![]() ![]() Industrial Alcohol, the company that owned the tank, had rushed to build it, employing an overseer who was an expert in finance, not engineering. On top of that, it looks like the method that they used to make the rivet-holes - the way that they put the tank together in those days was by riveting, not welding - was substandard, and that that may have created small cracks, and on top of that, the steel that they used, although it was state-of-the-art of the day, we know today that it could be relatively brittle under certain circumstances." Whoever did the design failed to provide the adequate thickness of the steel. "No one knows exactly why it failed, but one thing is very clear: it was under-designed. Researchers like Ronald Mayville have been fascinated by this incident, studying the causes behind it as a phenomenon of science and engineering. Howe and other sailors were some of the first people on the scene, helping with rescue efforts where they could.Ĭredit Courtesy of Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection Site of Molasses Disaster showing lumberyard to left near Charleston Bridge. So two of us got a hold of his arm and pulled and unfortunately, we pulled his arm off." On a boat docked in the harbor, Howe witnessed the incident firsthand, as he recalled in a 1981 interview with the Stoneham Public Library: "We saw this big cloud of brown dust and dirt and a slight noise. And there was an arm sticking out from underneath the wheel of a truck. Harry Howe was on leave from the navy for the weekend when the flood occurred. And I’m talking injuries like broken backs, fractured skulls." ![]() "About 21 people die, 150 people injured seriously. "It collects and destroys buildings, people, domestic animals, stables - there are about 25 horses that are killed," Puleo explained. So on the day of the flood, despite leaks and groans, no one anticipated that the tank was about to burst, unleashing a 30-foot-high wave of 2.3 million gallons of molasses that would move 35 miles an hour down Commercial Street. It was very customary for children of the North End to go and collect molasses with pails." "There were often comments made by people around the vicinity that this tank would shudder and groan every time it was full, and it leaked from day one. There were signs that the tank was faltering, but the people of the North End had gotten used to its instability. So there were deliveries all day long, this was a bustling, hustling kind of place." "Almost all of the shipping that left Boston to go up and down the East coast, to go to Europe, left from this site. ![]() "This was one of the busiest commercial sites in all of Boston," Puleo said. He passed out, then opened his eyes to find three of his four sisters staring at him.Credit Julia Press The view down Commercial Street. He heard his mother call his name and couldn't answer, his throat was so clogged with the smothering goo. Then he grounded and the molasses rolled him like a pebble as the wave diminished. A 1983 article for Smithsonian Magazine describes the events:Īnthony di Stasio, walking homeward with his sisters from the Michelangelo School, was picked up by the wave and carried, tumbling on its crest, almost as though he were surfing. On top of the people who were killed or injured, dogs and horses also got caught in the melee. Of the 21 people who perished in the incident, many of them drowned in the sticky wave. The smell of brown sugar filled the air as bystanders found themselves stuck in the viscous flood. A truck was thrown into Boston Harbor, windows were smashed out, and the surrounding blocks were turned to rubble. According to the Boston Globe, people who were closest to the explosion were picked up by the wave just like they would be in the ocean and pushed away like so much debris. ![]()
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