Texas City Memorial Park; Texas City Disaster (1947)

This memorial park serves to remember the tragic 1947 explosion that left nearly 600 Texans dead and thousands injured. The incident happened in Galveston Bay when a Liberty ship was being loaded with cargo that included a massive tonnage of the explosive ammonium nitrate, a chemical compound used in both fertilizer and military-grade explosives. Ammonium nitrate was used extensively in World War Two by the U.S. military to destroy Axis equipment and infrastructure. Not as stable as more recently developed plastic explosives, the compound reacts explosively when set on fire. After the war, it continued to be produced for farm use. Out of at least 581 people killed in the explosion, 113 were never found, and 63 bodies were unidentifiable. 1,784 people were checked into 21 nearby hospitals out of the 5,000+ people who were injured. The explosion also caused $100,000,000 in damages. The disaster made national news, and donation offers came from all over the country. Mafia boss Sam Maceo set up one of the largest fundraising efforts, organizing a benefit featuring entertainers such as Phil Harris, Frank Sinatra, and Ann Sheridan. Both the Grandcamp's anchor and the High Flyer's propeller can be found in this memorial park.

Texas City's port on Galveston Bay had already experienced trouble caused by workplace hazards. Only two days before the explosion, a loose cigarette had sparked a fire on the docks. Then, on the morning of April 16, the freighter Grandcamp was in port to take on a cargo of ammonium nitrate, tobacco, and government ammunition. Smoke was spotted deep in one of the holds, and a firefighting effort began. Extinguishers were grabbed, and some water was used, but a decision was made not to try and extinguish the fire with firehoses for fear of ruining any of the 2,300 tons of cargo already loaded aboard the ship. The crew attempted to remove the ammunition and restrict oxygen to the hold, but ammonium nitrate can create own oxygen. Steam was piped into the hold instead of water. However, this may have only converted the ammonium nitrate into nitrous oxide.

Despite efforts to put out the fire, it reached the fertilizer and at 9:12 a.m. an explosion killed everyone on board as well as the dockworkers. The explosion also took the lives of 28 of the 29 volunteer firefighters, launched the ship's 1.5-ton anchor two miles, threw a nearby ship clear out of the water, and was heard as far away as 150 miles, though some survivors had been as close as 70 feet to the docks. Two sightseeing planes were forced out of the sky. Most people killed in the disaster were not in the blast radius but died as a result of the debris, or, in the case of the Monsanto Corporation chemical storage facility that was struck by flaming debris killing 234 out of its 574 employees, secondary explosions touched off by the debris. Oil refineries were hit and 500 homes were destroyed by shrapnel traveling at supersonic speeds. The Grandcamp explosion pushed a sister ship, the High Flyer, also carrying an explosive cargo, completely across the harbor. Once the vessel came to rest, her crew abandoned ship but failed to notice they had a fire of their own, which burned all night before exploding on the 17th, killing two.

1. "Texas City disaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia," accessed May 31, 2015, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster 2. "Fertilizer explosion kills 581 in Texas - Apr 16, 1947 - HISTORY.com," HISTORY.com, accessed May 31, 2015, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fertilizer-explosion-kills-581-in-texas