Difference between revisions of "Black Tom explosion"

Latest revision as of 20:53, 26 September 2010

The Black Tom explosion on July 30, 1916 in Jersey City, New Jersey was an act of sabotage on American ammunition supplies by German agents to prevent the materiel from being used by the Allies in World War I.^[1]

Black Tom Island

The term "Black Tom" originally referred to an island in New York Harbor next to Liberty Island. The island received its name from a local legend of an African American resident named Tom. By 1880, a causeway and railroad had been built connecting it to the mainland for use as a shipping depot. Sometime between 1905 and 1916, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, which owned the island and causeway, expanded the island with landfill, resulting in the addition of the entire area to the limits of Jersey City. The area contained a mile-long pier that housed the depot as well as warehouses for the National Dock and Storage Company.

Black Tom was a major munitions depot for materials manufactured in the northeast. Prior to a 1915 blockade of the Central Powers by the British Royal Navy, American industries were free to sell their materials to any buyer, but by this time the Allies were the only possible customers. It was reported that on the night of the attack, two million pounds (1 kiloton) of ammunition were being stored at the depot in freight cars, including one hundred thousand pounds of TNT on the Johnson Barge No.17, all awaiting eventual shipment to Britain and France. Jersey City's Commissioner of Public Safety, Frank Hague, reported he had been told the barge had been "tied up at Black Tom to avoid a twenty-five dollar towing charge".^[2](US$ 498 in 2024)

Explosion

After midnight, a series of small fires were discovered on the pier. Some guards fled, fearing an explosion. Others attempted to fight the fires and eventually called the Jersey City Fire Department.

At 2:08 a.m. (6:08 GMT), the first and largest of the explosions took place. Fragmentation from the explosion travelled long distances, some lodging in the Statue of Liberty and some in the clock tower of the Jersey Journal building in Journal Square, over a mile away, stopping the clock at 2:12 a.m. The explosion was the equivalent of an earthquake measuring between 5.0 and 5.5 on the Richter Scale^[2] and was felt as far away as Philadelphia. Windows broke as far as 40 kilometres (25 mi) away, including thousands in lower Manhattan. Some window panes in Times Square were completely shattered. The outer wall of Jersey City's City Hall was cracked and the Brooklyn Bridge was shaken. People as far away as Maryland were awakened by what they thought was an earthquake.

Property damage from the attack was estimated at $20 million (US$ 399 million in 2024). The damage to the Statue of Liberty was valued at $100,000 (US$ 1,993,000 in 2024) and included the skirt and the torch.^[3]

Immigrants being processed at Ellis Island had to be evacuated to lower Manhattan. Reports vary, but as many as seven people may have been killed, including:

• a Jersey City policeman ^[4][5]
• a Lehigh Valley Railroad Police Chief ^[4]
• a ten week old infant ^[5]
• the barge captain ^[5]

Injuries numbered in the hundreds. Smaller explosions continued to occur for hours after the initial blast.

Investigation

Two of the watchmen who had lit smudge pots to keep away mosquitoes on their watch were immediately arrested. It soon became clear that the fires of the smudge pots had not caused the fire, and that the blast had not been an accident. It was traced to a Slovak immigrant named Michael Kristoff, who had served in the U.S. Army, but admitted to carrying suitcases for the Germans before America entered World War I. According to him, two of the guards were German agents. It is likely that the bombing involved some of the techniques developed by a group of German agents surrounding German ambassador Count Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, probably using the pencil bombs developed by Captain Franz von Rintelen.^[6] Although suspicion at the time fell solely on German agents, later investigations in the aftermath of the Annie Larsen affair unearthed links between the Ghadar conspiracy and the Black Tom explosion. Franz von Papen is known to have also been involved in both. Later investigations by the Directorate of Naval Intelligence are known to have found links to the Irish movement, the Indian Movement, as well as Communist elements.^[7][8]

The Statue of Liberty's torch was closed to tourist traffic, according to a U.S. Park Service Officer.^[9]

The Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, advised by John J. McCloy, sought damages against Germany under the Treaty of Berlin from the German-American Mixed Claims Commission. The commission declared in 1939 that Imperial Germany had been responsible and ordered damages. The two sides finally settled on $50 million in 1953 (US$ 451,872,399.45 in 2024). The final payment was made in 1979.

Black Tom today

Land fill projects later made Black Tom Island part of the mainland and it was incorporated into Liberty State Park. The former Black Tom Island is located at the end of Morris Pesin Drive in the southeastern corner of the park, where a plaque marks the spot of the explosion. A circle of American flags complement the plaque, which stands just a bit east of the visitors' center.

The inscription on the plaque reads

Explosion at Liberty!

On July 30, 1916 the Black Tom munitions depot exploded rocking New York Harbor and sending residents tumbling from their beds.

The noise of the explosion was heard as far away as Maryland and Connecticut. On Ellis Island, terrified immigrants were evacuated by ferry to the Battery. Shrapnel pierced the Statue of Liberty (the arm of the Statue was closed to visitors after this). Property damage was estimated at $20 million. It is not known how many died.

Why the explosion? Was it an accident or planned? According to historians, the Germans sabotaged the Lehigh Valley munitions depot in order to stop deliveries being made to the British who had blockaded the Germans in Europe.

You are walking on a site which saw one of the worst acts of terrorism in American history.

A stained glass window at Our Lady of Czestochowa Catholic church memorialized the victims of the attack.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Lothar Witzke
• Attacks on North America during World War I

References

• Chad Millman. The Detonators: The Secret Plot to Destroy America and an Epic Hunt for Justice (July 12, 2006 ed.). Little, Brown and Company. p. 352. ISBN 0316734969. 
• Jules Witcover. Sabotage at Black Tom: Imperial Germany's Secret in America, 1914–1917 (May 1989 ed.). Algonquin Books; First Edition/First Printing edition. p. 339. ISBN 0912697989. 

External links

• 12px Media related to Black Tom explosion at Wikimedia Commons
• Black Tom explosion New Jersey Park webpage
• American Legion 1964de:Black Tom Explosion

es:Explosión Black Tom ja:ブラック・トム大爆発 pl:Eksplozja na wyspie Black Tom

1. ↑ "A Byte out of FBI history". Federal Bureau of Investigation. July 30, 2004. Retrieved July 5, 2009. 
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} "Black Tom Explosion (1916)". state.nj.gov. January 26, 2005. Retrieved July 5, 2009. 
3. ↑ Frank Warner (July 4, 2009). "When Liberty trembled". The Morning Call. Retrieved July 5, 2009. 
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} "The Officer Down Memorial Page Remembers". The Officer Down Memorial Page. 2009. Retrieved July 5, 2009. 
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2} Carmela Karnoutsos (2009). "Black Tom Explosion". New Jersey City University. Retrieved July 5, 2009. 
6. ↑ H.R. Balkhage and A.A. Hahling (August 1964). "The Black Tom Explosion". The American Legion Magazine. Retrieved July 5, 2009. 
7. ↑ Stafford, D. "Men of Secrets: Roosevelt and Churchill". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-10-24. 
8. ↑ Moynihan, D.P. "Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. Senate Document 105-2". Fas.org. Retrieved 2007-10-24. 
9. ↑ James Ottavio Castagnera (2009). "The Black Tom Island Story". The history place. Retrieved July 5, 2009.