The Boston Molasses Disaster

What is one of the worst ways you can think of dying? I bet you didn’t have drowning in syrup on that list. 21 people of Boston, Massachusetts, USA didn’t either in 1919, but unfortunately, they still met this sticky fate. So how did 21 people die in the molasses flood? Believe it or not, fermented Molasses is used to create ethanol, a key component in creating alcohol and munitions. Molasses was a hot commodity during the First World War and with the impending implementation of Prohibition in the United States, Boston had storage tanks of molasses in the North End of the Boston to keep the valuable syrup safe. A tank of this molasses, built in 1915, burst on the 15th of January 1919, causing a title wave of molasses to spill into the Boston Street. This wave of syrup, reported to be about 8m (25ft) high, moved at a speed of around 56 km/h (35 mph) destroying whole buildings by sweeping them off their foundations. The wave flooded several city blocks with about 2 feet (60 cm) of molasses, drowning or killing 21 people and injuring 150. How did this happen and what was the aftermath? Let us get into it.

              Molasses, as previously stated, was instrumental in the munition production process due to its ability to create ethanol when fermented. The First World War made storage along the water instrumental, with ships regularly depositing more molasses in the storage tanks. The tanks used to store this syrup in Boston’s North End wharfs were massive, standing at over 50 feet tall (15 meters). The tank that burst stored up to 2.5 million gallons of molasses and was built and managed by a subsidiary of The United States Industrial Alcohol (USIA), the Purity Distilling Company. From the very beginning, residents and workers near the tank had concerns, claiming the tank was built too quickly, with leaking and noises emitting from the tank. Although the war ended in 1918, USIA, with a continued focus on alcohol production, continued to use the tank due to the impending implementation of Prohibition. The belief on why the tanks burst is due to rising temperatures in Boston on Jan 15, 1919, coupled with a transfer of more molasses at higher temp the day before. In the previous days, the temperatures were below freezing, but on Jan 15, the temperatures climbed into the 40s Fahrenheit (4 Celsius). Molasses is thick and thickens the colder it gets. Owing to warmth, the viscosity decreases, causing expansion and with rapid expansion, structures like quickly built tanks, burst. To increase this expansion, a ship had deposited its load of molasses into the tank on the 14th, at a higher temp to facilitate the transfer, adding to the rising temperature in the tank. Finally, at 12:30 on the 15th, the tank burst. People nearby the bursting tank reported hearing noises like a loud rumble, similar to a train passing overhead on tracks, automatic weapon fire (the rivets bursting), and the ground shaking. The air rushing out of the burst tank picked up and threw people, hard and far enough to cause injury. Once the tidal wave of molasses spread out, causing chaos and destruction, destroying cable cars, automobiles, and sweeping buildings away, the molasses started to thicken being exposed to the cold Boston air. This thickening of the molasses severely hampered the rapid response efforts, dooming people, and animals alike, swallowed up in the wave. Some were killed instantly when debris swept by the wave hit them, but most drowned or suffocated in the sticky liquid. The more people and animals struggled, the more they became entombed. Rescue efforts were quick, with Red Cross nurses, naval cadets, military personnel, and police officers arriving on the scene minutes after the tank burst. Despite these efforts, some people were too buried to be helped and some were swept out to sea, with their bodies only being found months later.

              In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the cleanup took weeks, and occurred all over the city, not just at the harbor, as bystanders traveled to see the disaster, then trekked molasses all through the city as they went home. The harbor itself was stained brown for months after and even some residents reported that the harbor smelled of molasses for decades on hot days. A class action lawsuit was filed against USIA, claiming that the poorly built tank was responsible and that USIA should pay a large sum to the victims. USIA instead, and we are not making this up, claimed that a terrorist or anarchist climbed on top of the tank and dropped a bomb into the fermentation vent. They of course had no evidence to back this claim up, and the judge ruled in favor of the victims. USIA was forced to pay over $650,000, equivalent to $11 million in 2023. The lasting legacy of the flood is the improvement in construction safety that we enjoy today. The tank explosion led to new constructions being inspected and made sure that the construction met code in Boston, which eventually spread to other parts of the United States (sped along thanks to other disasters).