West Loch Disaster Official Navy "Combat Communique: Accident At Pearl Harbor 21 May 1944" (full)...

Wow....talk about unintended consequences. Hard to watch.

One of my last assignments as an independent computer programmer was to write an application to track the $2.5 million spare parts inventory on a San Clemente class tanker, order replacements, and track all maintenance on the ship. I even was able to sail on board from LA to San Francisco while making some tests to the program. One of the interesting things I learned was that crew members escorted each and every maintenance man who boarded the ship while in port. Their main duty was to insure that they didn't smoke. As the chief engineer explained to me, smoking was the primary cause of shipboard fires and many would not be detected until the ship was well at sea where the crew would have to fight them without outside assistance. It appears that accidents such as the one related in the story, had their effect of safety.

What an Interesting Incident. amazing that it was kept secret as long as it was. Like a second Pearl Harbor attack except done by Human Error.