1916 — July 30, Explosion/Sabotage, Black Tom Island, NY Bay, Jersey City, NJ       —  4-7

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 5-11-2025 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

 –Dozens. Weesjes / Nerges. “100 Years of Terror. The Black Tom Explosion…” NHO, 2016.[1]

—   50  Oakland Tribune (CA). “50 Dead in Rail Yard Explosion,” July 30, 1916, p. 13.[2]

—   33  Sunday Review (Decatur, IL). “Terrific Explosion Shakes New York,” July 30, 1916, 1.[3]

–3-12  Evening Independent (Massillon, OH). “12 May Be Dead…,” July 31, 1916, 1.

— ~12  Warren. “The worst disaster in each of New Jersey’s 21 counties.”  NJ.com, 2-25-2019.[4]

— <12  Zeitlinger. R. “1916 ‘Black Tom’ explosions shook Jersey City to its core.” NJ.com, 4-24-2017.

—     7  Homeland Sec. Inst. Report of the DHS National Small Vessel Security Summit, 2007, 25.

—     7  New York Times. “Held as Plotters in Black Tom Fire,” Aug 10, 1016, p. 1.

—     7  Safety Engineering. “Official Slowness…Black Tom Island Investigation,” 32/2, 1916.

—     6  Colyer, W.T. “The Black Tom Island Disaster.” NFPA Quarterly, V10/N2, Oct 1916, 124

—     6  Smith.  Dennis Smith’s History of Firefighting in America...  1978, p. 128.

—     4  Federal Bureau of Investigation, US. History. “Black Tom 1916 Bombing.”

—     4  NYT. “Ruins Disclose Disaster’s Cause; Small Blaze…Got Out of Control…” 8-10-1916.[5]

Narrative Information

Colyer: “Preeminent in interest among the numerous fires and explosions that have resulted from the present abnormal traffic in munitions of war, stands the Black Tom Island disaster of July 30, 1916. The preeminence consists not alone in the pecuniary value of the property destroyed — though that is estimated at about $20,000,000 — nor in the loss of life and personal injury inflicted on the general public — though nearly sixty people are known to have been direct sufferers (including six killed) — but in its revelation of a condition of affairs under which innumerable human lives and vast quantities of property are menaced every day by the possibility of similar disasters at a variety of points where munitions are being handled in transportation or storage.

“The endeavors of the National Board of Fire Underwriters to secure an investigation by the Interstate Commerce Commission into the facts and circumstances surrounding the fire and explosion have elicited the fact that cars loaded with millions of pounds of high explosives may be kept in railroad yards in close proximity to buildings occupied as human habitations, at the same time that the storage of much smaller quantities of explosives in properly constructed and approved magazines is governed by strict regulations prescribing the distances which must intervene between the explosives and various classes of buildings, highways and — grim irony — railroads. It has been held in the courts that municipal authorities lack power to regulate the transportation of explosives through cities, the Federal authorities possessing sole jurisdiction over interstate commerce. Instances are, in fact, on record of the disregard of precautions demanded by a local fire department. On the other hand, the Interstate Commerce Commission has taken the view that in the absence of evidence of violation of its regulations governing the packing and handling of explo­sives, it has no authority to undertake the desired investigation.

“The story of the results of the explosions — the rain of shells upon the surrounding country, the destruction of huge warehouses and their contents, the damage to the immigration station on Ellis Island, the bespattering of the Statue of Liberty with shrapnel, the strewing of miles of streets with broken glass and shattered signs — has been told in the daily press. The story of the causes of the disaster has been a matter of controversy from the beginning and the real facts will probably not come to public knowledge until an official investigation is made by the Interstate Commerce Commission or until and if litigation ensues, but it seems clear that, as a matter of fact, the fire started shortly after Saturday midnight among some freight cars on the pier several hundred feet distance from the warehouses. It would also appear that explosive laden barges were at or in close proximity to the piers. The first explosion occurred at about 2.08 a. m., but the fire appears not to have gained much headway until after the second explosion which occurred twenty-two minutes later, which seems to have widely scattered burning embers which, apparently, started fires in many places.

“There seems to have been considerable delay in informing the Jersey City fire department of the outbreak of the fire. In the official statement issued by the department on the day of the disaster it was announced that the battalion chief in charge of the fire engines dispatched to the scene on the first call, found the fire already a large one, and that he experienced difficulty in getting his engines within striking distance. Moreover, water could not be obtained from the railroad standpipes. From another source it is learned that fire had been observed a considerable time prior to the summoning of the fire department, and the suggestion has been made that the fire had been in progress for more than an hour before the occurrence of the first serious explosion.

“Thirteen newly sprinklered brick storage warehouses, owned and operated by the National Storage Company, and several piers leased by that company to the Lehigh Valley Railroad, were destroyed together with more than eighty loaded cars. The warehouses had an excellent private water supply, but the shock of the first explosion is thought to have put the system out of commission. At all events, the only supply available was from a one-pipe line from Jersey City, and this proved utterly inade­quate even when aided by fire tugs from the harbor. The discovery of munition boxes drifting about the harbor, into which they had been hurled by the explosions, caused much anxiety among pilots of harbor craft. On the following day a serious outbreak occurred among the ruins caused by the first fire. On this occasion also there were numerous explosions of shells, and the fire chief of Jersey City was reported to have expressed the opinion that the ruins would continue to smolder for a week. The fire actually burned for fully two weeks before it was quenched.

“Notwithstanding the fact that the Storage Company and the Railroad have been censured by a coroner’s jury for their neglect to take adequate precautions to safeguard the public in connection with their handling of explosives, the situation does not appear to have been remedied, and large numbers of cars loaded with high explosives continue to be received into the yards of Jersey City.  Clearly, the thorough and impartial investigation which is desired by the National Board of Fire Underwriters, and the idea of which is approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission, is urgently needed not only to dispel the obscurity which still surrounds the origin of the Black Tom disaster, but to devise effectual means for the protection of the people against any repetition of the offence.”  (Colyer, W.T. “The Black Tom Island Disaster.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 10, No. 2, Oct 1916, pp. 124-125.)

Federal Bureau of Investigation, US. History. “Black Tom 1916 Bombing.” – “It was still dark in Manhattan on a Sunday morning, July 30, 1916, when the sky suddenly exploded with an unnatural brilliance.

“Two million pounds of war materials packed into train cars had blown up in the Black Tom railroad yard on what is now a part of Liberty State Park.

“Thousands of windows shattered in lower Manhattan and Jersey City. Shrapnel pock-marked the Statue of Liberty. Three men and a baby were killed by the explosive energy that erupted from this act of sabotage.

“The culprits? German agents who were determined to prevent American munitions shippers from supplying its English enemy during the First World War. Never mind that the U.S. was officially neutral in the conflict at this point.

“For the U.S., responding was difficult. With few national security laws and no real intelligence community to thwart German agents, America was vulnerable. The Secret Service, by presidential order, was able to investigate some German attacks and intrigues. The Bureau of Investigation—the FBI’s predecessor—likewise did what it could, but it was held back by its small size (260 employees in a handful of offices) and lack of jurisdiction. The most successful and experienced anti-sabotage investigators turned out to be the detectives of the New York Police Department’s Bomb Squad. Even so, the German agents who blew up Black Tom were not identified at the time.

“The Black Tom explosion wasn’t the only provocation. When Germany proposed to Mexico that it ally itself with the Kaiser against America and when it resumed unrestricted submarine warfare on any enemy or neutral ship crossing the Atlantic, America declared war.

“Congress immediately passed the Espionage Act, which outlawed a variety of crimes associated with German agents; passed several other wartime laws; then the following year passed the Sabotage Act. And the Bureau exercised primary jurisdiction over all of these laws as it pursued a wide variety of national security investigations. How successful were they? Very. German intrigues on American soil essentially evaporated.

“Were the saboteurs ever identified? Yes, the Bureau and other agencies doggedly pursued the case after the war until the saboteurs were identified and, ultimately, reparations were paid for German attacks against our neutral country.”

Homeland Security Institute: “On July 30, 1916, several fires were deliberately set by German saboteurs at the depot to prevent deliveries from being made to the Allies. On the evening of the attack, barges and freight cars at the depot were reportedly filled with over two million pounds of ammunition. The fires set off a series of explosions causing damage to the Statue of Liberty and buildings over a mile away. According to some accounts, the explosions on the island were so powerful that they registered over 5.0 on the Richter Scale. Windows were blown out of every building in lower Manhattan and shock waves were felt over 90 miles away.

“The Black Tom depot with its freight cars, warehouses, barges, tugboats and piers was totally destroyed. Property damage from the attack was estimated at nearly $20 million dollars (approximately $365 million dollars today).[6]  The Statue of Liberty alone sustained an estimated $100,000 thousand dollars in damage to its skirt and torch. The Statue was damaged so extensively that, to this day, tourists are not allowed in the torch section of the monument due to structural instability.

“Reports on the number of victims vary but as many as seven people were killed and those injured numbered in the hundreds. Newly arriving immigrants at Ellis Island had to be evacuated as smaller explosions continued to occur hours after the initial blast. Some 500 people living on houseboats and barges in the harbor also had to be evacuated.  In the aftermath of the attack, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, which owned the island, and other claimants sued the government of Germany for damages under the 1921 Treaty of Berlin through the German-American Mixed Claims Commission. In 1939 after seventeen years of deliberation, the commission ruled that Germany had been responsible for the attack and ordered it to pay $50 million damages to the company.  This sabotage at Black Tom Island was one of the primary drivers of the passage of the Espionage Act of 1917. Now codified in Title 50 of the U.S. Code, this legislation provides the original statutory underpinnings for vetting workers at regulated waterfront facilities and other activities.”  (Homeland Security Institute. Report…DHS National Small Vessel Security Summit, 2007, 25-26)

National Fire Protection Association: “Railroads having terminals in Jersey City have been notified by director of public safety, Frank Hague, that a new ordinance to safeguard the city against the shipment of dangerous munitions and high explosives has gone into effect. The new regulation requires that cars carrying munitions or explosives shall be labeled to distinguish them from other freight cars, and that such freight shall be unloaded only in the daytime, shall be side­tracked on special tracks used for no other purpose, and shall be handled at once. The penalty for a violation of the ordinance is a fine of $250. Indictments following the investigations of the explosion are now before the new grand jury of Hudson county.” (National Fire Protection Assoc. “Ordinance Follows Black Tom Explosion.” NFPA Quarterly 10/2, Oct 1916, p. 120.)

Safety Engineering:  “Jersey City Fire Department’s Report:

At 12:40 a.m. Sunday, July 30, a still alarm came in from the American District Telegraph Company that there was a fire over at the National Docks and Storage Company’s plant at Black Tom Island.  Several fire engines were sent to the scene, and Battalion Chief Gately, who was in charge, called up and told Chief Boyle that there was a big blaze, but that he was not able to get his engines within striking distance.  The chief went over and succeeded in getting the engines close to the scene of the fire.

The best information is that the fire started among some freight cars at the end of one of the piers, and that the sparks spread to a lighter named Johnson No. 24, tied up to one of the Lehigh Valley piers adjoining the warehouses of the National Docks and Storage Warehouse Company.

The first explosion was on the Johnson, which, it is understood, contained high-explosives.  Later on there was a seconds explosion.  The police investigation disclosed the fact that there were several cars adjoining the burning freight cars loaded with munitions, and that the second explosion was on these cars.

The investigation shows that on Saturday, July 29, twelve cars of the Central Railroad, loaded with 3,125 cases of ammunition and explosive projectiles, were transferred to the Johnson No. 24.   That the Johnson No. 24 was loaded up at 2:30 p.m., and, according to the Federal regulations, should have gone out into the bay at New York or proceeded to its destination at Gravesend Bay, where the explosives were to be transferred to a steamer.  Instead of doing that, it went to the Lehigh Valley pier and tied up there, against the express orders of the Lehigh Valley officials.

Martin T. Henley, night general yardmaster of the Lehigh Valley; J. M. Kane, watchman at the national Docks & Storage Company’s plant, and A.M. Dickman, agent of the National Docks & Storage Company, protested against this barge being tied up to the pier.

When the fire started among the freight cars, Henley, the night general yardmaster, and Chief of the Lehigh Valley Police Cornelius Leyden went down to investigate the cause.  They were standing close to each other when the first explosion took place.  Henley had his coat buttoned up; his coat was torn open and his watch and chain in his vest pocket were blown out into the river.  The last he saw of Leyden was going in the direction of the river on the pier; the supposition is that he was blown into the bay and drowned.

“Official Statement by the Lehigh Valley Railroad:

Thirteen brick storage warehouses out of the 24 owned and operated by the National Storage Company and 6 piers owned by the storage company and leased to the Lehigh Valley Railroad were destroyed.  Several others of the brick warehouses were badly damaged and some minor damage was done to the Lehigh Valley’s grain elevator.

In addition, 85 loaded cars were destroyed.  According to evidence obtained by officials of the railroad company, the fire started at 1:05 o’clock Sunday morning in a barge belonging to an independent towing company, which had been moored alongside the railroad company’s docks expressly against orders….

“Action by the Commissioner of Public Safety, Jersey City:

Complaints alleging manslaughter are to be made against Albert M. Dickman, agent at Black Tom of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company; Theodore B. Johnson of the Johnson Lighterage & Towing Company, and Alexander Davidson, superintendent of the National Docks & Storage Company….Another man whom the police consider responsible is Alexander Davidson, Superintendent of the National Docks & Storage Company…The information is that he is the one who gave permission to the captain of the Johnson to tie up at the pier….”  (Safety Engineering. Vol. 32, No. 2, 1916, pp. 73-74.)

Warren. “The worst disaster in each of New Jersey’s 21 counties.”  NJ.com, 2-25-2019:

“Hudson County…Black Tom explosion An even more iconic example of World War I sabotage than Bergen County’s Kingsland Explosion, the Black Tom explosion rocked Hudson County and beyond on July 30, 1916. When the smoke cleared, about a dozen people were dead and $75 million in damage had been done.”[7]

Zeitlinger. “1916 ‘Black Tom’ explosions shook Jersey City to its core.” NJ.com, 4-24-2017:

“….The ‘Black Tom’ explosions on the Jersey City waterfront were felt at least 25 miles away, The Jersey Journal reported in a special edition hours after the blasts. When the dust settled on July 30, 1916, fewer than a dozen people were killed and an estimated $75 million – the equivalent of $1.75 billion today – in damage had been done.

“A series of fires set off munitions on the island, named for a dark-skinned fisherman who had lived there many years, at 2:10 in the morning. The munitions – which have been estimated at 2 million pounds – were stored there for the Allies, who were fighting Germany in World War I….”

Newspapers:

July 30, Decatur Sunday Review:  “New York July 30 – Thirty-three Jersey City firemen are reported to have been killed early this morning by a terrific explosion in the plant of the National Storage company on Black Tom Island near Communipaw, N.J., where they had gone to fight a fire resulting from a terrific explosion just thirty minutes earlier.

Big Munitions Plant

“In the plant there are said to have been enormous quantities of munitions consigned to the entente allies.  The plant is said to have been wrecked.  The entire island appeared at 3:30 o’clock to be covered with a sheet of flames.  Access to this is gained from the main-land by a bridge over which run tracks of the Central Railroad of New Jersey.  Sixty-nine carloads of ammunition are said to have been stored on the railroad tracks on the Island.  All of them are believed to have been blown up.

“Bulletin – New York, July 30 – All Manhattan Island, Brooklyn and cities in New Jersey, were shaken shortly after 2 o’clock this morning by a terrific explosion.  Frantic efforts were made by the police to locate the scene of the explosion.  Up to 2:30 they had been unable to do this.  The force of the explosion was so great that thousands of heavy plate glass windows in office buildings in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn were shattered.  Streets for many blocks in the downtown section were literally strewn with broken glass.

See Big Fire.

“Observers at the New York Battery and other points of vantage declared the flames which illuminated to Communipaw section of Jersey City seemed to emanate from one tremendous fire and scores of smaller ones.

Thousands Swarm Streets

“Thousands of persons swarmed into the streets in all parts of the city running about in a panic.  Many women became hysterical.  Police whistles were blown frantically, but the police themselves did not know what it was all about.  The first explosion was followed by a second at 2:39 slightly less violent.  It again shook all New York and shattered many more windows.

Call Fire Apparatus

“Nearly all the fire apparatus in Brooklyn was called out in the belief that somewhere there was a great fire.  No trace of one could be found.  Police headquarters in all boroughs received reports of the disasters of all kinds both in New York and New Jersey.  One report was that an oil ship was blown up near the statue of liberty.  A report received at 2:30 was that several carloads of shrapnel consigned to the entente allies, lying on the Black Tom where the Eagle Oil Works are located had exploded.  So far as was known then, no one was injured.

Causes Panic

“Guests in the big uptown hotels ran frantically into the corridors when the windows in their rooms were shattered.  Patients in all the city hospitals were greatly alarmed and their attendants experienced much difficulty in quieting them.  Prompt action was taken by the police to prevent looting in buildings which had been vacated by frightened tenants….

Shock at Philadelphia

“Operators on duty in the electrical bureau at city hall at Philadelphia reported that windows in the big building rattled from two distinct shocks.  Many inquiries came in to police stations from residents in Philadelphia.”  (Sunday Review, Decatur, IL. “Terrific Explosion Shakes New York,” 7-30-1916, p 1.)

July 30, Oakland Tribune: “New York, July 30. – Dynamite and explosives in the Lehigh Valley railroad yards at Black Tom Point, between Bayonne and Jersey City, exploded shortly after 2 o’clock this morning.  Jersey City police estimated fifty dead soon after the fires started.  The yards are near the great oil plant of the Standard Oil Company, which were endangered.  First reports in Jersey City were that the oil tanks had gone up.  Ambulances from four Jersey City hospitals rushed to the scene and hurried back with loads of six and seven seriously injured in each.

Consigned to Allies.

“A terrific explosion shook Greater New York, breaking windows and damaging buildings. This was followed within a few minutes by two other heavy explosions.  Many minor explosions followed as car after car of munitions, destined for use of the Allies, let go.  Police said several lighters along-side the docks also were caught in the devastating fire and were literally wiped off the waterfront.  The Lehigh Valley grain elevator in the great pier which extends into New York bay at this point, caught fire.  It is said to be the largest grain elevator in the world.

“Several of the injured brought back from the scene were trainmen.

“Three distinct explosions and flashes of light, indicating apparently other small ones, were distinguished in New York.  In Brooklyn a policeman, stunned by the force of the first concussion, was thrown in front of an automobile and seriously, perhaps fatally, injured.  Police headquarters in Brooklyn report that ten are dead in that borough from the shock of the explosion, falling timbers and glass.

“All lower Manhattan felt the shock of the explosion.  From the Battery to the uptown districts windows were blown out and the buildings shaken.  At the Battery the damage done will run into the thousands of dollars, as most of the windows in the great office buildings on Lower Broadway and in the financial district are broken.  The oil tanks at Cavan’s Point at 2:50 are burning, with huge sheets of flame running high into the sky and illuminating the heavens for miles around.  From the Battery it appeared that the conflagration was spreading to other and smaller oil tanks.  Now and then flames shoot in a new place, following an explosion.”  (Oakland Tribune, CA. “50 Dead in Rail Yard Explosion,” July 30, 1916, p. 13.)

July 31: “New York (AP), July 31. – Two men are under arrest on a warrant charging them with manslaughter in indirectly causing the death of one of the victims or the terrific explosion of ammunition on Black Tom pier, early yesterday morning.  Estimates of the casualties today place the number of dead at three, with three others mortally injured, 35 suffering from less serious injuries and 1 to 20 missing.  Estimates of the property loss range from $25,000,000 to $54,000,000.  Many persons on barges at the burned pier are missing and it is feared they have perished. In some quarters it is believed the total number of dead will reach 12.

“Those under arrest are Albert M. Dickman, agent of the Lehigh Valley railroad, stationed at Black Tom pier, and Alexander Davidson, superintendent of the warehouse of the National Storage Company.  Thirteen of the warehouses were destroyed by the fire which followed the explosion.  A warrant was issued for the arrest of Theodore B. Johnson, president of the Lightering company, one of whose barges loaded with ammunition, is alleged to have been moored at the pier.  Several investigations were commenced today to discover the origin of the fire which caused the explosion.

“The Jersey city police today added to the list of dead Cornelius J. Leyden, chief of the Lehigh Valley railroad police, which has been missing since the explosion occurred…

“New York and its environs for miles was shaken to its foundation by the greatest explosion in the history of country.  Scores of tons of dynamite, cellulose, shrapnel and other war munitions, destined for the Entente allies, exploded in car load salvos on Black Tom, a peninsula on the Jersey City side of the upper bay, within two miles of the richest section of lower Manhattan.” (Evening Independent (Massillon, OH). “12 May Be Dead in Ammunition Blast,” 31 Jul 1916, 1)

Aug 1:  “A gentle south wind sent ripples across the surface of a lake 300 feet long and 150 feet wide down on the end of Black Tom Island yesterday afternoon.  It whispered through blackened wrecks of freight cars, twisted remnants of what had been containers of picric acid, and the waves lapped against shores of blackened earth and rails turned into fantastic shapes.  The lake was the result of the explosion of half a dozen cars of dynamite early Sunday morning with a force that struck terror to the hearts of everybody in Jersey City and frightened several millions in New York.

“When the smoke had partially cleared away yesterday for the first time it was possible to go to the end of Black Tom Island and see the havoc that had been wrought.  It was not until then that the way in which the explosion happened could be understood.  Black Tom Island is a peninsula which sticks its nose from the shores of Jersey City out into New York Bay toward the Statue of Liberty.  Two hundred yards from the shore line there began a row of twenty-four warehouses of the National Dock and Storage Company, at the shore end of which stands the grain elevator of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.  On the south side of the island jutted out Piers 1, 2 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.  Pier 7 was almost on the southeast corner of the island, and forming a L with it was the South Pier, and on the northeast corner of the island was the North Pier. From the grain elevator to the top of the North Pier is about 800 yards.

Before the Explosion.

“At midnight Saturday there were a hundred or more grain barges moored near the grain elevator.  Out at the deep water piers ere moored barges containing explosives to be shipped to the Allies.  The exact number of these barges will not be determined until those towed away have been rounded up and counted… On the island were many cars loaded with explosives.  There has been no statement as to how many and there will have to be a lot of checking to establish this.  There were 200 cars loaded with ordinary merchandise… In the twenty-four warehouses were stored goods worth more than $25,000,000… Watching all this vast store at midnight Saturday were half a hundred employees of the Lehigh Valley and the National Dock and Storage Company.

“Just before midnight a tug backed Johnson barge No. 24 into the end of North pier.  In this arsenal and storage house, one of America’s finest terminals, there started a small blaze.  Witnesses differ as to whether it started on the Johnson barge or among the freight cars.  The fire was said to have started at midnight.  It was 12:40 when the Jersey City Fire Department got an alarm.  Five fire companies found that the blaze on the end of the pier had got beyond the control of the fire fighting powers of the railroad and they started to work.  But the blaze burned stubbornly and as it spread the firemen backed away, driven by the fierce heat.

Discovery of the Fire.

“Shortly before 2 o’clock the Captain of the tugboat Geneva saw flames on the Johnson barge and came around to the end of the pier to tow it to safety, knowing it was a floating arsenal.  When he got to the pier he found another barge burning.  He hooked hawsers to both and started out into the harbor.  He had got only a short way when the second barge was blown to pieces in a great explosion which shook buildings fifteen miles away.  Mud from twenty feet down was hurled high in the air.  The tug cut loose and made out into the harbor, leaving the Johnson barge.  It floated up against the Jersey Central pier from which it had been pulled four hours before, and from it a bombardment was kept up for four hours.

“The force of the explosion of the first barge threw the burning freight cars backward, and soon it was apparent that the fire was eating up the island freight yards in a way that the firemen could not stop.  Twenty minutes after the first explosion it reached a string of cars loaded with dynamite and that was when Black Tom Island’s new lake was created.  Five of the warehouses were swept from the island with their contents and eight others took fire.

“When the dynamite cars exploded whole cars and parts of cars flew into the air and sank back into the crater.  Water rushed in, for the bottom of the crater was below the sea level, and great clouds of steam arose.  A dozen cars containing picric acid and gasoline took fire and exploded almost noiselessly as compared with the great blasts.  It was this which threw the great glare which seemed to persons on Manhattan to envelop the island.

A Continuous Bombardment.

“Shrapnel and one and four pound shells exploded continuously, sending out their creaming warnings of danger.  The firemen were driven almost from the island, and it was hours before they got their apparatus to working effectively again.  Barges with exploding ammunition broke from their moorings and drifted across the harbor.  Others were towed away through the smoke, pierced by the ever recurring explosions.

“The flames spread to the warehouses which were left standing, and one by one the walls crumpled in before the terrific heat within and explosions without.  Policemen and firemen rushed about trying to find their comrades.  Several were dragged from the debris and taken to hospitals.  Chief Leyden of the Lehigh Valley police force was seen near the point of the great explosion just before it occurred, and his body has not been found.  Residents of the grain canal boats clambered from their wrecked homes and were taken to Jersey City hospitals to be cared for.  More than 100 persons received minor injuries.

1. “To one viewing the scene of the explosion it seemed miraculous that more had not died in the destruction.  But there were few at work on the island at night and the heat of the first small fire had driven them from the immediate scene of the explosion.

“Black ruin – that describes the appearance of the outer half of Black Tom Island.  Picture a half-mile strip of land, less than 100 yards wide, strewn in some places with piles of burning wreckage 100 feet high, and all burning and smoking.  Twisted railroad rolling stock, thousands of tons of iron that had been machinery, ruin everywhere, and in the midst of it the innocent-looking lade of a depth unknown.  Rails were twisted away in all directions from the bank of the crater holding the lake.  Cars stood half over the brink, left by the caprices of the canned death that was let loose.

“Remnant of a Pier.

“The piling of the north pier is all that is left of it.  South pier is standing almost whole, with here and there the ends of four-pound projectiles sticking out as if they had been shot from the cannon for which they were intended.  Counting inshore, Piers 7, 6, 5, and 4 are gone, the remnants floating about New York Bay.  Eleven of the twenty-four warehouses were intact and their contents saved.  It is said that it will take the tons of sugar a month to burn away.

“Early yesterday morning a barge that was supposed to be burned out and was lying a couple of hundred yards from the end of the pier began to resound with exploding shells.  Hundreds of projectiles shot from it for an hour and then it was still.

“All yesterday shells continued to explode fitfully on the island.  The sharp reports served as signals for a general ducking of heads.  A hundred workmen were engaged in picking up all the unexploded shells that could be found and carting them away.  There were many shrapnel, with thousands of one-pound shells scattered bout and here and there a three or four-inch shell….

“Persons who work on the island insist that there are at least ten men buried beneath the wreckage…

Four Now Known to Have Been Killed in the Disaster.

“The list of known dead was increased by two yesterday.  Cornelius Leyden, Chief of Police of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, who was reported as missing on Sunday morning, has been give up as dead, although his body has not been found.  Another mangled body was found in the bay off the Communipaw pier…  The official list of dead and missing now stands as follows:

Dead.

Leyden, Cornelius, Arlington, New Jersey; Lehigh Valley police.

Tosson, Arthur, 2-month-old child…Jersey City; thrown from…bed and died from shock.

Unidentified man, about 22 years old…

Unidentified man, about 50 years old…

“Missing.

Corbin, M., Captain of Barge No. 24 of the Johnson Lighterage Company.

Wilson, Mrs. Freda, wife of Captain Wilson of Barge No. 2 of the Lorraine

Transportation Company, supposed to have been sunk near Ellis Island.

Wilson, the two small children of Mrs. Freda Wilson.

Seven members of the crew of the Lehigh Valley barge Bridgeton.

The crews of…Bethlehem Steel Company’s barge anchored next to Barge 24…

The crew of…schooner George W. Elizie, Jr.,…found drifting in NY Bay; # unknown.

Two guards…Dougherty Detective Bureau…at the Bethlehem Steel Company’s barge.”

(NYT.  “Ruins Disclose Disaster’s Cause; Small Blaze…Got Out of Control…” 1Aug1916, p. 1.)

Aug 1: “Edmund L. MacKenzie, President of the National Docks and Storage Company, for whom a warrant charging manslaughter was issued after the Black Tom Island explosion, was arrested at his home in Plainfield, N.J….Mr. MacKenzie was released on $5,000 bail pending a hearing Friday morning..” (NYT. “MacKenzie Under Arrest,” Aug 2, 1916, p. 1.)

Aug 2:  “Jersey City’s Board of City Commissioners, by a vote of 4 to 1, adopted a resolution yesterday directing Frank Hague, Commissioner of Public Safety, to prevent the storage in or shipment from Jersey City or high explosives, and commanding him to use all the power of his office to carry these instructions into effect.  Mr. Hague immediately ordered every railroad with a terminal in Jersey City and those whose tracks pass through the city to be prepared to conform with the letter of the resolution within twenty-four hours.  The railroads affected are the Pennsylvania, the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Erie, the Lehigh Valley, the West Shore of the New York Central system, the Baltimore & Ohio, and the Philadelphia & Reading.  If the railroads refuse to comply, Commissioner Hague, it was announced, will use any force, physical or otherwise, that may be necessary to end the munition shipping by way of Jersey City…..

“At 8 o’clock last night Commissioner Hague issued an order to the Jersey City police directing that the regulation adopted by the Commissioners should be rigidly enforced within the time limit set.  It was announced that twenty-five men will be sent today to the terminals of each railroad in Jersey City, and an equal number will be assigned to watch the tracks of the other systems which traverse Jersey City territory but which do not have their terminals in the city.  The order directs that every freight train coming into Jersey City must be halted at the city limits, where the conductor in charge will be required to exhibit to the police the manifest showing the nature of the cargo in every car, and adds that ‘if, upon examination, no explosives are to be found on the train, it shall be permitted to proceed,’ but that if these manifests show that ‘explosives are contained in any car or cars, they must be separated from the train and kept out of the city limits’….

“There were a series of conferences in which Congressman James A. Hamill, Federal officials and Corporation Counsel Milton participated, and the Director was informed that the city authorities had no jurisdiction whatever in the matter; that railroads under the Federal laws had a perfect right to transport explosives on their cars and to have them transferred to their terminals to barges in the river.  This was confirmed by the Corporation Counsel, Mr. Milton.  Although the city authorities had no control over the situation, according to the Federal officials and the Corporation Counsel, the Director of Public Safety insisted upon certain regulations, which included the handling of the explosives as promptly as possible after the arrival of the cars here to ensure the protection of life and property.  The barges ere to be allowed to remain at the piers only long enough to be loaded; then they were to go to the Government anchorage or to their destinations at Gravesend Bay.

“It was arranged that, if the loading was not finished within the time limit, the barges were to pull out to the Government anchorage and come back again in daylight until the work was completed.

“In the case of the Johnson 24, which investigation shows was responsible for the explosion on Sunday morning, the barge, instead of going to the Government anchorage or to Gravesend Bay after it had been loaded at the Central Railroad pier, went a distance of over half a mile to the Lehigh Valley pier at Black Tom, where it tied up.  This was in violation of the law, and the Director of Public Safety proceeded at once to cause the arrest of the persons whom he believed responsible for this violation.”  (NYT.  “Jersey City Acts to Bar Munitions,” Aug 2, 1916, p. 1.)

Aug 2:  “Six Persons are now known to have lost their lives as a result of the explosion Sunday.  Policeman James Doherty of the Jersey City force, who was injured on duty, died in the Jersey City Hospital yesterday…. The body of the sixth known victim, not yet identified, was found off Pier 19 yesterday morning…The body of Cornelius Leyden, police chief of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, was found yesterday afternoon buried in the debris at Black Tom.” (NYT. “Known Dead Now Six,” Aug 2, 1916, p. 1.)

Aug 3: “Washington, Aug. 3. – Frank McManamy, who investigated for the Interstate Commerce Commission the big explosion at New York [NJ] last Sunday, returned to Washington today and reported that the fire was burning on Black Tom Island at least two hours before the blast occurred, but that he found no evidence that munitions were stored on the island more than forth-eight hours, the maximum time allowed for trans-shipment at any port….”  (NYT. “Files Explosion Report. I.C.C. Man Finds No Scapegoat in Black Tom Island Disaster,” 8-4-1916, p. 2.)

Aug 4: “Washington, Aug., 4. – At the request of President Wilson, Commissioner Edgar E. Clark of the Interstate Commerce Commission will go to New York to continue the investigation into the Black Tom Island explosion with the object of fixing the responsibility for it.  Commissioner Clark will make a report designed to prevent the repetition of such explosions near big cities….

Hamill Introduces Bill.

“The Black Tom Island explosion caused Representative James A Hamill, a New Jersey Democrat, to introduce a bill in the House today to give State and municipal authorities police powers over the handling of all shipments of explosives.  The bill would forbid any common carrier, warehouse company, or lighterage or towage company to bring any high explosive within the corporate limits of any town without the consent of the local authorities.  It is proposed that the local police powers shall extend even to interstate shipments of explosives….

Lays Explosion to Firebug.

“A flat assertion that the fire and consequent explosions which occurred last Sunday morning at Black Tom Island had an incendiary origin was made yesterday by Theodore B. Johnson, President of the Johnson Lighterage and Towing Company.  Mr. Johnson declared that his company’s barge, the Johnson 24, on board of which the fire that caused all the damage was said to have started, was not even at Black Tom that night.  He asserted, and his assertions were backed by evidence produced by the investigations of the Prosecutor’s detectives and turned in yesterday, that the fire began I some box cars laden with munitions.  Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety Norton denied yesterday that his office had discovered anything that warranted the belief that the explosion was from other than accidental causes.  He ridiculed all suggestions of the timeliness of the blaze.  ‘It was an accident,’ he said. ‘So far as we know the box cars in which the blaze started were empty, and there could have been no conceivable reason for anybody firing them.’

“Mr. Johnson, together with Albert M. Dickman of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, Albert Davidson, Superintendent of the National Dock and Storage Company, and Edmund L. McKenzie, President of the company, were arraigned before Judge Mark A. Sullivan in Jersey City yesterday morning on the charges of criminal negligence in the matter of the explosion, on which they were arrested early in the week.  At the request of Prosecutor Robert S. Hudspeth the case was put over until Aug. 18, in order to give the Prosecutor’s office more time to obtain evidence for its case.

“The police yesterday cut out two cars of dynamite at the Oak Island yards of the Lehigh Valley Road.  The cars were plainly marked and were turned back at once.  What the railroads are going to do in the matter of their trains being held up is still a question.  The Jersey Central has protested to Commissioner of Public Safety Hague, and yesterday Chief Yard Master Hindleman made a strong protest to Police Captain Cody, in charge of holding up Central trains, objecting to stopping the trains and also to forcing the conductor to show his manifest.  It is expected that one of the railroads, probably the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, will get out an injunction restraining the Jersey City police, and then the matter will go into court for a test case.  In the meanwhile the roads are co-operating with the city to the best of their ability in ord4er to keep explosives outside its limits….”(NYT.  “Clark to Fix Blame for Big Explosion,” 5Aug1916, 16.) 

Aug 10: “The Jersey City police arrested Erling Iverson and Axel Larsen, Norwegians, at their boarding house…Jersey City, yesterday on charges of being suspicious persons. They are held on suspicion of complicity in the $15,000,000 Black Tom Island fire and explosions on the morning of July 30, according to Police Inspector Battersby….Neighbors reported to the police that the men had been acting in a suspicious manner, especially on the night of the explosion and the day following….

“…detectives searched their room and found in a violin case a mass of papers. There were drawings of a submarine….The detectives also found a book in which there were shorthand notes.  Iverson, its owner, said he could not write shorthand. The police said they found letters from relatives in Norway showing that the men had pro-German leanings….Larsen said he was employed on the Pennsylvania Railroad tugboat Radner and worked the night of the explosion.  Iverson said he had not been working recently. Frank Underhill of the Federal Department of Justice, was in Jersey City yesterday investigating the case of the two men.

See an Alien Plot.

“The police of New York and Jersey City, as well as agents of the Government, have been at work trying to verify information that comes from highly reliable sources that the explosion which destroyed the Lehigh Valley Railroad’s Black Tom terminal in Jersey City a week ago last Sunday and resulted in the loss of seven lives…was the work of alien plotters, acting in this country in the interest of a foreign Government.

“A man who is in touch with the investigations now under way said yesterday that there was every reason to believe that the explosion of benzola, a benzine compound, in the Lehigh Valley yards last Sunday night and the big explosion on the previous Sunday were both developments in the carrying out of a plot to hinder the exportation of war materials from the United States to Europe.  On the occasion of the explosion of last Sunday night two men were seen hurriedly to leave the Lehigh Valley yards a few minutes before the explosion occurred.  These men were well dressed, and one of them wore white spats.  Fairly good descriptions of both of these men are said to be in the possession of the authorities.” (NYT. “Held as Plotters in Black Tom Fire,” 8-10-1916, p. 1.)

Aug 11:  “Federal Judge John Rellstab of Trenton, sitting at Belmar, N.J., granted a temporary injunction yesterday restraining the Jersey City authorities from enforcing the regulations passed by the Board of City Commissioners last week, forbidding the shipment of high explosives into or from Jersey City.”  (NYT. “Jersey City’s Port Open to Explosives,” Aug 11, 1916, p. 18.)

Aug 23:  “the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the National Storage Company were censured in the verdict of the jury in Coroner Charles Hoffman’s court in Jersey City, which completed yesterday its inquest into the death of Policeman John Doherty, who was killed by the explosion on Black Tom Island on last July 30.  After finding that Doherty had come to his death in this way, the verdict continued:

‘The said explosion was caused by fire, and we censure the Lehigh Valley Railroad, the lessee, and the National Storage Company, as the lessor, for their grave lack of fire precaution when such dangerous commodities as dynamite, powder, and loaded shells are awaiting shipment in such close proximity to the dwelling places of millions of human beings.’

“Assistant Prosecutor James W. McCarthy, who conducted the inquest, said indictments would be asked at the session of the September Grand Jury for manslaughter in the cases of the responsible officers of the companies and for maintaining a nuisance in the cases of the directors of the companies concerned.”  (NYT. “Black Tom Verdict In,” Aug 23, 1916.)

Sources

Colyer, W.T. “The Black Tom Island Disaster.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 10, No. 2, Oct 1916, pp. 124-125. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=1b8dAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Evening Independent, Massillon, OH. “12 May Be Dead in Ammunition Blast,” July 31, 1916, p. 1. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=105320909

Federal Bureau of Investigation, US. History. “Black Tom 1916 Bombing.” Accessed 5-11-2025 at: https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/black-tom-1916-bombing

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National Fire Protection Association. Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association. Vol. 10, No’s 1-4, July, Oct 1916, Jan, Apr 1917. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=1b8dAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

New York Times. “Black Tom Verdict In,” 8-23-1916.  Accessed at:  http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F0DE1D81E3FE233A25750C2A96E9C946796D6CF

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[1] Writes:  “…according to Millman (2006), ‘there had been hundreds of people living on barges just northwest of Black Tom — immigrants, vagrants, and the poor — and that dozens of them surely should be counted among the dead.’” (Millman, Chad. The Detonators: The Secret Plot to Destroy America and an Epic Hunt for Justice. NY: Little, Brown and Co., 2006.) Without providing any specifics, such as one or more bodies being recovered, this is just speculation, and we are not convinces that “surely” “dozens” of them “should be counted among the dead.”

[2] Not used as high fatality estimate – early report not corroborated by later accounts. (BWB)

[3] Not used as high fatality estimate – early report not corroborated by later accounts. (BWB)

[4] Cites Zeitlinger who wrote “fewer than a dozen people were killed,” not “about a dozen.”

[5] Known dead. (Three men and a two-month-old baby.)

[6] Cites:  http://www.njcu.edu/programs/jchistory/Pages/B_Pages/Black_Tom_Explosion.htm

[7] Cites Zeitlinger who wrote “fewer than a dozen people were killed,” not “about a dozen.”