On July 17, 1944, at 10:19 p.m., an explosion at the U.S. Navy’s Port Chicago Naval Magazine killed 320 naval personnel, including five Coast Guardsmen on a nearby fire barge. See the original Fire Engineering report HERE. According to the National Park Service’s Web site for the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial, the blast destroyed two cargo ships, killed 320 (202 of whom were African-Americans), and injured about 400. The explosion registered 5.4 on the Richter scale.
Port Chicago, about 35 miles north of San Francisco, was the largest ammunitions transshipment facility on the West Coast. It operated around the clock and provided a vital supply line to the war in the Pacific. At the time, African-American personnel, in segregated units led by white officers, were usually assigned menial tasks. At Port Chicago, personnel with little or no dockworker experience or training in handling munitions were assigned to the dangerous task of loading them onto ships. Although the U.S. Coast Guard had published safety instructions on this in 1943, they were often ignored in favor of faster cargo loading. At the time, the Navy had no clear instructions on the proper handling of munitions. At Port Chicago, the loading divisions developed a sense of competition, vying to achieve the maximum tonnage loaded per hour. Concerns over the dangerous situation had been expressed but were unaddressed at the time of the disaster.
Less than a month after the disaster, when ordered to resume munitions cargo-loading duties, 258 African-Americans refused, protesting dangerous working conditions and discrimination. Most of them returned to work; after a summary court martial, they received bad-conduct discharges. Fifty others were charged and convicted of mutiny, and sentenced to eight- to 15-year prison terms. However, after a sustained public outcry, they were released in 1946. In the same year, the U.S. Navy began to desegregate its personnel.
After the explosion, a shiploading safety organization was formed to implement munitions-loading safety procedures at Port Chicago.
REFERENCES
National Park Service. “320 Americans Killed in WWII Naval Magazine Accident.” Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial Web site, http://www.nps.gov/poch/index.htm.
United States Navy. (2015) “Port Chicago Naval Magazine Explosion, 1944.” (Naval History and Heritage Command Web site: http://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/disasters-and-phenomena/port-chicago-ca-explosion.html.
Andews, Evan. (2014) “Port Chicago Disaster Stuns the Nation, 70 Years Ago.” History.com Web site: http://www.history.com/news/port-chicago-disaster-stuns-the-nation-70-years-ago.
