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Causes and Effects in thisstory, a terrible disaster strikes aneighborhood in Boston. As you read,iook for what caused this disaster andhow it affected the neighborhood.
years ago, a strange and terrible disaster struck Boston:A killer wave of molasses crashed through a crowded
I neighborhood. The wave was 15 feet tall, traveling at 35miles per hour. It destroyed everything in its path and
killed 21 people.How did this happen? And who was to blame?
It was a bright January day in 1919, and8-year-old Anthony di Stasio hurried along acrowded sidewalk in Boston's North End. Asusual, the streets were crowded with honkingmotorcars and clattering horse-drawnwagons. After weeks of freezing cold, theday was warm and sunny. Anthony's tatteredwool coat flapped open as he hurried towardthe tiny apartment where he lived with hisparents and three sisters.
Like most of the people who lived inthis poor Boston neighborhood, Anthony'sfamily had come from southern Italy, eagerto start a new and better life in America.
What they found was hardship. Anthony'sfather worked long hours on the waterfront.Anthony's mother struggled to make theirdingy two-room apartment into a decenthome—to chase away the cockroaches, tocover up the stink of garbage and horse
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manure that wafted up from the streets. Life wastough for the people of the North End. And thepast two years had been especially challenging—not only for them, but for most Americans.
World War I had been raging in Europe.Five million American soldiers bad joined tbebrutal figbt to defeat Germany. In tbe war'sfinal montbs, anotber borror bit tbe world: tbeinfluenza epidemic of 1918. Fifty million peopledied, including more tban 600,000 Americans.
But now tbe war and tbe epidemic were over.Antbony migbt bave even sensed a mood ofbopefulness on tbat brigbt January day. Tberesidents of Boston's Nortb End bad every reasonto believe tbat better times were just abead.
Tbey were wrong.A sbocking disaster was about to strike
Antbony's neigbborbood. In fact, a deadly tbreatbad been looming over tbe Nortb End for years.It was not a German bomb or a deadly disease.
It was a giant steel tank filled witb molasses.
From Pies to BombsMolasses is a tbick, brown syrup tbat was
once tbe most popular sweetener in America.Like wbite sugar, molasses comes from tbesugarcane plant, wbicb grows in tbe Caribbeanand otber bot and bumid regions. Until tbelate 1800s, wbite sugar was so expensive tbatonly rieb people could afford it. Molasses wascbeap. So despite its bittertaste, it was molasses tbat ,sweetened early America'stasty treats, like pumpkinpie and Indian pudding.
By tbe 1900s, sugar
prices bad dropped, and most Americans nolonger needed to sweeten tbeir foods witbmolasses. Tbe sticky brown syrup was being putto a new and perbaps surprising use: to makebombs. Heated up in a process called distillation,molasses can be turned into a liquid calledindustrial alcobol. In tbis form, molasses becamea key ingredient in tbe explosives used in tbewar against Germany.
All during World War I, sbips loaded witbmillions of gallons of molasses arrived atBoston's ports. Trains would tben take tbe gooeycargo to distilleries, wbere tbe molasses wasturned into industrial alcobol.
In 1914, tbe leaders of one molasses company.United States Industrial Alcobol (USIA),decided to build an enormousmolasses storage tank nearBoston Harbor. Tbe tank wasconstructed very quickly,and it was buge—biggertban any tank ever builtin Boston. As if tbe NortbEnd weren't already grimenougb, now a tbree-story steel tank toweredover tbe neigbborbood,blotting out tbe sun and
In the hours after the collapse of the molasses tank,rescuers waded through rivers of goo to reach theinjured. Many were trapped under wrecked buildings.For months, Boston stank of molasses, and BostonHarbor was stained brown.
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blocking the view of the harbor.But it wasn't only the tank's ugliness that
upset the residents of the North End.Just hours after it was first filled with molasses,
brown syrup was leaking from the seams of thetank, oozing like blood from invisible wounds.When the tank was filled, it rumbled andgroaned, as though the steel walls were cryingout in pain. Some people living near the tankworried it was unsafe. But what could theydo about it? USÍA was a big company, andthe people in the North End were poor andpowerless. It was a time when many Americansviewed immigrants with deep suspicion andprejudice. Even a person bold enough tocomplain about the dangerous tank would havehad a hard time finding anyone willing to listen
and help.
And so theyears passed. Themolasses keptleaking from thetank. The noises ofthe straining steelgrew louder—untilthe moment on thatbright January day in
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1919, when Anthony di Stasio was making hisway home.
Violent SwirlThe first sign of disaster was a strange sound:Rat, tat, tat, tat.Rat, tat, tat, tat.Rat, tat, tat, tat.
It was the sound of the thousands of steelrivets that held the molasses tank togetherpopping out of place. After years of strain, thetank was breaking apart.
People froze in their tracks. And then came athundering explosion.
"Run!" a man screamed. "It's the tank!"Anthony looked up just as the molasses
tank seemed to crack apart like a massive egg,unleashing 2.7 million gallons of thick, stickymolasses. The molasses formed a gigantic brownwave—15 feet high, 160 feet wide, and travelingat a staggering 35 miles per hour. The stickysyrup was far heavier and more destructivethan a wave of ocean water, and it moved withincredible speed and power. Within seconds, itcrushed wooden houses and flattened a three-story fire station. It swept away motorcars and
snapped electrical poles. Anthonyand dozens of others were caughtin the violent swirl.
The wave pulled Anthonyunder. Molasses gushed intohis mouth. He was carriedfor several blocks untilhe crashed into a metallamppost. The blowknocked him out. Afirefighter saw Anthonypinned against the
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lamppost.Rushing through
waist-deep molasses, the man^ ^̂ grabbed Anthony just before he was
swept away.The firefighter held Anthony's limp body and
looked at his molasses-coated face. The poorboy, the firefighter believed, had not survived.
By the time the wave lost its power, halfa mile of the North End was flooded withmolasses. Hundreds of firefighters, policeofficers, nurses, and sailors fromdocked ships rushed to thescene. They freed peopletrapped under collapsedbuildings and tangled inmolasses-soaked debris.Plain water did little towash the thick, syrupymolasses away. Instead,firefighters used salt water to scourthe hardening goo from the streets.In the end, 21 people were killed,and 150 were injured.
The Strangest DisasterWithin hours of the disaster,
leaders of USIA were insistingthat the disaster was not theirfault. Their tank, they claimed,had been bombed by "criminals."But few believed this explanation.In the weeks following thedisaster, experts sifted through thewreckage, inspecting the remains of the tank.They spoke to residents who had seen the leaksand heard the strange noises echoing from the
Molasses and sugarcome from the sameplant: sugarcane (top).
tank. The experts' conclusion: The tank hadbeen shoddily built, and the leaders at USIAhad known it.
USIA refused to take responsibility, andat first it seemed the company would not bepunished. But the victims demanded justice.The trial dragged on for years, but finally USIAwas forced to pay $1 million (equal to about $7million today). For the poor immigrants of the
North End, it was a big victory.It took years for the North
End to rebuild after the flood.Even today, on hot days,some claim that the sweetscent of molasses rises up,like a ghost.
But somehow thisdisaster has been largelyforgotten. Indeed, fewhave ever heard of theMolasses Elood of 1919
and the incredible storiesfrom that day—like the story ofAnthony di Stasio.
Anthony's limp, molasses-soaked body was taken to a largebuilding that was being used to
store bodies of those who had died.His body was covered with a sheet.But Anthony wasn't dead, onlyunconscious. Hours later, he wokeup to the sound of his mother's voicecalling him. Anthony tried to answer.
But his mouth was filled with molasses.Suddenly, he sat up. And soon he was
surrounded by his family, a lucky survivor of oneof the strangest disasters in American history. §
WRITE TO WINWrite a newspaper article reporting the results of the USIA trial. In your article,include the causes and effects of the molasses flood. Send your article to"Molasses Contest" by February 15, 2014. Ten winners will each receive acopy of The Great Molasses Flood by Deborah Kops. See page 2 for details.
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