The Great Molasses Flood
How something so sweet caused so much bitterness
A dark wave shocked Boston’s population, when an 8 meters(25 foot) wave of Molasses swept through the streets of Boston, after a catastrophic failure at the Purity Distilling Company. A day where 21 lives were lost and 150 more were injured, a day where capitalism failed, and death won.
Similarly to the London Beer Flood, this was caused by low safety standards and practices, as well as carelessness by workers and bosses alike.
What is Molasses?
For those who do not know, molasses is a thick, viscous liquid that is produced by refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar. Molasses is used in different areas in the food industry and is a natural sweetener. It is present in barbeque sauce and brown sugar.
It is made by harvesting the sugar canes, then extracting its juice by cutting or crushing the canes. The juice is then boiled to make it concentrated and promote sugar crystallization. It is then boiled two more times until it becomes a thick sugary syrup which is naturally of a dark color.
Where, When, and Why?
The year is 1919, and the Purity Distilling Company was operating as usual, their specialization being making ethanol from fermenting molasses. The company was located at 529 Commercial Street near Keany Square in Boston’s North End neighborhood. This facility, located near the harbor, was used to store and offload molasses from ships and then keep it until it was ready to be transferred using pipelines to other Purity facilities. The molasses tank in question was 15m (50ft) tall and 27m (90ft) in diameter and could contain up to 8.7 million liters (2.3 million US gallons).
It was on the morning of January 15th, when the temperature had risen a few degrees above the norm, climbing up to four degrees Celsius (40 Fahrenheit). A ship had just offloaded a load of molasses to the facility, which was stored at a much warmer temperature due to the fact that its viscosity was lower at higher temperatures, making the transfer easier.
The low external temperature meant that the older molasses tanks in the facility, before being loaded with the brand new molasses, were much colder. Once the new molasses was poured in, the two different temperatures would eventually lead to disaster.
Thermal expansion is what most scientists blame for this disaster. When a liquid changes temperature, especially a quick change, it undergoes an expansion in shape, area, volume, and density. This meant that the molasses tank, which was filled to the maximum, could no longer hold all the liquid, and suddenly burst open and collapsed, at around 12:30 pm.
What happened next?
Due to the liquid being 40% denser than water, it carried a lot more potential energy, meaning that there is more energy stored in the substance itself. The collapse sent an 8 metre (25ft) wave which went roughly at 56 km/h (35 mp/h) down in the streets of Boston. The force of this wave was so strong that it pushed steel panels against the Boston Elevated Railway structure, which caused a streetcar to tip off the tracks. It doesn’t end here, nearby buildings were swept off their foundations and crushed, and different blocks were flooded to a depth of 60 to 90cm (2 to 3ft).
People were swept off their feet, and some had bricks and metal objects hurled at them. A whole truck was also swept off and hurled into Boston Harbor. Many people were drowned in the molasses since the cold temperatures made it more viscous and thick, people found it harder and harder to move and swim in it, leading to several deaths. People were also hit and killed by the debris within the molasses, and so were horses.
Witness testimonies declared that at the moment when it all happened, the noise resembled a “thunderclap-like bang”, with the noise also being described as a crashing, deep growling or a machine gun-like sound. The Boston Post reported that:
“Molasses, waist deep, covered the street and swirled and bubbled about the wreckage …. Here and there struggled a form — whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell. Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was …. Horses died like so many flies on sticky fly-paper. The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared. Human beings — men and women — suffered likewise.”
This detailed and in-depth description much resembles that of quick-sand, with people struggling themselves into impending doom.
Another shocking testimony is that of Anthony di Stasio, written by Edwards Park for the Smithsonian tells us more of this horrible event, how many lives were lost and ruined by something so silly as molasses.
“Anthony 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. Then he grounded and the molasses rolled him like a pebble as the wave diminished. He heard his mother call his name and couldn’t answer, his throat was so clogged with the smothering goo. He passed out, then opened his eyes to find three of his four sisters staring at him”
Aftermath
At first, 116 cadets from the USS Nantucket, which was docked at a pier nearby were on the scene, helping those in need. They ran all over the North End, walking knee-deep in molasses to aid anyone who needed help. Soon thereafter, the Boston Police, Red Cross, and Navy personnel joined the effort. Some dived in the molasses to look for survivors or anyone in need, while others were tending to the injured — keeping them warm and tending to their wounds. A makeshift hospital was set-up nearby to further help the efforts, as many needed intensive care that extended into night-time.
It was very difficult for the rescuers to do anything, as they found that walking through the molasses was extremely hard and tiring. It took them four days before calling off the search completely. Many of the dead were completely covered in molasses, which made it impossible to recognize them, while other victims were swept so harshly by the wave that they were found three to four months later in the Boston Harbour.
The residents of Boston’s North End neighborhood, and all those affected, brought a class-action lawsuit against the United States Industrial Alcohol Company (USIA), the owners of Purity Distilling. Being one of the first class-action lawsuits in Massachusetts and Boston, it helped pave the way for modern corporate regulation. Although the company claimed the tank was blown up by “anarchists”, as the alcohol produced was used in munitions, the court-appointed auditor found that the USIA was responsible after a three year-long battle in court.
In the end, USIA had to pay $628,000 in damages, which is equal to $9.26 million in 2019, with the relatives of those killed receiving around $7,000 per victim, equivalent to $103,000 in 2019.
Victims
That cold, winter day claimed a total of 21 lives and injured 150 more. I believe it is important to pay respect to those who died that day.
Patrick Breen, 44 years old
William Brogan, 61 years old
Bridget Clougherty, 65 years old
Stephen Clougherty, 34 years old
John Callahan, 43 years old
Maria Di Stasio, 10 years old
William Duffy, 58 years old
Peter Francis, 64 years old
Flaminion Gallerani, 37 years old
Pasquale Iantosca,10 years old
James H. Kenneally, Unknown age
Eric laird, 17 years old
George Layhe, 38 years old
James Lennon, 64 years old
Ralph Martin, 21 years old
James McMullen, 46 years old
Cesar Nicolo, 32 years old
Thomas Noonan, 43 years old
Peter Shaughnessy, 18 years old
John M. Seiberlich, 69 years old
Micheal Sinnott, 78 years old
Clean-up
The clean-up effort was anything but easy, with it taking more than months until everything was back to normal. At first, clean-up crews, who were made up of civil servants, police, and volunteers, used saltwater from fireboats to wash away the molasses and then used sand to absorb it. The immediate area of the harbour took weeks to clean, and it is said that the harbour was brown until summer-time. Rescue workers and the cleanup crews then were tasked with tracking the molasses, and seeing how far it went into the rest of the city. Much of the molasses seeped down into the subway and its platforms, but also in the trains themselves, with the train seats becoming brown and sticky. The molasses also seeped into telephone handsets, homes and many other places, with journalist Edward Park saying:
“everything that a Bostonian touched was sticky”
Conclusion
Nowadays, there is a plaque commemorating this horrible disaster, at the entrance of Puopolo Park that reads
“On January 15, 1919, a molasses tank at 529 Commercial Street exploded under pressure, killing 21 people. A 40-foot wave of molasses buckled the elevated railroad tracks, crushed buildings and inundated the neighborhood. Structural defects in the tank combined with unseasonably warm temperatures contributed to the disaster.”
This event has changed Boston and its population remarkably, being deemed as one of the greatest tragedies of the city. The sweet smell of molasses filled the Bostonian air for decades, and molasses quickly became part of Boston itself, Edward Park once said: “The smell of molasses remained for decades a distinctive, unmistakable atmosphere of Boston”.
Today, it is important to remember this event, for it was caused by incompetence and carelessness. Carelessness that eventually claimed 21 lives and injured 150 others. Incompetence that then paved the way for better regulation and laws, so that the public may be protected.
References
Betancourt, S., 2019. The Great Boston Molasses Flood: Why The Strange Disaster Matters Today. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/13/the-great-boston-molasses-flood-why-it-matters-modern-regulation> [Accessed 25 December 2020].
Dwyer, D., 2019. These Are The 21 Victims Of The Great Boston Molasses Flood Of 1919 | Boston.Com. [online] Boston.com. Available at: <https://www.boston.com/news/history/2019/01/13/victims-great-boston-molasses-flood-1919> [Accessed 25 December 2020].
Jabr, F., 2013. The Science Of The Great Molasses Flood. [online] Scientific American. Available at: <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/molasses-flood-physics-science/> [Accessed 25 December 2020].
Park, E., 1983. Without Warning, Molasses In January Surged Over Boston. [online] Edp.org. Available at: <https://edp.org/molpark.htm> [Accessed 25 December 2020].
Puleo, S., 2004. Dark Tide : The Great Boston Molasses Flood Of 1919. Boston: Beacon Press.
Sohn, E., 2019. Why The Great Molasses Flood Was So Deadly. [online] HISTORY. Available at: <https://www.history.com/news/great-molasses-flood-science> [Accessed 25 December 2020].
The Hour, 1979. The Great Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919. [online] p.41. Available at: <https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=s6s0AAAAIBAJ&pg=949%2C3011666> [Accessed 25 December 2020].
