Genevieve Carlton earned a Ph.D in history from Northwestern University with a focus on early modern Europe and the history of science and medicine before becoming a history professor at the University of Louisville. On July 30, 1916, Kaiser Wilhelm's German agents, exploded the largest munitions depot on the east coast, Black Tom Island. The United States remained officially neutral, but the U.S. also sold millions of dollars in weapons to Britain and France. The final payment was made in 1979, 63 years after the Black Tom explosion. One of those newcomers to America was Count Johann Von Bernstorff, the German ambassador to Washington. Many guards fled, fearing an explosion. ", At the Woolworth building, the tallest skyscraper in the world at the time, watchmen feared that the world was ending. On the night of July 30th, 1916, Black Tom island disappeared. In spite of newspaper headlines claiming that dozens died, the official tally counted four deaths. In the days after the blasts, confusion reigned. It was irreparably damaged in a massive explosion only 3,000 feet away. As Chad Millman points out in his book, The Detonators, there was a certain naivete at the timePresident Woodrow Wilson could not bring himself to believe that Germans might be responsible for such destruction. German Master Spy Franz Von Rintelen and his "pencil bomb" were responsible for acts of sabotage in the United States during World War I. 9." Watermark: Permalife, 25% cotton content. [52], A stained-glass window at Our Lady of Czestochowa Catholic church memorialized the victims of the attack.[53]. Woodrow Wilson. Von Bernstorff not only helped obtain forged passports for Germans who wanted to elude the Allied blockade, he also funded gun-running efforts, the sinking of American ships bringing supplies to Britain, and choking off supplies of phenol, used in the manufacture of explosives, in a conspiracy known as the Great Phenol Plot. The Lehigh Valley pier was at the center of the explosion. [11], The Lehigh Valley Railroad, advised by John J. McCloy, sought damages against Germany under the Treaty of Berlin from the German-American Mixed Claims Commission. In the early 20th century, enemy attacks on American soil were so rare that many assumed the Black Tom explosion was an accident. The New York Times reported that the explosion was initially attributed to negligence by those working on the island. As far away as Philadelphia and Baltimore, people felt the blast. The massive blasts obliterated Black Tom Island, the largest munitions depot in the United States, located in New York Harbor and connected by rail bed to Jersey City, New Jersey. The blast shattered windows across the harbor in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Along with two German saboteurs, Lothar Witzke and Kurt Jahnke, Kristoff is believed to have set the incendiary devices that caused the mayhem on Black Tom. World War One was raging in Europe. Shrapnel from the explosion even hit the Statue of Liberty. The deadly Battle of the Somme had just begun in France and would last for 5 more months, producing more than one million casualties. Here's why you can't visit the Statue of Liberty's torch The Untold Story Of Espionage In New Jersey For centuries, humans used tallow in skin moisturizers and healing balms, but unfortunately, the topical application of these fats seemed to stop around the same time that animal fats stopped being considered part of a healthy diet. The loss of life, however, was not great: Counts vary, but fewer than ten people perished in the explosions. In the aftermath of the explosion, Americans tried to identify the saboteurs behind the devastating attack. A game of tag; see British Bulldog (game) Black Tom. Black Tom was literally a ticking time bomb. 49, No. German spies attacked New York on July 30th, 1916. ON THE MAP; Explosion by the Hudson, Foreign Espionage, Local Fear Black Tom - Wikipedia Meanwhile, the U.S. Bureau of Investigations immediately claims the explosion at Black Tom is, "an accident." President Wilson, vacationing in Chesapeake Bay, calls the devastation at Black . They couldnt get to a second barge with another fire burning. The next day, a sign warning of fire danger remained in the wreckage left by the explosion. The Bureau of Investigation initially concluded the explosion was an accident, but doubts were widespread. (We recount the entire story in our podcast from 2016 about the Black Tom Explosion.) As a result, Imperial Germany sent spies to the United States to disrupt by any means necessary the production and delivery of war munitions that were intended to kill German soldiers on the battlefields of the Great War. None of the baggage handlers who were above the magazine survived the sinking. To this day, access to that torch is banned. The torch has not been open to the public since 1916. It wasnt until 1953 when the Federal Republic of Germany agreed to settle the matter and paid the United States $95 million dollars in damages. It wasnt until 1939 that $50 million in damages were awarded to plaintiffs in the Black Tom explosion, the largest settlement by an international tribunal. At eight minutes past two o'clock on the morning of Sunday, July 30, 1916, a thundering explosion at the Black Tom munitions depot sent sleeping residents of New York City and surrounding areas tumbling from their beds. Category:Black Tom explosion - Wikimedia Commons Sentenced to death, he was pardoned in 1923. This incident, which happened prior to U.S. entry into . Nearby Ellis Island had to be evacuated after the explosion, which also damaged the Statue of Liberty. One thing the authorities initially seemed to agree on was that the explosions werent the work of foreign saboteurs. Germ Warfare in WWI Used on Horses in the U.S. Fall 2017, Vol. Vast quantities were stored in barges moored alongside a mile-long wharf, with one barge alone holding fifty tons of TNT and 25,000 detonators. So everyone just thought it was another accident like the one that had happened in 1875. Others attempted to fight the fires. It had 417 cases of detonating fuses. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Shrapnel from the explosion even hit the Statue of Liberty. It starts, You are standing on a site which saw one of the worst acts of sabotage in American history!. The Statue of Liberty took more than $100,000 worth of damage; Lady Libertys torch, which was then open to visitors who could climb an interior ladder for a spectacular view, has been closed ever since. The blasts lit the night sky and shook the earth with the force of a Richter scale 5.5 earthquake. "It was a terrific explosion the worst that had ever happened in New York," said Kenneth Jackson, a history professor at Columbia University and one of the country's foremost scholars on New York history.
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