Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Port Chicago Disaster

Episode Date: September 15, 2021

On July 17, 1944, one of the worst disasters to befall the American military during World War II occurred. It didn’t occur in Europe or the Pacific, however. It took place on US soil. The events leading up to this calamity and its aftermath permanently shaped the United States military. Learn more about the Port Chicago Disaster, and the lasting changes it brought about on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On July 17, 1944, one of the worst disasters to befall the American military during World War II occurred. It didn't occur in Europe or the Pacific, however. It took place on U.S. soil. The events leading up to this calamity and its aftermath permanently shaped the U.S. military. Learn more about the Port Chicago disaster and the lasting changes it brought about on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Do you ever climb into bed ready to sleep only to have your mind start racing the moment your head hits the pillow? bouncing around, replaying the day or jumping ahead to tomorrow. That is exactly why Catherine Nikolai created Nothing Much Happens.

Each episode is a gentle, cozy bedtime story where, well, nothing much happens. No drama, no tension, nothing you need to follow closely. Just soft narration, calming repetition, and soothing sensory details designed to help your mind slow down and your body relax. It's not about entertainment, it's about rest. And millions of listeners around the world use it every night to quiet their thoughts and finally fall asleep. If you've ever struggled to shut your brain off at night, this might be exactly what you've been missing. You can listen to Nothing Much Happens wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are every Monday and Thursday.

This episode is sponsored by the Tourist Office of Spain. The global pandemic has obviously had a huge impact on travel over the last year and a half. Even though things are now starting to open up, every country has different rules and regulations for every other country, which can make traveling really confusing. That's why Spain is concerned. created a portal to help you know what you need to do in order to visit Spain. Just go to travelsafe.spain.info and get all of the information you need to plan your trip to Spain safely and securely, with information tailored for your country of origin. It'll tell you the latest up-to-date information for traveling from your particular country to Spain, as well as answering all of your common questions about when you're there and when you return home. I know many of you, like myself, are thinking of heading to Spain as soon as possible.

so you owe it to yourself to check out the website before you go. Once again, that's travelsafe.spain.info, or just click on the link in the show notes. The town of Port Chicago is located on the Sassoon Estuary, which flows into the north end of the San Francisco Bay. About a mile from where the town was located was one of the primary munitions facilities for the United States Pacific Theater. The Port Chicago Naval Magazine, later renamed the Concord Naval Weapons Station. During World War II, the facility served as an armaments depot for munitions that were going to support the war in the Pacific. Bombs, bullets, shells, mines, torpedoes, and all manner of explosives were sent here from production facilities from around the country. At Port Chicago, they would be loaded on the ships and sent to other ships thousands of miles away.

In the 1940s, the loading and unloading of ships was mostly a time-consuming and manual process. It wasn't like today where everything is in shipping containers and they can be loaded and unloaded without a... anyone ever touching them. In 1944, there were at least two ships being loaded 24 hours a day at Port Chicago. The work done at Port Chicago was hard physical labor that was both dangerous and important to the war effort. Because there weren't enough civilian dock workers to load the naval ships, the Navy had to take over the task and assign sailors to do the work. When the United States entered the war, the military was still racially segregated. Black soldiers were not allowed to serve on most ships in the U.S. Navy.

The assignment given to many black enlisted men in the Navy was to work at the naval yards, unloading and loading supplies. At Port Chicago, all of the enlisted men who were doing the dangerous work of loading explosives were black, and all of the officers who oversaw the operation were white. Moreover, the men assigned as officers were not the Navy's best. Those officers were out in the Pacific, or had other duties which were perceived to be more important. The commander of the base was Captain Merrill Kinney. He served in the Navy in the First World War and had left the service 20 years earlier before returning to duty. Likewise, the other officers at Port Chicago were mostly older men who were reservists and had no experience in the handling of munitions. The safety regulations

at Port Chicago were poor to non-existent. Moreover, many of the cranes which were used to move munitions on and off the ships were in poor condition as well, and often didn't work. The events of concern began on July 13, 1944, when a Liberty ship named the SS-E-A. Brian arrived at the dock. Its cargo hold was empty, but it had a full load of fuel oil for its trip across the Pacific. It held 5,292 barrels of fuel oil. For four days, the ship was carefully loaded with munitions. Into its cargo hold were loaded 1,000-pound bombs, 44-millimeter shells, fragmentation cluster bombs, and 650-pound incendiary bombs.

The incendiary bombs were considered live with their fuses installed. A total of 4,600 tons of munition had been loaded onto the SS EA Brian by the evening of July 17th. On the other side of the pier was docked a victory ship known as the SS Quintalt Victory. It arrived on the morning of July 17th. Its cargo holds were empty, but it had been filled with fuel and it was being prepared for loading after it docked. Between the two ships on the pier were 16 box cars loaded with. explosives. In particular, there were 430 tons of munitions in the train cars, including depth charges made of Torpex, which is an explosive 50 times more powerful than TNT, and more unstable.

No one is quite sure exactly what happened, but at 1018 p.m. there was a loud crash. The sound was reported as sounding like metal and timber falling down. It was probably a crane or one of the booms which had collapsed. Then there was the sound of an explosion and then a fire. About five to seven seconds later, there was a massive explosion that destroyed the entire facility. It was one of the largest explosions in history up until that point. Pilots in the air at the time saw a fireball go three miles into the air. The blast was felt in Boulder City, Nevada, 430 miles away. There was damage done to buildings in San Francisco 48 miles away.

Debris landed over two miles away, and the plane which witnessed it said it saw white-hot debris, shooting past it at an altitude of 7,000 feet. A Coast Guard fireboat near the pier was thrown 600 feet or 180 meters away, where it eventually landed in the water and sank. There were 320 men on the pier when the explosion occurred. All of them died instantly. Two-thirds of the dead were African-American enlisted men who were working on the dock. In fact, this explosion by itself was responsible for 15% of all of the African-American

deaths in the Second World War. I've done a previous episode on the Halifax Harbor explosion during World War I. The Port Chicago explosion wasn't quite as large, but it wasn't too far away. The biggest difference and the reason why the fatalities were lower at Port Chicago is that there were no civilians on the base. There were 250 other injuries, and of the men who were killed, only 51 were ever identified. An inquiry was launched only four days after the explosion, and the ruling was that it probably the fault of one of the enlisted men. Nothing was mentioned about the poor safety conditions

and the lack of training. The surviving men who weren't on duty were kept in their barracks at nearby military bases. Then most of them were assigned to the nearby Merr Island Naval Yard. On August 8th, the USS Sangay was docked and it was to be loaded with more explosives. 328 men were assembled before loading was to begin. When they were given the orders, column left and forward march, to begin loading the munitions, every man and the unit refused to move forward. They refused to load munitions on the ships with the same officers and the same conditions they had before. They had gone on strike. Or rather they would have gone on strike if they were civilians. Because they were soldiers, it was considered a mutiny.

Eventually, 70 of the men agreed to go back to work, but the remaining 258 men, all African Americans, refused to load explosives unless working conditions changed. They were all put in the brig, or a ship which served as a brig because they didn't have anything to hold that many people. The men were eventually given a speech by Admiral Carlton Wright, who was the commander of the San Francisco Naval District. He told them the men dying across the Pacific and that while loading munitions was dangerous, being convicted of mutiny was punishable by death during a time of war. Of the 258 men, 208 agreed to return to work. They were court-martialed and found guilty of disobeying an order and were docked three months' pay. Almost all of these 208 men were reassigned to do menial tasks at various bases around the Pacific and were given bad conduct discharges after the war.

The remaining 50 men, however, were brought up on charges of mutiny. In particular, they were charged with, quote, a deliberate purpose and intent to override superior military authority, unquote. All 50 of the men, known as the Port Chicago 50 at this point, pleaded not guilty. Their argument was that they didn't try to take over command, which is what normally happens during mutiny. They just refused to work. A few of the 50 were assigned as cooks and weren't even supposed to be loading munitions, and one had a broken wrist and couldn't physically do it. It also turned out that only a few of the men were actually ordered to work. The rest were just asked if they would work, which is a totally different thing. Eventually, the court-martial

delivered their verdict and all 50 men were found guilty of mutiny. The recommended sentence was a reduction in rank, 15 years of hard labor, and a dishonorable discharge. Admiral Wright reduced the sentence of 40 of the men to 12 to 8 years. In the audience at the trial was a young attorney by the name of Thoroughgood Marshall. He began planning an appeal of the case, and the NAACP began a campaign to bring the verdict to the attention of the public. It eventually got the attention of Eleanor Roosevelt, who brought it up to the Secretary of the Navy James Forrestall. Forrestall ordered a second court-martial, which came to the exact same verdict in June of 1945. Only a few months later, however, the war was over. The example they wanted to set for other

semen-loading ships wasn't necessary anymore. In September, sentences were reduced, and then in January, 47 of the 50 men were released. The 47 men were assigned to duties around the Pacific. Of the remaining three, two were in prison hospitals, and one was kept in prison for bad behavior. Almost all of the men were later discharged under honorable conditions. The Port Chicago disaster eventually helped drive change for full integration of the U.S. military after the war. For decades, there had been a push by members of Congress for a full presidential pardon for all 50 of the men found guilty of mutiny. To date, only one of the men, Freddie Meeks, was given a pardon. He was one of the last surviving men, and he was pardoned by President Clinton in 1999.

In 1994, the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial was inaugurated, and it became part of the National Park Service. It remains one of the least visited sites in the Park Service, simply because so few people are aware of the Port Chicago disaster and the events that followed. However, more people should be aware of what happened at Port Chicago. Not only was it the most significant home front event of World War II, but it was a pivotal moment in the United States struggle for civil rights. The associate producers of everything everywhere daily are Peter Bennett and Thor Thompson. Today's review comes from listener Scott Go Lightly over at Podcast Republic.

He writes, Best mistake ever. I didn't intend to subscribe to the podcast and almost deleted the subscription before listening to any episodes. I started listening and now I really look forward to learning something new every day. Thanks, Scott.

You know what? I'll take it. I like to consider myself an informational drug dealer. All you need is one episode to get hooked. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a question, you too can have it read on the show.