In the spring of 1947 a ship carried ammonium nitrate fertilizer blew up while at a harbor in Texas City, Texas

It was a spring morning of April 16, 1947, was a morning that many citizens of Texas City thought was the end of the world. The French Liberty ship, SS Grandcamp, bearing a cargo of ammonium nitrate fertilizer (over 2300 tons) destined for war-torn Europe, caught fire in the Texas City harbor. The bright ... A little after 9.00 a. m., the Texas City Disaster (as it is popularly known) occurred as the ship Grandcamp exploded.