Disaster

Disaster. . Here, at 10:18 p.m. on July 17, 1944, one of history's most powerful manmade, non-nuclear explosions obliterated two ships, damaged structures in twelve nearby towns or cities, killed 320 men, and wounded 390. It was the worst stateside disaster of World War II. The cause of the explosion is unknown., Seismographs recorded two blasts, seven seconds apart. Witnesses claimed the first was on the dock, among the rail cars. The second was larger: the Liberty ship E.A. Bryan, packed with 4,600 tons of munitions, went up in a single explosion. The blast also demolished the Victory ship Quinault Victory, moored on the opposite side of the pier. Her shattered hull landed more than 500 feet away., Three hundred and twenty men , the majority of them African-American stevedores , died. The disaster accounted for 15 percent of all African-American naval casualties during World War II. It prompted an overhaul of safety procedures for handling military explosives and helped push the Navy to reconsider its policy of racial segregation., Captions , (Background photo) The scene here on the morning of July 18, 1944. The obliterated pier is at left. The keel of the 7,000-ton Quinault Victory is just beyond. Of E.A. Bryan, no fragment more than a few feet long was found. , (Inset) Pier One before (left) and after the explosion.