
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private William Hughes
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private Frank Jolly
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private William Kaiser
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Departmen Private Jacob Meadows
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private Harvey Menge
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private Maurice Neely
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private William O’Sullivan
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private Marcel Pentycuff
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private Jimmy Reddicks
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private Robert Smith
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private Joel Stafford
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Lieutenant Marshall Stafford
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private Clarence Vestal
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private Marion Westmoreland
• Texas City Volunteer Fire Department Private Clarence Wood

63 Unidentified dead

100 - 200 missing

3,500 Injured

• More deaths, and buildings were flattened and chaos.

Texas City damage

4000 casualtlies/ 16,000 total citizens in Texas City

The Grandecamp held 7,700 tons of ammonium nitrate. About the equivalent of 2.7 kilotons of energy was released. 581 people died, and more than 5,000 were injured.

It was only on day #3, April 18 before the fires were under control.

• Hundreds of anxious relatives were forced to wait near the Texas City auditorium to learn news of their loved ones.

Fires in the storage tanks

News article.

Wm B Keene.

Funeral for Firemen.

Memorial to firemen.

Grandechamp ship anchor.

wall of names.

Texas City Harbor

Firemen on duty were killed. Many people killed were not identified. A special cemetery is for those who could not be identified. ^[4]

Of note: Sam Maceo, one of the two brothers who ran organized crime in Galveston, organized a large-scale benefit on the island featuring some of the most famous entertainers of the time including Phil Harris, Frank Sinatra, and Ann Sheridan to help raise funds for Texas City..^[5]

Utube:

• Texas City 1947 Utube1

• Texas City Utube 2

Memories

I lived in Texas City, LaMarque, and Galveston in the late 1960s and early 70s. One house my father and I lived in was a duplex that had been built for housing for victims who had lost their homes. I have been out to the shipping channel to see exactly where this had taken place. Even in the 70s, its still on everyone's mind, although the landscape barely shows evidence today.

Anchor Park was added after I left the area, and dedicated on the 50th anniversary of the Disaster ^[6] The anchor sat in front of the Holiday Inn. The Grandcamp anchor weighed 3200 lbs and was thrown 8575 ft and buried itself 10 feet into the ground. Lynette Jester 15:12, 31 August 2016 (EDT)

• Remembering the Texas City Explosion

Sources:

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6} http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2009/04/dayintech_0416
2. ↑ https://www.britannica.com/event/Texas-City-explosion-of-1947
3. ↑ memories of Sgt. Max Garcia, Jr., father-in law of Mary Richardson
4. ↑ http://www.local1259iaff.org/disaster.html
5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster#Firefighting_casualties
6. ↑ http://www.local1259iaff.org/disaster.html

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster#Firefighting_casualties
• http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2009/04/dayintech_0416
• [https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lyt01
• http://blog.chron.com//bayoucityhistory/2010/04/newly-discovered-photos-show-extent-of-destruction-at-texas-city/
• http://gizmodo.com/5976153/25-of-the-deadliest-explosions-man-ever-made
• http://www.local1259iaff.org/report.htm
• [http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/remembering-texas-city-explosion/ Remembering the Texas City Explosion

Acknowledgement:

A special thanks goes to Mary Richardson for her dedication to Texas and Worldwide Disasters for the creation of this page. Lynette Jester 15:12, 31 August 2016 (EDT)