In a civil case that took years to reach a verdict, USIA was found liable for the tank's collapse and paid out $628,000 in damages (roughly $9 million today). USIA quickly blamed anarchists for the attack and claimed that an explosion, rather than a weak tank, caused the disaster. The Boston Harbor took on a brown hue for days after the disaster and the molasses slowly spread as onlookers and recovery workers tracked it around the entire city. Among the injured was Charles Bower, a Sailor on USS Starling at the Boston Navy Yard. The flood claimed 21 lives and injured at least 150 people. Sailors from USS Nantucket also fished out city employee Patrick Breen from the harbor, who suffered from pneumonia, broken ribs, and a leg injury. After being removed from the debris, both women went to the hospital. A Sailor climbed through a dormer window and discovered the women. Amidst a deafening roar and a torrent of molasses, their building was swept off its foundation and the wreckage was deposited in the park. Before the disaster, Elizabeth O'Brien and Mary Keenan were staying in the second level apartment of a small building. Hearing cries for help, Sailors from USS Nantucket moved toward a ruined building in the middle of North End Park. By the time the Boston police and firefighters arrived on the scene, the Sailors had recovered six bodies from a collapsed building and pulled more than 20 wounded individuals from the wreckage. joined in and waded through the knee-deep molasses while searching for survivors. Molasses covered everything and, within a few minutes, the Sailors acquired a sticky and copper-colored coating. After posting a few armed guards to keep bystanders away from the wreckage, the Sailors started digging through the rubble to search for survivors. Copeland issued a call to quarters, and 116 Sailors from USS Nantucket rushed to the accident. The molasses waves also tossed people, including city employee Patrick Breen, into the harbor where the water temperature hovered just above freezing. The steel supports of the city's elevated train snapped under the onslaught of the sticky substance. The surge destroyed houses and swept up railroad cars. 2.3 million gallons of molasses surged down the streets of Boston's North End in waves traveling 35 miles per hour that reached at least 25-feet in height. Copeland also heard the rumbling and watched the tank collapse. On board USS Nantucket, a gunboat and training vessel for midshipmen that was moored at North End Pier, Lt. Navy Gunner's Mate Robert Henry Johnston was about to sit down for lunch aboard Bessie J., a coal barge floating in the Boston Harbor, when he heard a loud rumble and began yelling at his shipmates as the molasses tank burst. The warm molasses reacted with the cold molasses already in the tank accelerating fermentation and increasing the pressure on the tank's already weak walls. 12, 1919, the steamer Miliero arrived at the Boston Harbor and pumped 600,000 gallons of warm molasses into the holding tank. Over the next few years, USIA workers and locals reported that the tank rumbled and leaked frequently. USIA used molasses to produce industrial alcohol for munitions. World War I had broken out in Europe in 1914 and, although the United States was not yet directly involved, American merchants were supplying many of the munitions used during the war. The tank was capable of holding more than 2-million gallons of molasses. In 1915, the United States Industrial Alcohol Company (USIA) built a 50-foot wide, 90-foot tall molasses tank on Commercial Street in Boston's North End, which was one of the most densely populated sections of the city.
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