On this day in Labor History the year was 1947.
The day dawned unseasonably cool in Texas City, TX, a port city forty miles south of Houston on the Gulf of Mexico.
The French ship, the SS Grandcamp was docked to pick up a load of ammonium nitrate fertilizer.
The ship had originally been part of the US fleet during World War II, but had been provided to France as part of the effort to rebuild Europe.
For five rainy days longshoreman had loaded 2300 tons of fertilizer onto the Grandcamp.
That morning eight men boarded the ship to finish up the job.
Soon they smelled smoke. They tried to stop the flames with jugs of water and then sounded an alarm.
Four fire trucks arrived, but their hoses were no match for the rapidly spreading fire.
This was made even more dangerous because the ship was already carrying 16 boxes of ammunition in the hold next to the flames.
The longshoreman attempted to remove the 150 pound ammunition boxes.
They had only managed to offload three before the first mate ordered them to leave, fearing an explosion.
Not even fifty minutes after the alarm had sounded, his fears were realized.
Debris hurled nearly 3,000 feet in the air, as the blast flattened buildings on the shore.
A fifteen foot tidal wave flooded the area.
The blast killed the fire chief and 27 fire fighters. Hundreds of men working on the docks and nearby warehouses also were killed.
The blast was so violent, that an exact death toll could never be determined.
Estimates of the dead ranged between 500 and 600.
In the aftermath of the disaster new safety procedures were implemented to regulate the transportation of ammonium nitrate.
Today, a memorial made from the anchor of the Grandcamp marks the site.
Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show