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133-689: The Port Chicago disaster was a deadly munitions explosion of the ship SS E. A. Bryan on July 17, 1944, at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California , United States. Munitions being loaded onto a cargo vessel bound for the Pacific Theater of Operations detonated, killing 320 sailors and civilians and injuring at least 390 others. A month later, the unsafe conditions prompted hundreds of servicemen to refuse to load munitions, an act known as

266-501: A shot , contains explosives or other fillings, in use since the 19th century. Artillery shells are ammunition that is designed to be fired from artillery which has an effect over long distances, usually indirectly (i.e., out of sight of the target). There are many different types of artillery ammunition, but they are usually high-explosive and designed to shatter into fragments on impact to maximize damage. The fuze used on an artillery shell can alter how it explodes or behaves so it has

399-438: A " Tom show ," lampooned and distorted the portrayal of Uncle Tom with politically loaded overtones. American copyright law before 1856 did not give novel authors any control over derivative stage adaptations, so Stowe neither approved the adaptations nor profited from them. Minstrel show retellings in particular, usually performed by white men in blackface , tended to be derisive and pro-slavery , transforming Uncle Tom from

532-911: A 30-day "survivor's leave" sometimes given by the Navy to sailors who had survived a serious incident where their friends or shipmates had died, but no 30-day leaves were granted, not even to those who had been hospitalized with injuries. White officers, however, received the leave, causing a major grievance among the enlisted men. A Naval Board of Inquiry was convened on July 21, 1944, to find out what had happened. The official proceeding lasted for 39 days and included interviews with witnesses who were officers, civilians, and enlisted men. Ordnance experts were questioned as well as inspectors who had overseen previous loading procedures. Five African Americans were questioned, none of whom later refused to load ammunition. Captain Kinne's posted division tonnage results came to light in

665-542: A Christian martyr to a fool or apologist for slavery. The performer and theatre manager George Kunkel was the first to adapt Stowe's novel into the minstrel show format; portraying the role of Uncle Tom in its first minstrel show adaptation in Charleston, South Carolina in 1861. Kunkel became the most prominent minstrel show performer in that part, performing it throughout the United States for decades and on

798-421: A barge that was used as a temporary military prison or "brig", despite having been built to accommodate only 75 men. Most of the men in the brig had not been given a direct order‍—‌they had simply been asked if they were going to load ships or not, and to step to one side if not. All said they were afraid of another explosion. Civilian stevedore contractors were called to replace the imprisoned men in loading

931-418: A brief stating that, under military law , a persistent refusal to work by two or more men‍—‌something that might be called a "strike" among civilians‍—‌was sufficient proof of a conspiracy to override superior military authority and was equivalent to mutiny. Osterhaus agreed with Coakley and refused Veltmann's motion; the trial would proceed as planned. The trial started on September 14 with each of

1064-408: A chalkboard, Kinne tallied each crew's average tonnage per hour. The junior officers placed bets with each other in support of their own 100-man crews—called "divisions" at Port Chicago—and coaxed their crews to load more than the others. The enlisted men were aware of the bets and knew to slow down to a more reasonable pace whenever a senior officer appeared. The average rate achieved at Port Chicago in

1197-466: A civic leader. Stowe read the first edition of Henson's narrative and later confirmed that she had incorporated elements from it into Uncle Tom's Cabin . Kentucky and New Orleans figure in both Henson's narrative and the novel's settings, and some other story elements are similar. In the public imagination, however, Henson became synonymous with Uncle Tom. After Stowe's death her son and grandson claimed she and Henson had met before Uncle Tom's Cabin

1330-404: A corresponding modification has occurred in the method of supplying ammunition in the quantity required. As soon as projectiles were required (such as javelins and arrows), there needed to be a method of replenishment. When non-specialized, interchangeable or recoverable ammunition was used (e.g., arrows), it was possible to pick up spent arrows (both friendly and enemy) and reuse them. However, with

1463-485: A fireball seen for miles. An Army Air Forces pilot flying in the area reported that the fireball was 3 mi (4.8 km) in diameter. Chunks of glowing hot metal and burning ordnance were flung over 12,000 ft (3,700 m) into the air. The E. A. Bryan was destroyed and the Quinault Victory was blown out of the water, torn into sections and thrown in several directions; the stern landed upside down in

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1596-516: A lesser amount. Shortly afterward Henson was ordered on a trip south to New Orleans . When he learned that he was to be sold there, he obtained a weapon. He contemplated murdering his white companions with the weapon, but decided against violence because his Christian morals forbade it. A sudden illness in one of his companions forced their return to Kentucky , and shortly afterward Henson escaped north with his family, settling in Canada where he became

1729-536: A man accidentally drop a naval artillery shell two feet onto the wooden pier, but there was no detonation. Carr waited until the African-American winch operator tested the repaired winch and then left the pier, thinking that the operation appeared unsafe. The enlisted men were leery of working with deadly explosives, but were told that the larger munitions were not active and could not explode‍—‌that they would be armed with their fuzes upon arrival at

1862-444: A man, Division Eight chose to obey all orders. Divisions Two and Four were split by the decisions of their men: Small and 43 others chose to form a group unwilling to obey every order. These 44 were taken back to the brig and the remaining 214 were sent to barracks. On the morning of August 12, six men from Divisions Two and Four who had put themselves in the obey-all-orders group failed to show up for work call; these six were confined to

1995-409: A modern soldier is an assault rifle , which, like other small arms, uses cartridge ammunition in a size specific to the weapon. Ammunition is carried on the person in box magazines specific to the weapon, ammunition boxes, pouches or bandoliers. The amount of ammunition carried is dependent on the strength of the soldier, the expected action required, and the ability of ammunition to move forward through

2128-422: A more specialized effect. Common types of artillery ammunition include high explosive, smoke, illumination, and practice rounds. Some artillery rounds are designed as cluster munitions . Artillery ammunition will almost always include a projectile (the only exception being demonstration or blank rounds), fuze and propellant of some form. When a cartridge case is not used, there will be some other method of containing

2261-472: A mutiny. The Navy held the court-martial on Yerba Buena Island , part of Naval Training and Distribution Center (later "Naval Station") Treasure Island , halfway between Oakland and San Francisco . Reporters were invited to watch the proceedings; Navy public relations officers gave reporters copies of photographs and press statements describing the trial as the first mutiny trial in World War II and

2394-405: A partial load of fuel oil, some of which was of a type that released flammable vapors as it sat, or upon agitation. The fuel, taken aboard at Shell Oil Company's Martinez refinery mid-day on July 17, would normally be sluiced to other fuel tanks in the following 24 hours. Sixty-seven officers and crew of the two ships were at their stations, and various support personnel were present, such as

2527-443: A racial double standard in the idealization of Uncle Tom: Uncle Tom's character is sketched with great power and rare religious perception. It triumphantly exemplifies the nature, tendency, and results of Christian non-resistance. We are curious to know whether Mrs. Stowe is a believer in the duty of non-resistance for the white man, under all possible outrage and peril, as for the black man ... [For whites in parallel circumstances, it

2660-399: A series of lawsuits relating to the disaster, when it awarded Sirvat Arsenian of Fresno, California, $ 9,700 for the death of her 26-year-old son, a merchant marine crewman killed in the blast. She had sought $ 50,000. A memorial ceremony was held for the victims on July 31, 1944, at Port Chicago. Admiral Carleton H. Wright , Commander, 12th Naval District , spoke of the unfortunate deaths and

2793-519: A significant impact on anti-tank ammunition design, now common in both tank-fired ammunition and in anti-tank missiles, including anti-tank guided missiles . Naval weapons were originally the same as many land-based weapons, but the ammunition was designed for specific use, such as a solid shot designed to hole an enemy ship and chain-shot to cut rigging and sails. Modern naval engagements have occurred over far longer distances than historic battles, so as ship armor has increased in strength and thickness,

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2926-535: A sling, was asked if he would load ammunition, to which he replied that he would not. More importantly, Veltmann sensed that the men had not conspired to seize command from their superior officers. In a pre-trial brief, Veltmann cited the definition of mutiny from Winthrop's Military Law and Precedents and asked that the mutiny charges be dismissed as the formal charges against the 50 men failed to allege that they conspired together deliberately to "usurp, subvert or override superior military authority". Coakley opposed with

3059-401: A specialized effect on a target, such as armor-piercing shells and tracer ammunition , used only in certain circumstances. Ammunition is commonly labeled or colored in a specific manner to assist in its identification and to prevent the wrong ammunition types from being used accidentally or inappropriately. The term ammunition can be traced back to the mid-17th century. The word comes from

3192-567: A time into No. 1 hold‍—‌the hold with a winch brake that might still have been inoperative. A boxcar delivery containing a new airborne anti-submarine depth charge design, the Mark ;47 armed with 252 lb (114 kg) of torpex , was being loaded into No. 2 hold. The torpex charges were more sensitive than TNT to external shock and container dents. On the pier, resting on three parallel rail spurs, were 16 rail cars holding about 430 short tons (390 t) of explosives. In all,

3325-532: A tour of England in 1883. His last performance of the part was in January 1885 less than a month before his death. Adapted theatrical performances of the novel, called Tom Shows , remained in continual production in the United States for at least 80 years beyond the 1850s (1930s). These representations had a lasting cultural impact and influenced the pejorative nature of the term Uncle Tom in later popular use. Although not every minstrel depiction of Uncle Tom

3458-425: A warship is referred to as the "ship's magazine". On a smaller scale, magazine is also the name given to the ammunition storage and feeding device of a repeating firearm. Gunpowder must be stored in a dry place (stable room temperature) to keep it usable, as long as for 10 years. It is also recommended to avoid hot places, because friction or heat might ignite a spark and cause an explosion. The standard weapon of

3591-593: Is a kind of stereotype that doesn't advance the interests of blacks. He reiterated this position at his talk at Northeastern." Bamboozled challenges notions of "Uncle Toming" or "acting white" as well as demonstrating the concept of double-consciousness coined by the notable sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois in his book The Souls of Black Folk (1903). Also see the Emmy Award -winning 1987 documentary film Ethnic Notions by Black gay filmmaker Marlon Riggs narrated by actor Esther Rolle . The documentary narrates

3724-408: Is activated by the fuze, which causes the ammunition effect (e.g., the exploding of an artillery round). The cartridge is the container that holds the projectile and propellant. Not all ammunition types have a cartridge case. In its place, a wide range of materials can be used to contain the explosives and parts. With some large weapons, the ammunition components are stored separately until loaded into

3857-420: Is later echoed in the apocryphal story of Lincoln greeting Stowe with the quip, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war !" Frederick Douglass praised the novel as "a flash to light a million camp fires in front of the embattled hosts of slavery." Despite Douglass's enthusiasm, an anonymous 1852 reviewer for William Lloyd Garrison 's publication, The Liberator , suspected

3990-434: Is often said] Talk not of overcoming evil with good – it is madness! Talk not of peacefully submitting to chains and stripes – it is base servility! Talk not of servants being obedient to their masters – let the blood of tyrants flow! How is this to be explained or reconciled? Is there one law of submission and non-resistance for the black man, and another of rebellion and conflict for

4123-413: Is packaged with each round of ammunition. In recent years, compressed gas, magnetic energy and electrical energy have been used as propellants. Until the 20th-century, gunpowder was the most common propellant in ammunition. However, it has since been replaced by a wide range of fast-burning compounds that are more reliable and efficient. The propellant charge is distinct from the projectile charge which

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4256-456: Is the second-largest annual use of lead in the US, accounting for over 60,000 metric tons consumed in 2012. Lead bullets that miss their target or remain in a carcass or body that was never retrieved can enter environmental systems and become toxic to wildlife. The US military has experimented with replacing lead with copper as a slug in their green bullets which reduces the dangers posed by lead in

4389-513: The Port Chicago Mutiny . More than 200 were convicted of various charges. Fifty of these men‍—‌called the " Port Chicago 50 "‍—‌were convicted of mutiny and sentenced to 15 years of prison and hard labor , as well as a dishonorable discharge . Forty-seven of the 50 were released in January 1946; the remaining three served additional months in prison. During and after the mutiny court-martial , questions were raised about

4522-525: The Sangay . Among the prisoners, Seaman First Class Joseph Randolph "Joe" Small, a winch operator in Division Four, was asked by officers to assemble a handful of reliable men as a team of acting petty officers and to keep the other prisoners on good behavior. On August 10, there had been conflicts between the prisoners and their guards as the prisoners were marched to the mess hall for meals. There

4655-495: The detonator of an explosive round or shell. The spelling is different in British English and American English (fuse/fuze respectively) and they are unrelated to a fuse (electrical) . A fuse was earlier used to ignite the propellant (e.g., such as on a firework) until the advent of more reliable systems such as the primer or igniter that is used in most modern ammunition. The fuze of a weapon can be used to alter how

4788-583: The propellant bags, usually a breech-loading weapon; see Breechloader . Tank ammunition was developed in WWI as tanks first appeared on the battlefield. However, as tank-on-tank warfare developed (including the development of anti-tank warfare artillery), more specialized forms of ammunition were developed such as high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warheads and armour-piercing discarding sabot (APDS), including armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) rounds. The development of shaped charges has had

4921-500: The 50 men pleading "not guilty". Coakley began his prosecution by calling officers from Port Chicago and Mare Island as witnesses. Commander Joseph R. Tobin of Ryder Street Naval Barracks said that he personally ordered six or seven of the men to load munitions on August 9 but was unable to verify if any others were so ordered. He said that the men he had spoken with were willing to follow any order except to load munitions; that each man expressed fear of another explosion. Tobin verified that

5054-690: The African American characters and for the risks Stowe assumed in taking a very public stand against slavery before abolitionism had become a socially acceptable cause, and others criticizing the very limited terms upon which those characters's humanity was affirmed and the artistic shortcomings of political melodrama. A specific impetus for the novel was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 , which imposed heavy fines upon law enforcement personnel in Northern states if they refused to assist

5187-528: The Alabama Porchmonkeys . Lee's use of popular celebrities as satirical stock characters challenged long-held stereotypes of Black people in mainstream popular culture from novels to the screen. Casting hip-hop artists also allowed the filmmaker to allude to the role of negative stereotyping gangsta rap in the early aughts: "Spike Lee says in the DVD commentary [about Bamboozled ] that gangsta rap

5320-644: The French la munition , for the material used for war. Ammunition and munition are often used interchangeably, although munition now usually refers to the actual weapons system with the ammunition required to operate it. In some languages other than English ammunition is still referred to as munition, such as: Dutch (" munitie "), French (" munitions "), German (" Munition "), Italian (" munizione ") and Portuguese (" munição "). Ammunition design has evolved throughout history as different weapons have been developed and different effects required. Historically, ammunition

5453-621: The Navy James Forrestal who added his opinion that it was "mass fear" motivating the work stoppage. Forrestal told Roosevelt that white units of munitions loaders were to be added to the rotation "...to avoid any semblance of discrimination against negroes." Roosevelt forwarded a copy to his wife Eleanor , knowing of her ongoing advocacy of civil rights for African Americans . Divisions Two, Four, and Eight‍—‌reinforced with replacement sailors fresh from training at NSGL‍—‌were taken to Mare Island Navy Yard , where there

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5586-899: The Navy to change its practices and initiate the desegregation of its forces beginning in February 1946. In 1994, the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial was dedicated to the lives lost in the disaster. The town of Port Chicago was located on Suisun Bay in the estuary of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers . Suisun Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Carquinez Strait , which connects to San Pablo Bay , which in turn connects to San Francisco Bay . In 1944,

5719-487: The Pacific Theater. Carl Tuggle, one of the 208, said in 1998 that a group of prisoners, including himself. were assigned menial tasks. After returning from active duty, they each received bad conduct discharges , which meant the loss of veterans' benefits . The 50 remaining men‍—‌soon to be known as the "Port Chicago 50"‍—‌were formally charged in early September 1944 with disobeying orders and making

5852-573: The Port Chicago facility at the time of the explosion‍—‌had served in the U.S. Navy from 1915 to 1922 and then returned to the Navy in 1941 to be posted aboard a general cargo ship. Prior to his being sent to command Port Chicago, Kinne had no training in the loading of munitions and little experience in handling them. Loading officers serving underneath Kinne had not been trained in handling munitions until they had been posted to Mare Island Navy Yard , after which they were considered adequate to

5985-809: The Uncle Tom story demonstrate an impulse to correct the retellers's perceptions of its flaws" and of "the capacity of the novel to irritate and rankle, even a century and a half after its first publication." Spike Lee 's 2000 film Bamboozled was a dark modern satire or comedy drama that challenges this kind of negative stereotyping. The film featured popular Black actors such as Damon Wayans as Pierre "Peerless Dothan" Delacroix and Jada Pinkett Smith as Sloan Hopkins, comedians such as Tommy Davidson as Womack "Sleep 'n Eat" and Paul Mooney as Junebug, and hip hop artists such as Yasiin Bey formerly known as Mos Def as Julius "Big Blak Afrika" Hopkins and The Roots as

6118-549: The abolitionist serial and first book edition degenerated into a decrepit old man, and with that transformation the character lost the capacity for resistance that had originally given meaning to his choices. Stowe never meant Uncle Tom to be a derided name, but the term, as a pejorative, has developed based on how later versions of the character, stripped of his inherent strength, were depicted on stage. Claire Parfait, author of The Publishing History of Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852–2002, opined that "the many alterations in retellings of

6251-630: The advent of explosive or non-recoverable ammunition, this was no longer possible and new supplies of ammunition would be needed. The weight of ammunition required, particularly for artillery shells, can be considerable, causing a need for extra time to replenish supplies. In modern times, there has been an increase in the standardization of many ammunition types between allies (e.g., the NATO Standardization Agreement ) that has allowed for shared ammunition types (e.g., 5.56×45mm NATO). As of 2013, lead-based ammunition production

6384-500: The ammunition has cleared the weapon. The propellant is the component of ammunition that is activated inside the weapon and provides the kinetic energy required to move the projectile from the weapon to the target. Before the use of gunpowder, this energy would have been produced mechanically by the weapons system (e.g., a catapult or crossbow); in modern times, it is usually a form of chemical energy that rapidly burns to create kinetic force, and an appropriate amount of chemical propellant

6517-577: The ammunition they were supposed to be loading and that continued refusal to work would be treated as mutinous conduct, which carried the death penalty in times of war. Wright, who had seen nearly 400 of his men killed in 1942 in the Battle of Tassafaronga , said that although loading ammunition was risky, death by firing squad was the greater hazard. After the admiral departed, the men were ordered to separate themselves into two groups, one for those willing to obey all orders and one for those not willing. To

6650-405: The ammunition to defeat it has also changed. Naval ammunition is now designed to reach very high velocities (to improve its armor-piercing abilities) and may have specialized fuzes to defeat specific types of vessels. However, due to the extended ranges at which modern naval combat may occur, guided missiles have largely supplanted guns and shells. With every successive improvement in military arms,

6783-436: The ammunition works. For example, a common artillery shell fuze can be set to "point detonation" (detonation when it hits a target), delay (detonate after it has hit and penetrated a target), time-delay (explode a specified time after firing or impact) and proximity (explode above or next to a target without hitting it, such as for airburst effects or anti-aircraft shells). These allow a single ammunition type to be altered to suit

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6916-467: The base; Division Two was separated into a group that would stay and clean up and a group that would be moved out. This section of Division Two and all of Divisions Four and Eight were transferred to Camp Shoemaker , about 30 mi (48 km) south, where they were assigned barracks duty until July 31, 1944. The men of Divisions One, Five and Seven were reassigned other duty in distant locations and shipped out. The cleanup detail from Division Two dug into

7049-470: The brakes. Disused brakes sometimes seized up and stopped working. The winches on the SS E. A. Bryan were steam-powered and showed signs of wear, even though the ship was five months old. On July 13, 1944, when the E. A. Bryan , operated by Oliver J. Olson & Company for War Shipping Administration , docked at Port Chicago, the ship's No. 1 winch brakes were found stuck in the "off" position. This meant

7182-417: The brig, making 50 prisoners in all. These 50 were identified by the Navy as mutineers. Throughout August, all 258 sailors were taken to Camp Shoemaker and questioned. Forty-nine of the 50 mutineers were imprisoned in the camp's brig. Joe Small was placed in solitary confinement . Each of was interviewed by officers, sometimes in the presence of an armed guard. Questions focused on identifying "ringleaders" of

7315-437: The combat theater. Handling of larger munitions, such as bombs and shells, involved using levers and, crowbars from boxcars , in which they were packed tightly with dunnage ‍—‌lifting the heavy, grease-coated cylinders, rolling them along the wooden pier, packing them into nets, lifting them by winch and boom , lowering the bundle into the hold, then dropping individual munitions by hand into place. This series of actions

7448-415: The component parts of other weapons that create the effect on a target (e.g., bullets and warheads ). The purpose of ammunition is to project a force against a selected target to have an effect (usually, but not always, lethal). An example of ammunition is the firearm cartridge , which includes all components required to deliver the weapon effect in a single package. Until the 20th century, black powder

7581-453: The conclusion that ringleaders and agitators had forced a rebellion against authority. Veltmann pointed out that few of the accused had been ordered to load ammunition, meaning that they could not all be guilty of the charge of disobeying orders. Veltmann stressed that much of the testimony was hearsay and failed to establish a conspiracy or a mutiny. The court, however, seemed to side with Coakley on all points, settling each objection in favor of

7714-478: The cook and a second man were sailors he did not consider "up to par"; the cook in particular was prone to nervous attacks and was seen as a liability at the pier. Later in the trial, Lieutenant Carleton Morehouse‍—‌Commander of Division Eight at Port Chicago‍—‌took the stand to say that at the first sign of problems on August 9, he assembled his men and read their names off alphabetically, ordering each man to work. Ninety-six of 104 refused and were sent to

7847-570: The court to be drowsy at times, with one judge regularly nodding off. Starting on September 23 and continuing for over three weeks, each of the accused men was brought to the witness stand to testify in his defense. The general trend of the men's responses was that all of them were willing to obey any order except to load ammunition, all were afraid of another explosion, and none had been approached by "ringleaders" persuading them not to work‍—‌each had made his own decision. Each man said that he himself had not coerced others to refuse to work. Some of

7980-616: The damage inflicted by one round. Anti-personnel shells are designed to fragment into many pieces and can affect a large area. Armor-piercing rounds are specially hardened to penetrate armor, while smoke ammunition covers an area with a fog that screens people from view. More generic ammunition (e.g., 5.56×45mm NATO ) can often be altered slightly to give it a more specific effect (e.g., tracer, incendiary), whilst larger explosive rounds can be altered by using different fuzes. The components of ammunition intended for rifles and munitions may be divided into these categories: The term fuze refers to

8113-405: The daring of three African American women who escape from slavery. The novel was both influential and commercially successful, published as a serial from 1851 to 1852 and as a book from 1852 onward. An estimated 500,000 copies had sold worldwide by 1853, including unauthorized reprints. Senator Charles Sumner credited Uncle Tom's Cabin for the election of Abraham Lincoln , an opinion that

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8246-552: The dead were black men. Congress settled on $ 3,000 in compensation. Years later, on March 4, 1949, the heirs of eighteen merchant seamen killed in the explosion were granted a total of $ 390,000 after gaining approval of their consent decrees in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California . The government announced on August 23, 1951, that it had settled the last in

8379-411: The defense. Veltmann and his team talked to their clients—they discovered that not all of the 50 were experienced ship loaders. Two of the men had never before loaded ammunition‍—‌they were permanently assigned as cooks because of physical conditions making them unsuited to loading. The two cooks had responded "no" when asked if they would load munitions. Another of the 50, who had a broken wrist in

8512-411: The delivery of explosives. An ammunition dump is a military facility for the storage of live ammunition and explosives that will be distributed and used at a later date. Such a storage facility is extremely hazardous, with the potential for accidents when unloading, packing, and transferring the ammunition. In the event of a fire or explosion, the site and its surrounding area is immediately evacuated and

8645-694: The docks, they wanted us to slow up." This was the first that the newspaper reporters had heard of speed and tonnage competition between divisions at Port Chicago, and each reporter filed a story featuring this revelation to be published the next day. Naval authorities quickly issued a statement denying Green's allegation. Another one of the men gave the surprising testimony that Lieutenant Commander Coakley had threatened to have him shot after he refused to answer some questions during interrogation at Camp Shoemaker. Seaman Alphonso McPherson held fast to his testimony even when faced by Coakley in cross-examination. Coakley denied threatening anyone, exclaiming that such an idea

8778-475: The effect of having the officers "by the tail" or "by the ass". Coakley was challenged by Veltmann when he attempted to bring the men's signed statements in as evidence but the court allowed the statements to be used to refresh the men's memories of their answers to interrogation. Coakley summed up his prosecution case on September 22. His aim was to show the court that a conspiracy had taken place‍—‌the mass of accounts from officers and men appeared to support

8911-458: The enlisted men had been specifically trained for one of the naval ratings at Naval Station Great Lakes (NSGL), but the men were instead put to work as stevedores at Port Chicago. None of the new recruits had been instructed in ammunition loading. At NSGL, the enlisted African Americans who tested in the top 30% to 40% were selected for non-labor assignments. Port Chicago was manned by workers drawn from those remaining. The Navy determined that

9044-423: The environment as a result of artillery. Since 2010, this has eliminated over 2000 tons of lead in waste streams. Hunters are also encouraged to use monolithic bullets , which exclude any lead content. Unexploded ammunition can remain active for a very long time and poses a significant threat to both humans and the environment. Uncle Tom At the time of the novel's initial publication in 1851, Uncle Tom

9177-402: The explosion could not be determined, but implied that a mistake made by the enlisted men in the handling of the ordnance was most likely at root. No mention was made of the men's lack of training in the handling of explosives. The Navy asked Congress to give each victim's family $ 5,000. Representative John E. Rankin (D- Miss. ) insisted the amount be reduced to $ 2,000 when he learned most of

9310-588: The fairness and legality of the proceedings. Owing to public pressure, the United States Navy reconvened the courts-martial board in 1945—that board re-affirmed convictions. Those convictions stood until 2024, when the Navy exonerated all 256 men convicted during the courts-martial, including the Port Chicago 50. Widespread publicity surrounding the case turned it into a cause célèbre among Americans opposing discrimination targeting African Americans; it and other race-related Navy protests of 1944–45 led

9443-419: The fires and to prevent other explosions. Injuries were treated, those seriously injured were hospitalized, and uninjured servicemen were evacuated to nearby stations. After the fires had been contained there remained the task of cleaning up‍—‌body parts and corpses littered the bay and port. Of the 320 dead, only 51 could be identified. Most of the uninjured sailors volunteered to help clean up and rebuild

9576-433: The form of " Uncle Tom syndrome ", a term for the use of subservience, appeasement, and passivity to cope with intimidation and threats. The popular negative connotations of "Uncle Tom" have largely been attributed to the numerous derivative works inspired by Uncle Tom's Cabin in the decade after its release, rather than to the original novel itself, whose title character is a more positive figure. These works, often called

9709-419: The handling and loading of explosives into ships. Even the officers did not receive training: Lieutenant Commander Alexander Holman, loading officer at Port Chicago whose duties included officer training, had initiated a search for training materials and samples, but did not organize a training class before disaster struck. Powered winches were used on cargo ships to speed the handling of heavy loads. One winch

9842-545: The inboard, landward side of Port Chicago's single 1,500 ft (460 m) pier at 8:15 a.m. on July 13, 1944. The ship arrived at the dock with no cargo, but was carrying a full load of 5,292 barrels (841,360 liters) of bunker C heavy fuel oil for its intended trip across the Pacific Ocean . At 10 a.m. that same day, seamen from the ordnance battalion began loading the ship with munitions. After four days of loading, about 4,600 tons (4,173 tonnes) of explosives had been stored in its holds. The ship

9975-417: The inquiry but Kinne stated that the competition to load the most tonnage did not make for unsafe conditions; he implied that any junior officers who said so did not know what they were talking about. The inquiry covered possible explosion scenarios involving sabotage, faulty fueling procedures, failure of the moorings of the Quinault Victory , defects in munitions, the presence of a super sensitive element in

10108-537: The largest mass trial the Navy had ever convened. Chosen to head the seven-man court was Rear Admiral Hugo Wilson Osterhaus, United States Naval Academy , class of 1900. The prosecution was led by Lieutenant Commander James F. Coakley, who had recently served as deputy chief prosecutor in Alameda County under district attorney Earl Warren . Defending the men were six Navy lawyers, with a leader and one attorney for every 10 men. Lieutenant Gerald E. Veltmann headed

10241-424: The logistical chain to replenish the supply. A soldier may also carry a smaller amount of specialized ammunition for heavier weapons such as machine guns and mortars, spreading the burden for squad weapons over many people. Too little ammunition poses a threat to the mission, while too much limits the soldier's mobility also being a threat to the mission. A shell is a payload-carrying projectile which, as opposed to

10374-698: The lowest twelfth of the Navy. Officers at Port Chicago considered the enlisted men unreliable, emotional, and lacking the capacity to understand or remember orders or instructions. Black enlisted men at Port Chicago were led by black petty officers who were regarded by some workers as incompetent and ineffective in voicing their men's concerns to higher authority. Petty officers were seen as having aims fundamentally different from those of their men‍—‌they were described later as "slave drivers" and " Uncle Toms ". They and their men sometimes had an antagonistic relationship. Captain Merrill T. Kinne‍—‌commander of

10507-405: The magazine included bombs , shells , naval mines , torpedoes , and small arms ammunition . The munitions, destined for the Pacific Theater of Operations , were delivered by rail to the Port Chicago facility and then individually loaded by hand, crane, and winch onto cargo ships for further transport. Most of the enlisted men working as loaders at Port Chicago were African-American . All of

10640-431: The men agreed on several points: that there had been talk among them of a mass work-stoppage leading up to August 9, that some men (none of the accused 50) had passed around and signed a petition to avoid loading ammunition, and that Joe Small had spoken at the meeting on the prison barge and had urged the men to obey their officers and to conduct themselves in an orderly fashion. Some men said Small's speech included words to

10773-519: The men related how, following the official interrogation at Camp Shoemaker, they had been under great pressure to sign statements containing things they had not said. Some men said that, at the meeting on the barge, Joe Small had not urged a mutiny and had not uttered any phrase to the effect of having the officers "by the balls". On the witness stand, Small himself denied saying any such thing, though he would admit to it decades later in interviews. Coakley's cross-examinations began with an attempt to have

10906-428: The men were not aggressive or disrespectful. Lieutenant Ernest Delucchi, Commander of Division Four at Port Chicago, testified that he personally ordered only four of the 50 defendants to load munitions. Delucchi described overhearing men of Division Eight say to his men, "Don't go to work for the white motherfuckers" but, under cross-examination , was unable to identify who said it. Veltmann objected to this hearsay but

11039-409: The men who had been named as having been given direct orders to work testified that they had not been given any such order. Seaman Ollie E. Green‍—‌who had accidentally broken his wrist one day prior to the first work-stoppage on August 9‍—‌said that though he had heard an officer in prior testimony name him as one who had been given a direct order, the officer had only asked him how his wrist

11172-462: The months leading up to July 1944 was 8.2 short tons (7.4 t) per hatch per hour—commercial stevedores at Mare Island performed only slightly better at 8.7 short tons (7.9 t) per hatch per hour. There was no system at Port Chicago to ensure officers and men were familiar with safety regulations. Two formal lectures and several informal lectures were given to the enlisted men by commanding officers, but follow-up confirmation of retained knowledge

11305-479: The munitions on the pier and in the ship contained the equivalent of 2,000 short tons (1,800 t) of TNT. One hundred and two men of the Sixth Division, many fresh from training at NSGL, were busy rigging the newly built Victory ship SS  Quinault Victory (also spelled Quinalt Victory ) in preparation for loading it with explosives, a task that was to begin at midnight. The Quinault Victory had

11438-506: The need to keep the base operating during a time of war. He gave Navy and Marine Corps Medals for bravery to four officers and men who had successfully fought a fire in a rail car parked within a revetment near the pier. The remains of 44 of the victims were interred at Golden Gate National Cemetery . Wright soon began implementing a plan to have two groups of white sailors load ammunition in rotation with black sailors: one division of 100 men at Mare Island and another at Port Chicago. No plan

11571-400: The next morning. On the afternoon of July 17, a bleeder valve on winch No. 4 required repair. Albert Carr, a civil service plumber from Pittsburg, California , was called to replace it—it was his first day at Port Chicago. Carr pulled a broken nipple out of the bleeder valve and replaced both the nipple and the valve from new stock taken from Port Chicago's shop. While at work he witnessed

11704-430: The novel was written, read, and debated as a political abolitionist tract. Stowe drew inspiration for the Uncle Tom character from several sources. The best-known of these was Josiah Henson , an ex-slave whose autobiography, The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself , was originally published in 1849 and later republished in two extensively revised editions after

11837-486: The novel's reputation plummeted until feminist critics led by Jane Tompkins reassessed the tale's female characters. According to Debra J. Rosenthal, in an introduction to a collection of critical appraisals for the Routledge Literary Sourcebook on Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" , overall reactions have been mixed, with some critics praising the novel for affirming the humanity of

11970-607: The officer was their defense counsel . After the interviews concluded, the 208 men were convicted in summary courts-martial of disobeying orders, Article 4 of the Articles for the Government of the United States Navy ( Rocks and Shoals ).) Each was subject to forfeiture of three months' pay. A few of them were held as witnesses for the upcoming mutiny trial. The rest were split into smaller groups and shipped out to

12103-463: The ordnance, problems with steam winches and rigging, rough handling by loaders, and organizational problems within the base. The Navy determined that the tonnage contest between divisions was not at fault, although the Judge Advocate warned that "the loading of explosives should never be a matter of competition." The officers in charge were cleared of guilt. The report stated that the cause of

12236-435: The potential threat from enemy forces. A magazine is a place where a quantity of ammunition or other explosive material is stored temporarily prior to being used. The term may be used for a facility where large quantities of ammunition are stored, although this would normally be referred to as an ammunition dump. Magazines are typically located in the field for quick access when engaging the enemy. The ammunition storage area on

12369-476: The prison barge, but all of these men agreed to work after hearing Admiral Wright's speech on August 11; none of Morehouse's men were on trial for mutiny. Morehouse confirmed to Veltmann that some of his men had said they were afraid to handle ammunition. Following Morehouse, Lieutenant James E. Tobin, Commander of Division Two, took the stand. Lieutenant Tobin (no relation to Commander Joseph R. Tobin) related that 87 of his men initially refused to work but that number

12502-418: The prosecution. Veltmann scored a victory at the beginning of his defense: he moved and was granted that each officer's testimony could be applied only to the men they had specifically named as having been given the order to work. In principle, this ruling was favorable, but in practice it would benefit the men only if the court had been attentively keeping notes for each accused man. Instead, reporters observed

12635-401: The publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin . Henson was enslaved at birth in 1789. He became a Christian at age eighteen and began preaching. Henson attempted to purchase his freedom for $ 450, but after selling his personal assets to raise $ 350 and signing a promissory note for the remainder, Henson's owner raised the price to $ 1000; Henson was unable to prove that the original agreement had been for

12768-423: The quality of African American petty officers at Port Chicago suffered because of the absence of high-scoring black men, and that overall levels of competence were further reduced by the occasional requirement for Port Chicago to supply drafts of men with clear records for transfer to other stations. The Navy's General Classification Test (GCT) results for the enlisted men at Port Chicago averaged 31, putting them in

12901-420: The rail cars because they had been packed so tightly. At 10:18 p.m., witnesses reported hearing a noise described as "a metallic sound and rending timbers, such as made by a falling boom." Immediately afterward, an explosion occurred on the pier and a fire started. Five to seven seconds later a more powerful explosion took place as the majority of the ordnance within and near the SS E. A. Bryan detonated in

13034-445: The return of people who escaped from slavery. The new law also stripped African Americans of the right to request a jury trial or to testify on their own behalf, even if they were legally free, whenever a single claimant presented an affidavit of ownership. The same law authorized a $ 1000 (~$ 28,435 in 2023) fine and six months imprisonment for anyone who knowingly harbored or assisted a fugitive slave. These terms infuriated Stowe, so

13167-436: The same officers and conditions as before. It was a mass work stoppage, which would have been called a strike if the workers had been civilians. The Navy would not countenance such conduct. Seventy of the men changed their minds after their officers made it clear that loading ammunition was their duty. The 258 African-American sailors in the ordnance battalion who continued to refuse to load ammunition were taken under guard to

13300-493: The shore patrol guards (who were black) and the officers, because the alternative (white Marines as guards) would be worse. He said to the men, "We've got the officers by the balls‍—‌they can do nothing to us if we don't do anything to them. If we stick together, they can't do anything to us." On August 11, 1944, the 258 men from the prison barge were marched to a nearby sports field and lectured by Admiral Wright, who told them that troops fighting on Saipan desperately needed

13433-463: The signed statements admitted as evidence. Veltmann objected that each statement was obtained under duress and was not voluntary. Coakley characterized the statements as not being confessions requiring voluntary conditions but merely "admissions" that had no such requirement. Osterhaus ruled that Coakley could not introduce the statements as evidence but that he could ask the defendants questions based on what each man's signed statement contained. Some of

13566-425: The situation it is required for. There are many designs of a fuze, ranging from simple mechanical to complex radar and barometric systems. Fuzes are usually armed by the acceleration force of firing the projectile, and usually arm several meters after clearing the bore of the weapon. This helps to ensure the ammunition is safer to handle when loading into the weapon and reduces the chance of the detonator firing before

13699-477: The stored ammunition is left to detonate itself completely with limited attempts at firefighting from a safe distance. In large facilities, there may be a flooding system to automatically extinguish a fire or prevent an explosion. Typically, an ammunition dump will have a large buffer zone surrounding it, to avoid casualties in the event of an accident. There will also be perimeter security measures in place to prevent access by unauthorized personnel and to guard against

13832-612: The subversive layers of Stowe's original characterization by redefining Uncle Tom until he fitted within prevailing racist norms. Particularly after the Civil War, as the political thrust of the novel which had arguably helped to precipitate that war became obsolete to actual political discourse, popular depictions of the title character recast him within the apologetics of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy . The virile father of

13965-466: The surrounding town were severely damaged. Shattered glass and a rain of jagged metal and undetonated munitions caused more injuries among military personnel and civilians, although no one outside the immediate pier area was killed. Nearly $ 9.9 million worth of damage ($ 171.4 million in 2023) was caused to U.S. government property. Seismographs at the University of California, Berkeley sensed

14098-478: The task by the Navy. In April 1944, when Captain Kinne assumed command of Port Chicago, the loading officers had been pushing to load the explosive cargoes quickly—10 short tons (9.1  t ) per hatch per hour. The desired level had been set by Captain Nelson Goss, Commander Mare Island Navy Yard, whose jurisdiction included Port Chicago Naval Magazine. Most loading officers considered this goal too high. On

14231-415: The three-man civilian train crew and a Marine sentry. In total, nine Navy officers and 29 armed guards watched over the procedure. A U.S Coast Guard fire barge with a crew of five was docked at the pier. An officer who left the docks shortly after 10 p.m. noticed that the Quinault Victory ′s propeller was slowly turning over and that the men of Division Three were having trouble pulling munitions from

14364-620: The town was a little more than a mile from a U.S. Navy munitions depot, the Port Chicago Naval Magazine, which was later expanded and renamed the Concord Naval Weapons Station . It is now called the Military Ocean Terminal Concord. The original magazine was planned in 1941 with construction beginning shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor . The first ship to dock at Port Chicago was loaded on December 8, 1942. Munitions transported through

14497-615: The two shock waves traveling through the ground, determining the second, larger event to be equivalent to an earthquake measuring 3.4 on the Richter magnitude scale . All 320 of the men at the pier died instantly, and 390 or more civilians and military personnel were injured, many seriously. Among the dead were the five Coast Guard personnel posted aboard the fire barge. African-American casualties totaled 202 dead and 233 injured, which accounted for 15% of all African-American casualties during World War II . Naval personnel worked to contain

14630-421: The water 500 ft (150 m) away. The Coast Guard fire boat CG-60014-F was thrown 600 ft (180 m) upriver, where it sank. The pier, along with its boxcars, locomotive, rails, cargo, and men, was blasted into pieces. Nearby boxcars‍—‌waiting within their revetments to be unloaded ‍—‌were bent inward and crumpled by the force of the shock. The port's barracks and other buildings and much of

14763-414: The weapon system for firing. With small arms, caseless ammunition can reduce the weight and cost of ammunition, and simplify the firing process for increased firing rate, but the maturing technology has functionality issues. The projectile is the part of the ammunition that leaves the weapon and has the effect on the target. This effect is usually either kinetic (e.g., as with a standard bullet) or through

14896-502: The white man? When it is the whites who are trodden in the dust, does Christ justify them in taking up arms to vindicate their rights? And when it is the blacks who are thus treated, does Christ require them to be patient, harmless, long-suffering, and forgiving? Are there two Christs? James Weldon Johnson , a prominent figure of the Harlem Renaissance , expressed an antipathetic opinion in his autobiography: For my part, I

15029-427: The winch could be operated freely, but lacked critical stopping capability if steam pressure was interrupted. The ship's chief mate and chief engineer examined the winch, but it was not determined whether the brake was made operational. During loading operations on July 15 the winch at No. 2 hold began making a hammering noise. An application of grease quieted it through the night until its main bearing could be replaced

15162-529: The work-stoppage and on what was said by whom at the meeting on the prison barge. The men were asked to sign statements summarizing the interrogation, but the officer's version rarely matched the enlisted man's recollection of the interview. Some men, upon seeing that the written statements did not reflect what they had said, refused to sign. Others felt they had no choice but to sign‍—‌they were being ordered to do so by an officer. Several men refused to give any statement at all. Others spoke freely, thinking that

15295-599: The wreckage of the pier and began tearing out the damaged portions. Beginning in August, Divisions Four and Eight and both sections of Division Two moved to the Ryder Street Naval Barracks in Vallejo, California , across a short channel from Mare Island , where they were assigned barracks duties with no ship-loading. The men were in a state of shock; all were nervous. Many of them inquired about obtaining

15428-407: Was a personal affront. Veltmann responded that this line of evidence was news to him, too. The next day, Coakley gave the press a statement accusing Veltmann of coaching McPherson. Ammunition Ammunition is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs , missiles , grenades , land mines ) and

15561-473: Was a rejection of the existing stereotypes of minstrel shows ; Stowe's melodramatic story humanized the suffering of slavery for white audiences by portraying Tom as a young, strong Jesus-like figure who is ultimately martyred, beaten to death by a cruel master (Simon Legree) because he refuses to betray the whereabouts of two women who had escaped from slavery. Stowe reversed the gender conventions of slave narratives by juxtaposing Uncle Tom's passivity against

15694-471: Was about 40% full by the evening of July 17. At 10 p.m. on July 17, Division Three's 98 men were loading E. A. Bryan with 1,000-pound (450 kg) bombs into No. 3 hold, 40 mm shells into No. 5 hold and fragmentation cluster bombs into No. 4 hold. Incendiary bombs were being loaded as well; these bombs weighed 650 lb (290 kg) each and were "live"‍—‌they had their fuzes installed. The incendiary bombs were being loaded carefully one at

15827-399: Was also a brief fight in the mess hall, and some prisoners were seen sharpening spoons into makeshift knives. Small sensed a general air of rebelliousness among the prisoners. To counteract the rising tension and offset the disaster he saw coming, Small convened a short meeting that evening aboard the crowded barge and told the prisoners to "knock off the horseplay", stay out of trouble and obey

15960-478: Was an ammunition depot and loading piers. On August 8, 1944, the USS ; Sangay docked to be loaded with naval mines and other munitions. The next day, 328 men were assembled and marched off. When they heard the orders "Column left" and "Forward March" to march toward the ammunition loading dock, the entire group stopped and would not continue. All said they were afraid and that they would not load munitions under

16093-465: Was closer to a pamphleteer than a novelist and her artistic vision was fatally marred by polemics and racism that manifested especially in her handling of the title character. Stowe had stated that her sons had wept when she first read them the scene of Uncle Tom's death. But after Baldwin's essay, it ceased being respectable to accept the melodrama of the Uncle Tom story. Uncle Tom became what critic Linda Williams describes as "an epithet of servility" and

16226-414: Was doing, to which he responded "not so good." At the end of his testimony, Green told the court that he was afraid to load ammunition because of "them officers racing each division to see who put on the most tonnage, and I knowed the way they was handling ammunition it was liable to go off again. If we didn't want to work fast at that time, they wanted to put us in the brig, and when the exec came down on

16359-531: Was forwarded to use black officers to command the black sailors, and no plan included any form of desegregation. This was the start of the Port Chicago Mutiny. Wright sent an incident report of this mutiny to Washington, D.C., telling his superior officers that the men's "refusal to perform the required work arises from a mass fear arising out of the Port Chicago explosion." Wright's report was passed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt by Secretary of

16492-511: Was negative, the dominant version developed into a character very different from Stowe's hero. Whereas Stowe's Uncle Tom was a young, muscular, and virile man who refused to obey his cruel master, Simon Legree, when Legree ordered him to beat other slaves, the stock character of the minstrel shows was degenerated into a shuffling, asexual individual, with a receding hairline and graying hair. For Jo-Ann Morgan, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin as Visual Culture, these shifting representations undermined

16625-526: Was never an admirer of Uncle Tom, nor of his type of goodness; but I believe that there were lots of old Negroes as foolishly good as he. In 1949, American writer James Baldwin rejected the emasculation of the title character "robbed of his humanity and divested of his sex" as the price of spiritual salvation for a dark-skinned man in a fiction whose African-American characters, in Baldwin's view, were invariably two-dimensional stereotypes. To Baldwin, Stowe

16758-613: Was not performed. Safety regulations were posted at a single location at the pier, but not in the barracks; Kinne did not think the enlisted men would understand such lists. Later the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) responded to word of unsafe practices by offering to bring in experienced men to train the battalion; the Navy leadership declined the offer, fearing higher costs, slower pace, and possible sabotage from civilian longshoremen. No enlisted man stationed at Port Chicago had received formal training in

16891-414: Was of relatively simple design and build (e.g., sling-shot, stones hurled by catapults), but as weapon designs developed (e.g., rifling ) and became more refined, the need for more specialized ammunition increased. Modern ammunition can vary significantly in quality but is usually manufactured to very high standards. For example, ammunition for hunting can be designed to expand inside a target, maximizing

17024-421: Was operated at each of the ship's five cargo holds . During loading operations, the winches were worked hard and required maintenance to remain operable. Winch brakes‍—‌a safety feature provided for stopping the load from falling if the winch's main power was lost‍—‌were not often used by skilled winch operators, as loads could be more quickly maneuvered using power settings rather than by application of

17157-422: Was overruled after Coakley explained it was evidence toward conspiracy. On September 15, Delucchi continued his testimony, saying that some of his men told him they would obey all orders and perform all work except loading ammunition because they were afraid of it. Delucchi confirmed that a cook and a man with a broken wrist were among the 25 men in his division that now sat among the 50 accused. Delucchi added that

17290-675: Was reduced to 22 after Admiral Wright talked about the firing squad . Tobin said he put three additional men in the brig the next morning when they, too, refused to work, saying they were afraid. Tobin affirmed that one of the accused men from Division Two was permanently assigned the job of cook because he weighed 104 lb (47 kg) and was considered too small to safely load ammo. The next few days of testimony were filled with accounts from African-American enlisted men from Divisions Two, Four, and Eight, who were not standing accused of mutiny. Some of these men had already been convicted of disobeying orders in summary courts-martial. The testimony of

17423-412: Was rough enough that damaged naval shells sometimes leaked identification dye from their ballistic caps. Commander Paul B. Cronk, head of a Coast Guard explosives-loading detail tasked with supervision of the working dock, warned the Navy that conditions were unsafe and ripe for disaster. The Navy did not change its procedures and Cronk withdrew the detail. The Liberty ship SS E. A. Bryan docked at

17556-472: Was the most common propellant used but has now been replaced in nearly all cases by modern compounds. Ammunition comes in a great range of sizes and types and is often designed to work only in specific weapons systems. However, there are internationally recognized standards for certain ammunition types (e.g., 5.56×45mm NATO ) that enable their use across different weapons and by different users. There are also specific types of ammunition that are designed to have

17689-526: Was written, but the chronology does not hold up to scrutiny and she probably drew material only from his published autobiography. The term "Uncle Tom" is used as an epithet for an excessively subservient person, particularly when that person perceives his or her own lower-class status based on race. It is similarly used to negatively describe people who betray their own group by participating in its oppression, whether willingly or not. The term has also, with more intended neutrality, been applied in psychology in

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