SS John Harvey
{{Short description|U.S. World War II ammunition ship}}
{{distinguish|John J. Harvey}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image | Ship image=SS John Harvey on fire 12-2-1943, Italian port of Bari.JPG | Ship caption=SS John Harvey on fire }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header= | Ship country= United States | Ship flag= {{USN flag|1943}} | Ship name=John Harvey | Ship namesake=John Harvey | Ship owner= | Ship operator=Agwilines Inc | Ship registry= | Ship route= | Ship ordered= | Ship awarded= | Ship builder= North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, Wilmington, North Carolina | Ship original cost= | Ship yard number= 56 | Ship way number= 2 | Ship laid down= 6 December 1942 | Ship launched= 9 January 1943 | Ship sponsor= | Ship christened= | Ship completed= 19 January 1943 | Ship acquired= | Ship commissioned= | Ship decommissioned= | Ship in service= | Ship out of service= | Ship renamed= | Ship reclassified= | Ship refit= | Ship struck= | Ship reinstated= | Ship homeport= | Ship identification= | Ship motto= | Ship nickname= | Ship honors= | Ship captured= | Ship fate=Bombed in Bari, 1943. Scrapped 1948. | Ship notes= | Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header= | Header caption= | Ship class= Type EC2-S-C1 Liberty ship | Ship tonnage= | Ship displacement={{convert|14245|LT|MT}}{{cite web |url=http://ww2ships.com/acrobat/us-os-001-f-r00.pdf |title=Liberty Cargo Ships |first=James |last=Davies |work=ww2ships.com |year=2012 |page=23 |access-date=6 May 2012}} | Ship length=*{{Convert|441|ft|6|in|abbr=on}} o/a | Ship beam= {{Convert|57|ft|abbr=on}} | Ship height= | Ship draft= {{Convert|27|ft|9|in|abbr=on}} | Ship depth= | Ship hold depth= | Ship decks= | Ship deck clearance= | Ship power= | Ship propulsion=*Two oil-fired boilers
| Ship speed={{Convert|11|kn|lk=in}} | Ship range={{Convert|20000|nmi|abbr=on}} | Ship endurance= | Ship boats= | Ship capacity={{convert|10856|MT|LT|0|abbr=on}} deadweight (DWT) | Ship troops= | Ship complement= | Ship time to activate= | Ship sensors= | Ship EW= | Ship armament=Stern-mounted 4-inch/50-caliber gun deck gun for use against surfaced submarines, variety of anti-aircraft guns | Ship armor= | Ship notes= }} |
SS John Harvey was a U.S. World War II Liberty ship. This ship is best known for carrying a secret cargo of mustard gas and whose sinking by German aircraft in December 1943 at the port of Bari in south Italy caused an unintentional release of chemical weapons.
The John Harvey was built by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company in Wilmington, North Carolina, and launched on 9 January 1943. Her Maritime Commission Hull Number was 878, and she was rated as capable of carrying 504 soldiers. She was operated by Agwilines Inc.{{cite web |url=http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergencylarge/wwtwo/northcarolina.htm |title=North Carolina Shipbuilding |work=shipbuildinghistory.com |year=2011 |access-date=7 May 2012 |archive-date=10 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510112637/http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergencylarge/wwtwo/northcarolina.htm |url-status=dead }}
Bari incident
{{main|Air raid on Bari}}
In August 1943, Roosevelt approved the shipment of chemical munitions containing mustard agent to the Mediterranean theater. On 18 November 1943 the John Harvey, commanded by Captain Elwin F. Knowles, sailed from Oran, Algeria, to Italy, carrying 2,000 M47A1 mustard gas bombs, each of which held 60–70 lb of sulfur mustard. After stopping for an inspection by an officer of the 7th Chemical Ordnance Company at Augusta, Sicily on 26 November, the John Harvey sailed through the Strait of Otranto to arrive at Bari.
Bari was packed with ships waiting to be unloaded, and the John Harvey had to wait for several days. Captain Knowles wanted to tell the British port commander about his deadly cargo and request it be unloaded as soon as possible, but secrecy prevented his doing so.
On 2 December 1943 German aircraft attacked Bari, killing over 1,000 people, and sinking 28 ships,{{cite web|title=Bari – The Second Pearl Harbor|url=http://www.usmm.org/ww2.html|website=usmm.org|access-date=3 July 2015|archive-date=21 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421000657/http://www.usmm.org/ww2.html|url-status=dead}} including the John Harvey, which was destroyed in a huge explosion, causing liquid sulfur mustard to spill into the water, mixing with oil from the sunken ships, and a cloud of sulfur mustard vapor to blow over the city.{{cite book |last=Pechura |first=Constance M. |author2=David P. Rall |title=Veterans at Risk: The Health Effects of Mustard Gas and Lewisite |publisher=National Academies Press |year=1993 |isbn=0-309-04832-X|page=43}} Nearly all crewmen of John Harvey perished in the sinking; this prevented the rescuers from knowing the real nature of the danger until an M47A1 bomb fragment was retrieved from the wreckage.
A total of 628 military victims were hospitalized with mustard gas symptoms, and by the end of the month, 83 of them had died. The number of civilian casualties, thought to have been even greater, could not be accurately gauged since most had left the city to seek shelter with relatives.{{cite book|title=The War on Cancer|last=Faguet|first=Guy B.|publisher=Springer|year=2005|isbn=1-4020-3618-3|pages=70–71}}
Chemical warfare expert Dr. Stewart Francis Alexander found out about the mustard gas and gave the medics a correct treatment. While examining tissues collected on autopsied victims, he found out that mustard gas destroys white blood cells and other kinds of rapid dividing cells. This discovery was further investigated by pharmacologists, Louis S. Goodman and Alfred Gilman who had started in August 1942 a research on a mustard gas related agent, mustine, as the first chemotherapy treatment.
In order to try to cover-up the in-theater possession of chemical weapons by the Allies, the deaths were attributed to "burns due to enemy action". Reports were purged or classified but, since there were too many witnesses to keep the secret, in February 1944, the U.S. Chiefs of Staff issued a statement admitting to the accident and emphasizing that the U.S. had no intention of using chemical weapons except in the case of retaliation.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofchemic0000hoen/page/14|title=Handbook of Chemical Warfare and Terrorism|last=Hoenig|first=Steven L.|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2002|isbn=0-313-32407-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/handbookofchemic0000hoen/page/14 14]|url-access=registration}} U.S. records of the attack were declassified in 1959 and the British government admitted the poison gas release and harm caused to the surviving victims.
Details of the attack were given in a 1967 article in the US Navy journal Proceedings, and in a 1976 book by Glenn B. Infield, Disaster at Bari.New English Library Ltd, {{ISBN|978-0450026591}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070811103847/http://www.vectorsite.net/twgas_2.html A History Of Chemical Warfare]}}
- {{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19431217&id=YHRWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZeQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6887,4290753&hl=en | title=Bari disaster hard to avoid | newspaper=The Spokesman-Review | page=3 | date=17 December 1943 | agency=AP | accessdate=15 January 2024}}
{{December 1943 shipwrecks}}
{{coord missing|Mediterranean}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:John Harvey}}
Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea
Category:Ships built in Wilmington, North Carolina
Category:Ships sunk by aircraft during the air raid on Bari