Related Resources:
Port Chicago Bibliography
Online Documents Concerning Port Chicago
Magazine
Photographs of Port
Chicago
Related Web Sites:
Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial
Port Chicago Memorial, Naval Weapons Station, Seal Beach Detachment Concord
America was swept into World War II
on 7 December 1941. As war in the Pacific expanded, the Naval
Ammunition Depot at Mare Island, California, was unable to keep
up with the demand for ammunition. Port Chicago, California, located
35 miles north of San Francisco, proved an ideal place for the
Navy to expand its munitions facilities.
Construction at Port Chicago began in 1942. By 1944, expansion
and improvements to the pier could support the loading of two
ships simultaneously. African-American Navy personnel units were
assigned to the dangerous work at Port Chicago. Reflecting the
racial segregation of the day, the officers of these units were
white. The officers and men had received some training in cargo
handling, but not in loading munitions. The bulk of their experience
came from hands-on experience. Loading went on around the clock.
The Navy ordered that proper regulations for working with munitions
be followed. But due to tight schedules at the new facility, deviations
from these safety standards occurred. A sense of competition developed
for the most tonnage loaded in an eight hour shift. As it helped
to speed loading, competition was often encouraged.
On the evening of 17 July 1944, the empty merchant ship SS Quinault
Victory was prepared for loading on her maiden voyage. The
SS E.A. Bryan, another merchant ship, had just returned
from her first voyage and was loading across the platform from
Quinault Victory. The holds were packed with high explosive
and incendiary bombs, depth charges, and ammunition - 4,606 tons
of ammunition in all. There were sixteen rail cars on the pier
with another 429 tons. Working in the area were 320 cargo handlers,
crewmen and sailors.
At 10:18 p.m., a hollow ring and the sound of splintering wood
erupted from the pier, followed by an explosion that ripped apart
the night sky. Witnesses said that a brilliant white flash shot
into the air, accompanied by a loud, sharp report. A column of
smoke billowed from the pier, and fire glowed orange and yellow.
Flashing like fireworks, smaller explosions went off in the cloud
as it rose. Within six seconds, a deeper explosion erupted as
the contents of the E.A. Bryan detonated in one massive
explosion. The seismic shock wave was felt as far away as Boulder
City, Nevada. The E.A. Bryan and the structures around
the pier were completely disintegrated. A pillar of fire and smoke
stretched over two miles into the sky above Port Chicago. The
largest remaining pieces of the 7,200-ton ship were the size of
a suitcase. A plane flying at 9,000 feet reported seeing chunks
of white hot metal "as big as a house" flying past.
The shattered Quinault Victory was spun into the air. Witnesses
reported seeing a 200-foot column on which rode the bow of the
ship, its mast still attached. Its remains crashed back into the
bay 500 feet away.
All 320 men on duty that night were killed instantly. The blast
smashed buildings and rail cars near the pier and damaged every
building in Port Chicago. People on the base and in town were
sent flying or were sprayed with splinters of glass and other
debris. The air filled with the sharp cracks and dull thuds of
smouldering metal and unexploded shells as they showered back
to earth as far as two miles away. The blast caused damage 48
miles across the Bay in San Francisco.
Navy personnel quickly responded to the disaster. Men risked their
lives to put out fires that threatened nearby munitions cars.
Local emergency crews and civilians rushed to help. In addition
to those killed, there were 390 wounded. These people were evacuated
and treated, and those who remained were left with the gruesome
task of cleaning up. Less than a month after the worst home-front
disaster of World War II, Port Chicago was again moving munitions
to the troops in the Pacific. The men of Port Chicago were vital
to the success of the war. And yet they were often forgotten.
Of the 320 men killed in the explosion, 202 were the African-American
enlisted men who were assigned the dangerous duty of loading the
ships. The explosion at Port Chicago accounted for fifteen percent
of all African-American casualties of World War II.
The Armed Forces were a mirror of American society at the time,
reflecting the cooperation and dedication of a country. For many
people, the explosion on 17 July 1944, became a symbol of what
was wrong with American society. The consequences of the explosion
would begin to reshape the way the Navy and society thought about
our social standards. More importantly, the explosion illustrated
the need to prevent another tragedy like this one.
The tremendous danger and importance of the work, while not always
recognized by the public, was always present in the minds of the
men of Port Chicago. The Marines, Coast Guard and civilian employees
knew of the danger, but none as vividly as the Merchant Marine
crew and the Naval Armed Guard of the ships and the men serving
on the loading docks.
In 1944, the Navy did not have a clear definition of how munitions
should best be loaded. The dangerous work on the piers at Port
Chicago and other Navy facilities was done by the men of the ordnance
battalions. These men, like their officers, had received very
little training in cargo handling, let alone working with high
explosives.
Coast Guard instructions, published in 1943, were often violated
as it was felt that they were not safe or fast enough for Port
Chicago's specific circumstances. The men on the pier were experimenting
with and developing procedures which they felt were safer and
faster.
After the explosion, the Navy would institute a number of changes
in munitions handling procedure. Formalized training would be
an important element, and certification would be required before
a loader was allowed on the docks. The munitions themselves would
be redesigned for safety while loading.
Port Chicago would also lead people to examine their society.
There was growing resentment toward the policies of racial segregation
throughout the nation. The Navy opened its ranks to African-Americans
in 1942, but men served in segregated units supervised by white
officers, and opportunities for advancement were extremely limited.
The men assigned to the ordnance battalion were African American.
The explosion had shaken all of the men, but especially those
surviving men who worked on the pier. Of the 320 men killed, almost
2/3 were African-American from the ordnance battalion. What had
been minor grievances and problems before the explosion began
to boil as apprehension of returning to the piers grew. On 9 August,
less than one month after the explosion, the surviving men, who
had experienced the horror, were to begin loading munitions, this
time at Mare Island. They told their officers that they would
obey any other order, but not that one.
Of the 328 men of the ordnance battalion, 258 African-American
sailors refused to load ammunition. In the end, 208 faced summary
courts-martial and were sentenced to bad conduct discharges and
the forfeit of three month's pay for disobeying orders. The remaining
50 were singled out for general courts martial on the grounds
of mutiny. The sentence could have been death, but they received
between eight and fifteen years at hard labor after a trial which
a 1994 review had strong racial overtones. Soon after the war,
in January 1946, all of the men were given clemency and an opportunity
for an honorable discharge. On 23 December 1999, President William
Clinton pardoned Freddie Meeks of Los Angeles, one of the few
still living members of the original 50.
The explosion and later mutiny proceedings would help illustrate
the costs of racial discrimination and fuel public criticism.
By 1945, as the Navy worked toward desegregation, some mixed units
appeared. When President Harry Truman called for the Armed Forces
to be desegregated in 1948, the Navy could honestly say that Port
Chicago had been a very important step in that process.
Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial is administered
by the National Park Service and the United States Navy. It honors
the memory of those who gave their lives and were injured in the
explosion on 17 July 1944, recognizes those who served at the
magazine, and commemorates the role of the facility during World
War II.
Adapted from: National Park Service. "Port Chicago
Naval Magazine." Washington: Government Printing Office?,
n.d. [a set of two brochures].
4 May
2001