Dark tide : the great Boston molasses flood of 1919

by Stephen Puleo

Paper Book, 2004

Status

Available

Call number

363.11/9664118

Genres

Publication

Boston, Mass : Beacon Press, c2004.

Description

History. Sociology. Nonfiction. HTML: Around noon on January 15, 1919, a group of firefighters was playing cards in Boston's North End when they heard a tremendous crash. It was like roaring surf, one of them said later. Like a runaway two-horse team smashing through a fence, said another. A third firefighter jumped up from his chair to look out a window-"Oh my God!" he shouted to the other men, "Run!" A 50-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses had just collapsed on Boston's waterfront, disgorging its contents as a 15-foot-high wave of molasses that at its outset traveled at 35 miles an hour. It demolished wooden homes, even the brick fire station. The number of dead wasn't known for days. It would be years before a landmark court battle determined who was responsible for the disaster..… (more)

Media reviews

Yale Review of Books

The sections of the book devoted to actually recounting the flood and the trial are the best moments in the book, particularly the snippets of newspaper articles and court transcripts Puleo includes. Though these sections probably occupy just as many pages as the historical background, they are

more interesting and have better dramatic pacing.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member LydiaHD

Stephen Puleo does a nice job of putting the molasses flood in its context. I found myself thinking about the parallels between the anarchists of that day (upon whom the company responsible tried to blame the disaster) and the terrorists of the current era, and about the measures deemed necessary

to combat them. But he enjoyed telling a story a little too much. He put thoughts in the heads of people without prefacing them with, "So-and-so must have been thinking..." Somewhere along the line I started to wonder just how much I should trust him.

Also, I felt that the technical details of the explosion were glossed over too much. Having read the book, I still don't know much about how molasses ferments into alcohol: required time and temperature, volume of gasses produced, and so on. I wish Puleo had consulted with a modern-day engineer to get an opinion on what the specifications should have been for a tank constructed to hold two million gallons of molasses. I have no doubt whatsoever that the tank simply failed without any help from anarchists - but I don't feel that it has been rigorously proven.

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LibraryThing member Othemts

A book about The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, awesome! And apparently this is the first book written on the topic, surprising since it proves to be such a fascinating story. In Puleo’s telling, sometimes augmented with fictionalized accounts of the dramatis personae’s thoughts and

actions, this is a ten year story from the rushed construction of the faulty tank in 1915 to the decision in favor of the plaintiffs against the U.S. Industrial Alcohol in 1925. In-between the story tells of the First World War, anarchists action in the North End, the influenza epidemic of 1918, the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, sultry and sleepless summer nights, and chilly Boston winters on the harbor front. And then there’s a minute-by-minute account of the disaster and its after affects. Brilliantly written, this work is going to make my North End tours a whole lot longer.

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LibraryThing member mysterymax

It's amazing how books, seemingly unrelated, can be linked. Last year I read a junior fiction book, 13 Hangmen by Art Corriveau. In it, through time travel, a boy in Boston meets other boys of his age who lived in his room over a long period of history. One of those boys relates the story of the

Molasses Flood. I couldn't believe I had never heard of this event. And neither had anyone I talked to.

Dark Tide tells the story, beginning in December,1915, when a company is underway in its plans to build a 50 foot tall storage tank to hold molasses. It discusses at length the situation regarding the Italian immigrants that lived in Boston's North End, where the tank was being built. It talks about the molasses and Rum and Boston's participation and role in the slave trade, the move to needing molasses to make industrial alcohol to be used in munitions due to the beginning of WWI. It also discusses the unrest by anarchists who made frequent use of bombs throughout the country.

On January 15, 1919, the tank collapsed sending out a 15 feet high wave of 2.3 million gallons of molasses, weighing 26 million pounds, at 35 mph to sweep away houses, railroad elevated rails and a police station not to mention men, women, children and horses.

The rest of the book concerns the hearing that finally (in 1925) found United States Industrial Alcohol, one of America's biggest companies, guilty of negligence. USIA contended that the collapse was due to an anarchist's bomb, a claim that was shown to be faulty.

The book is well researched and well written. It flows in an easy manner. There are photographs taken in 1919 but it isn't easy to see details in them.

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LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey

Interesting, well-written, and in depth on a matter I knew a little about but only a little - it's a couple verses in a favorite song I know (Molasses Rum, which I learned from the band Schooner Fare). It does focus strongly on the civil trial that (more-or-less) ended the matter - partly, I

suspect, because the transcripts of the trial were his primary source material. The beginning is more interesting to me, as it sets the scene for the collapse of the molasses tank - it's a little hard to keep track, since he keeps jumping back and forth in time, but other than that it's quite good. We get to see the people and businesses around the tank, and understand how it affected them while it still stood; then, about 2/3rds of the way through the book, the tank actually collapses and a good long chunk of the book details the effects of the wave of molasses. We get to see those who were saved, and those who weren't, and their families; the physical destruction caused by the molasses, and the mental and emotional strain of the disaster. The final part focuses on the civil trial; the man who presided, Ogden, has already been described at several points in the book (part of that jumping back and forth) before the trial is detailed. I learned a lot, both about the molasses flood and about the culture of the time and place. Glad I read it.

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LibraryThing member niquetteb

An excellent account of a Boston disaster.

LibraryThing member GoofyOcean110

If a disaster's gotta happen, quirky is the way to go. Like most accidents, this was a story of human nature defeating itself, though there were real heroes that came out of this tragedy. The story is told well, in a narrative that reads like the author is right there with you.

LibraryThing member michigantrumpet

A remarkable tale about a little known, regrettable incident in American (and, particularly, Boston) history. On January 15, 1919, a 90 foot tall tank of molasses, destined for distillation into industrial alcohol for munitions manufacture, flew apart, sending a 25 foot high wave of the dark sticky

substance racing through the crowded North End at speeds up to 35 mph. (So much for 'slow as molasses!') The first third of the book supplies background of the molasses trade, Boston at the turn of the century and introduces us to those who played a significant role in the tragedy. Most harrowing is the central portion, detailing the enormous failure of the tank and the unthinkable destruction it wrought, with attendant suffering and near misses. The last third is a chilling courtroom drama, pitting the mostly immigrant plaintiffs against a large corporation, USIA.

This story has long played at the edges of Bostonian folklore, but has never received "spotlight" treatment. Stephen Puleo rectifies this oversight with an absolutely gripping volume. The story is amazing in its own right. Puleo goes further, placing it in the context of the political and economic exigencies faced by WWI America. While the author doesn't do so, I found echos resonating to our modern era. Anti-immigrant feeling, persecution for political expression, worker safety concerns, questions over the ability of Big Business to police itself (and it's culpability when it fails to do so), lack of government regulation and the effects of military/industrial spending are all issues with which we continue to struggle. This book continues to have relevance beyond the events of a near century ago.

Puleo draws largely upon primary sources, including the 25,000 page transcript of the legal proceedings. One wishes for careful footnoting or end notes, particularly where Puleo ascribes inner thoughts and feelings to someone. Puleo notes that there is little prior written work work on this topic. All the more important in the interests of history and future researchers, I would think, to carefully note one's sources. This is admittedly nit-picking. As a Bostonian, I found this book particularly intriguing. However, I think that it would have broad appeal.

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LibraryThing member minfo

If you're a Bostonian, from Massachusetts, or a trivia fan, this is a book you'll absolutely want to read. legallypuzzled's review explains in detail the story but put simply, this is a really good book to read - and will provide you with a GREAT story to liven up a dull conversation at some point.

"You know, I was reading about how they had this Molasses Flood in Boston...." It's hard to top, really.

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LibraryThing member satyridae

I was blown away by this, how could something this huge have happened and I didn't know? It also made me wish I knew all history, every single interesting event that ever happened. So, in 1919, there was a gigantic molasses flood in Boston, which is interesting enough. Add in the political climate

of the times, with anarchists in every doorway, a changing Federal climate, corporations more concerned with profit than safety, and a bunch of hard-working people doing their level best to keep their families afloat while the economy was in a slump... and it's a lot like today, only with horses and steam engines. Well-written and fascinating- but intermittently discursive in the interests of giving a complete picture of the era.

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LibraryThing member CasaBooks

What an interesting book on an unusual happening.
WHO'D a Thunk????
Sounds so weird that a massive wall of molasses (in January, no less)would burst out over Boston waterfront, but just look over your shoulder and suppose you saw a 15 ft wall of molasses flowing your way at 35 mph??? Gulp........
You

can read about it on Wikipedia, but I recommend the book for it's well developed insights into the people affected, the particulars of the injuries/deaths/damage and just as much for the background on the politics and events in the country at the time that played into the reason and the aftermaths.
Fascinating!

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LibraryThing member Gregorio_Roth

A well written book on a terrible crisis, at a roaring time. It shares what happens when big business cuts corners in the name of progress. Progress exploded in their pockets.

LibraryThing member christinejoseph

Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919.
@ North end — immigrants, WWI
Big Business Sacco + Vanzetti + anarchist threat
Bldg Codes changed after this
Molasses for alcohol — ___ — Next ___ Grove — Fire Codes
Big Business took over — W. Wilson
Harding/Coolidge

A 50-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3

million gallons of molasses had just collapsed on Boston's waterfront, disgorging its contents as a 15-foot-high wave of molasses that at its outset traveled at 35 miles an hour. It demolished wooden homes, even the brick fire station. The number of dead wasn't known for days. It would be years before a landmark court battle determined who was responsible for the disaster.

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LibraryThing member grandpahobo

This is a well researched and fascinating book. The author greatly expands the scope of the story from the molasses disaster to include WWI, the rise of anarchists and the effect of the full blooming of the industrial revolution in the US.

LibraryThing member bherner

The subject is, well, weird. During WWI, molases from the Caribean was shipped to boston to be used to produce industrial alcohol for the war effort. One company slapped together a huge tank (a million gallons or something like that) right near the docks and right near the slum tenements in Boston.

The tank colapsed. The molases knocked down buildings etc. killing 19(?). Wonderful story about the times, the place, the people involved. One of the more odd books you are likely to read, but imagine the conversation starter!

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LibraryThing member mchwest

I read this book for our local bookclub, it was very interesting and having lived in the area for over 30 years I have heard somethings about the flood, mainly that on a hot summer day you can still smell molasses in the streets of the North End.

LibraryThing member LisCarey

In January 1919, an enormous molasses tank on the Boston waterfront burst, and unleashed a flood of molasses on one of the most congested sections of the city.

"Molasses flood" sounds like a joke. It sounds funny. It was January. We all know the expression, "as slow as cold molasses."

Twenty-one

people died. 150 were injured, many of them very seriously, resulting in life-long crippling problems that either ended or seriously hampered their ability to work. Also, hundreds of working horses were killed by the molasses flood--some directly, some shot afterwards, because there was no way to extract them from the molasses before they would be suffocated by the weight of it.

Children died. Workers died. Houses, businesses, and the local fire station were crushed, shattered, knocked off their foundations and nearly swept into the harbor.

It was an enormous tragedy.

An important part of Puleo's book is making abundantly clear that it shouldn't have happened. Despite the company's claims, there was no bomb, no "evilly disposed persons," no outside malicious action. But neither was it "just" an accident.

Molasses wasn't just sweetener, or an important raw material for making rum. It was also an important source of industrial alcohol, used in, among other things, munitions. This became critically important with the start of World War One. This resulted in the new Boston tank being built in a great rush, to cash in on the war, under the direction of--an accountant. A man with no experience in construction of any kind, who was under pressure from his bosses to get it done by the last day of 1915 so that it could receive a delivery and spare the company the need to buy molasses for processing. Puleo lays out for us, in highly readable fashion, all the mistakes in construction, the warnings from an ordinary employee about the signs of structural unsoundness, the effects of the disaster, and the subsequent legal case. The company strongly pushed the theory that anarchists planted a bomb in the tank, and this wasn't, in the context of the time, as crazy an idea as it might sound. Anarchists, and anarchist violence, was a significant factor at the time. There just wasn't any supporting evidence for an anarchist having planted a bomb in this molasses tank, and there was a lot of evidence of sloppy construction and ignored warnings of structural unsoundness.

The molasses flood was a major disaster for Boston, but by itself, it wasn't a major, history-changing moment. However, it connected and interacted with a lot of other forces at work at the time. World War One, Prohibition, laissez-faire capitalism (Puleo doesn't use the phrase, but describes it at work), the assimilation, or lack thereof, of the Italian immigrants, anarchist political activity, the Sacco and Vanzetti case...all played a role in what happened. And the legal case over the molasses flood, which became, in practice even if not officially, the largest class action lawsuit thus far.

It's a fascinating story, and well, even if not perfectly, told.

Recommended.

I borrowed this book from my local library.

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LibraryThing member busterrll

Good balanced review of the disaster in Boston.
Big business versus little people. Some things never change. Greed trumps common sense
Well worth reading although wandering off the subject more than I thought necessary.

LibraryThing member LibraryCin

3.75 stars

In 1915, a giant tower meant to store molasses was built in Boston, near the water, near the train tracks, right beside a poor and crowded area of the city. In January 1919, the molasses burst from the tower, creating a wave that eventually left 21 dead and many more injured.

In addition

to info on the tower and the disaster, the book included information on politics at the time and other happenings (the war, the Spanish flu). It followed a few families who were affected or who had some “doings” with the tower, who later testified in court. It had information about anarchists at the time (the company that owned the tower blamed anarchists for dropping a bomb in the tower causing the flood).

I found the parts about the families, the people involved, the flood itself, and the trial after to be quite interesting. Where I lost interest (and the book lost a quarter star) was in the political discussion and the anarchists. I read the ebook, which apparently came from the slightly later paperback edition, which included an additional afterword. This was interesting, as the author described letters he received from descendants of many of the people involved.

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LibraryThing member Maydacat

Once you read this book, never again will you put any credence in that old saying, “as slow as molasses in January.” On January 15, 1919, a torrent of fast-moving, sticky molasses burst from its confines in a fifty-foot tank. Within seconds, the beginning tidal wave, 25 feet high and 160 feet

wide, pulverized the entire waterfront and a half-mile swath of Commercial Street, where the tank had been located. This comprehensive and well-researched account of that tragedy is a gripping tale of those whose lives were snuffed out and of those who survived but suffered the ill effects for the remainder of their days. Author Stephen Puleo has written a clear and well-organized account of the flood in this book that reads like a novel but is all too true. He gives an overview of the history of that time period, of the politics and the anarchists who made headlines, of the flood itself, and of the trial that ensued. It’s a tragedy that changed lives, but it also changed laws and the way big business is viewed by society. Puleo has captured the heart of the neighborhood and the horror of the disaster waiting to unfold in this compelling read.

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LibraryThing member amerynth

I found Stephen Puleo's "Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919" so disappointing that I didn't come close to finishing it. I really detested Puleo's storytelling style so much that I ended up closing the book before getting to the actual flood.

Puleo irritated me right off the bat in

his introduction where he congratulates himself the book. I'm sure the molasses flood is not something that most people know about .... but it isn't some sort of state secret if you grew up in the Boston area. It was well-covered in history classes many times during my school days.

I hate when historical books tell me what people were thinking (unless, of course, there are diary entries and the like to back up those suppositions.) Puleo does this constantly -- the bar owner, who sat on his step the day before the molasses flood, breathing in the air and thinking about his future quiet home in Revere was absolutely ridiculous. At 3 a.m., he was probably walking into the door happy to be going to bed after a long day. I also found the repetition in the book grating... in the first 20 pages, Puleo notes that molasses are used to make industrial alcohol, which is used to make munitions, no less than three times. My memory works well enough that I don't need a reminder every three seconds of something you've already written.

At any rate, I disliked this book so much that I decided to move on without finishing it.

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LibraryThing member cziering

Very good over all. The preamble to the disaster took me a little while to get through, but it paid off. The story of the event itself and the aftermath was well told and follow-up on all the characters was thorough.

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