The company went bankrupt in 1897 and was split into two companies - one to manage the railroad, the other to buy town lots and provide electricity, water, and gas. When the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 incapacitated the island, the Texas City port remained open, allowing shipping to continue on to Houston. When the Spindletop Oilfield was discovered in 1901, the Texas City Refinery Company came along a few years later, and Texas City grew rapidly. Prior to World War 1 in 1913, tensions within Mexico meant the government wanted to keep an eye on American interests. Two Texas City founders successfully convinced the War Department to station 10,000 troops there from the Second Division of the US Army. While a 1915 hurricane destroyed the camp, the troops did pave roads and streets, dug sewer and drainage lines, and strung telegraph and electric lines, greatly improving the infrastructure of Texas City. The camp was removed in 1921 after army officials continually complained about such a large military outpost in an area under the threat of hurricanes, heat, and mosquitoes. The Great Depression closed down a major sugar refinery, but the growth of the oil industry helped reduce the effects, and Texas City grew steadily over the years, with a 1940 census population of over 5,000 people. World War II also helped the Texas City port become one of the largest ports in Texas, with refineries and chemical plants working around the clock to supply the war effort. Also, at the time there were only two places in the world that offered tin smelting: England and Holland. But the Nazis threatened those industries, so the Defense Plant Corporation - led by Roosevelt official Jesse H. Jones (namesake of Houston's Jones Hall) - built the only tin smelter in the western hemisphere, in Texas City.
It started about 8am on April 16, 1947 aboard the French SS Grandcamp, which was about to complete loading a big ol' shipment of ammonium nitrate. Valuable during the war, ammonium nitrate could be recycled to produce fertilizer. It's also super-flammable, and what Timothy McVeigh would use just two tons of to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City almost fifty years later. 2,300 tons of the fertilizer had already been loaded onto the Grandcamp when some of the crew noticed smoke.
They didn't want to ruin the shipment of ammonium nitrate, so the crew instead tried to just snuff out the flames instead of putting it out with water. There was also ammunition in one of the cargo holds. In hindsight, both of these would be seen as a mistake. At 9:12am the ship exploded. A seismograph in Denver picked up the explosion, which was felt as far away as Louisiana, some 250 miles away. Windows in Houston - 45 miles away - were shattered. The entire dock area in Texas City was immediately destroyed, as was the nearby Monsanto Chemical Company. A barge - the Longhorn II - was anchored in port near the Grandcamp, was lifted out of the water and thrown 100' on shore. The Grandcamp's anchor was found 1.62 miles away.
Texas City resident Nattie Morrow was at her house with her two children and her sister-in-law. Mrs. Morrow:
Suddenly a thundering boom sounded, and seconds later the door ripped off its facing, skidded across the kitchen floor, and slammed down onto the table where I sat with the baby. The house toppled to one side and sat off its piers at a crazy angle. Broken glass filled the air, and we didn't know what was happening.
Also catching fire were the refineries in the area, which then exploded, as well. It set off a chain reaction of explosions of grain silos, chemical storage tanks, etc. Debris sparked fires and other explosions throughout Texas City. Iron, ship fragments, remnants of the cargo, and fragments from secondary explosions flew 2000-3000' in the air and rained down on Texas City itself. The initial explosion created a 15' tall tidal wave. Five hundred residences were flattened, over a thousand residences and businesses were damaged in the initial explosion. Twenty-eight Texas City firemen were killed and all of their fire-fighting equipment was destroyed. Complicating matters, Texas City phones weren't working because telephone operators across the country had gone on strike nine days earlier. Operators in Texas City quickly went back to work after the explosion, but it caused a delay in coordinating rescue and relief efforts.
Also docked for repairs in Texas City was the SS High Flyer, which was also carrying ammonium nitrate. Spared by the initial explosion, the High Flyer was towed 100 feet to get it out of the way. 16 hours later - after 1am on April 17 - the High Flyer exploded with 1000 tons of ammonium nitrate and 2000 tons of sulfur on board. The force of the explosion also destroyed the SS Wilson B. Keene, which was also carrying ammonium nitrate and sulfur. But because there was no firefighting equipment working in Texas City, and all but one of the city's firemen had died in the first explosion, the city was left defenseless from the second explosion. Even though power and water had been cut off, the Red Cross and nearby cities sent almost 4,000 volunteers and rescue assistance to help. The Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Marines, and National Guard all sent soldiers, as well as doctors, nurses, and ambulances. The Red Cross and the Boy and Girl Scouts of America sent volunteers.
Texas City turned the high school gym into a morgue. Casualties are hard to pin down for a few reasons: some people were simply vaporized, others were working in the plants illegally, still other sailors were foreigners. The official death toll was 581, though it's likely higher.
The explosion led to refineries - and the government - rethinking disaster preparedness. Texas City refineries coordinated the Industrial Mutual Aid System, establishing protocols in the event of a disaster, which influenced industrial refineries across Texas.
The explosion today in Beirut reportedly detonated 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate - 400 tons, or 800,000 pounds more than the Texas City explosion.
