http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Tom_explosion
Black Tom explosion
The Black Tom explosion of July 30, 1916 in Jersey City, New Jersey was an act of sabotage on American ammunition supplies by German agents to prevent the materials from being used by the Allies in World War I.
The term Black Tom originally referred to an island in New York Harbor next to Liberty Island. The island received its name from a local legend of a "dark-skinned" resident named Tom. By 1880, a causeway and railroad had been built connecting it to the mainland for use as a shipping depot. Sometime between 1905 and 1916, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, which owned the island and causeway, expanded the island with landfill, resulting in the addition of the entire area to the limits of Jersey City. The area contained a mile-long pier that housed the depot as well as warehouses for the National Dock and Storage Company.
Black Tom was a major munitions depot for materials manufactured in the northeast. Prior to a 1915 blockade of the Central Powers by the British Royal Navy, American industries were free to sell their materials to any buyer, but by this time the Allies were the only possible customers. It was reported that on the night of the attack, two million pounds of ammunition were being stored at the depot in freight cars, including one hundred thousand pounds of TNT on the Johnson Barge No.17, all awaiting eventual shipment to Britain and France. It was a tempting target. Future Jersey City mayor Frank Hague, then commissioner of public safety, reported that he had been told that the barge had been "tied up at Black Tom to avoid a twenty-five dollar towing charge",(US$ 488 in 2009).
