Graves of 63 Unknown Victims - Texas City TX
Posted by: 
PeterNoG
N 29° 24.510 W 094° 56.261
15R E 311997 N 3254806
Graves of 63 unknown victims who perished our nation's largest industrial disaster, a huge explosions aboard two ships docked at the Texas City port on April 16 and 17, 1947, are in the Texas City Memorial Park in Texas City, Texas.
Waymark Code: WMA9GX
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 12/08/2010
Views: 11
The massive explosion of the S.S. Grandcamp at 9:16 am on April 16, 1947 caused most of the 444 confirmed deaths and a lot of the destruction. A resulting explosion on S.S. High Flyer at 1:10 AM on April 17, killed at least 2 and added to the severe destruction of the area.
An additional 143 were listed as missing.
When all efforts to identify the remaining sixty-three bodies were exhausted, an interfaith and interracial funeral was held on June 22, 1947. Hearses were loaned from more than 50 participating funeral homes. Clergymen representing Jewish, Catholic and Protestant faiths conducted the funeral service which was attended by about 5,000 mourners. There was no public cemetery in Texas City in 1947 but a small tract of land was purchased by the City with funds from the Disaster Relief Committee. That small tract of land is still reserved for these 63 unknown victims.
~ two on-site plaques read: ~
Within these oval walkways are buried the remains of the unidentified dead, killed by the ship explosions on April 16 and 17, 1947.
Encased around this fountain are the numbered granite markers from the graves of the sixty-three unknown victims.
For more information about the disaster, go to
1947 Texas City Disaster