Here, at 10:08 p.m. on July 17, 1944 one of history's most powerful man-made, non-nuclear disasters obliterated two cargo ships, killed 320 men, and wounded hundreds. It was the worst stateside disaster of World War II. The cause of the explosion is unknown.
Seismographs recorded two blasts, six seconds apart. Witnesses claimed the first was on the dock, among the rail cars. The SS E.A. Bryan, a liberty ship packed with 4,600 tons of munitions, went up in the second explosion. The blast also demolished the empty SS Quinault Victory, moored on the opposite side of the pier. Her shattered hull landed more than 500 feet away (see photo). The explosion flung debris across Suisun Bay (see inner ring on map) and damaged structures in nearby towns and cities (outer ring), registering 3.4 on the Richter scale.
The disaster prompted an overhaul of safety procedures for handling explosives and helped push the Navy to reconsider its policy of racial segregation. After a protracted dispute, the Navy declared eminent domain and closed the adjacent town of Port Chicago in 1968.
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