Ship Wilson B. Keene sunk by the explosion of the SS Grandcamp and SS High Flyer in Texas City 1947
On Wednesday night, a huge explosion ripped through West, Texas; a small central Texas town, south of Dallas. The fertilizer factory caught fire and exploded, leveling homes and buildings for a five blocks area, killing from 5 – 40 people and injuring more than 180 others. The scope of the damage and the number of dead and injured are still being tallied. The fertilizer company had over a half million pounds of ammonium nitrate stored at the facility. Ammonium nitrate is a common fertilizer and was also the chemical used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
This recent explosion happened within a day of the 66th anniversary of a massive ammonium nitrate explosion in Texas City, Texas on April 16-17, 1947, when the ammonium nitrate cargoes of two ships, the French SS Grandcamp & the Lykes Lines SS High Flyer both caught fire and blew up. The explosions and fires killed close to 600 and injured more than 5,000 in the port of Texas City. The disaster is considered to be the worst industrial accident in the history of the United States. Sixty six years after the Texas City disaster, we seem not to have learned much from history.
The fire broke on around about 8 A. M., April 16, 1947, on the SS Grandcamp, a surplus Liberty ship operated by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. The ship had a cargo of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, small arms ammunition, machinery, and bales of sisal twine. At 9:12, the ammonium nitrate cargo exploded, blowing the ship to pieces, destroying a nearby chemical plant and setting fires at local refineries and storage tank yards. The initial explosion also set fire to the Lykes Lines C2, SS High Flyer, which had a cargo of an additional 900 tons of ammonium nitrate and 1,800 tons of sulfur. The SS High Flyer exploded roughly 15 hours later on April 17.
The explosion blew 6,350 tons of the Grandcamp’s steel into the air and leveled nearly 1,000 buildings on land. One of the Grandcamp’s two-ton anchors was hurled 1.62 miles (2.61 km) inland. Likewise, a propeller from the High Flyer was blown off, and found almost a mile inland.
I have been searching for records from those aboard these ships associated with the 1947 explosion in Texas City. My father’s biological father was said to be killed in this disaster. However, the family was from Bronx, New York & never spoke of this as my grandmother remarried. Have not found any record of him as one of the identified victims. Wonder if anyone can help??? thank you.
this really sad i like to know what casued this blast