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This page is about the disaster. For other uses, see Halifax Explosion (disambiguation).

Halifax Explosion
A view of the Halifax Explosion pyrocumulus cloud, most likely from Bedford Basin looking toward the Narrows 15-20 seconds after the explosion. Several locations have been attributed to this image but comparisons of direction, land elevation and the foreground vessel mostly strongly suggest Bedford Basin
Location	Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Date	December 6, 1917 9:04:35 (AST)
Deaths	2,000 (approximate) (1,950 known)
Injured	9,000 (approximate)

The Halifax Explosion occurred on Thursday, December 6, 1917, when the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, was devastated by the huge detonation of the SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship, fully loaded with wartime explosives, which accidentally collided with the Norwegian SS Imo in "The Narrows" section of the Halifax Harbour. About 2,000 people were killed by debris, fires, or collapsed buildings and it is estimated that over 9,000 people were injured. The Halifax Explosion remains the world's largest manmade accidental explosion.

At 8:40 in the morning, the SS Mont-Blanc, chartered by the French government to carry munitions to Europe, collided with the unloaded Norwegian ship Imo, chartered by the Commission for Relief in Belgium to carry relief supplies. Mont-Blanc caught fire ten minutes after the collision and exploded about twenty-five minutes later (at 9:04:35 AM). All buildings and structures covering nearly 2 square kilometres (500 acres) along the adjacent shore were obliterated, including those in the neighbouring communities of Richmond and Dartmouth. The explosion caused a tsunami in the harbour and a pressure wave of air that snapped trees, bent iron rails, demolished buildings, grounded vessels, and carried fragments of the Mont-Blanc for kilometres.

Wartime Halifax

Further information: History of Halifax, Nova Scotia

View of Halifax before the 1917 explosion, looking toward the industrial north end from downtown, from grain elevator towards Acadia Sugar Refinery, c.1900

Halifax was founded in 1749 with the arrival of HMS Sphinx and thirteen transport ships that brought 2,500 British settlers to Nova Scotia. The colonization effort was made to counter the French settlement on nearby Cape Breton Island and its fortress of Louisbourg. The British settlers landed on the south shore of a large natural harbour that the native Mi'kmaq people had named "Chebucto", meaning "big harbour". Known today as Halifax Harbour, it is one of the deepest, ice-free natural harbours in the world. The community of Dartmouth was settled on the north shore one year later.

Halifax thrived during times of war. It was one of the Royal Navy's most important harbours in North America, and hosted privateers that harried the British Empire's enemies during the American Revolution, Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. The termination of the Reciprocity Treaty following the American Civil War resulted in new tariffs on American goods and plunged Halifax into economic decline. In 1907, the Canadian Government took over the Halifax Dockyard from the British Royal Navy and made the Dockyard the command centre of the Royal Canadian Navy upon its founding in 1910.

The outbreak of the First World War brought Halifax back to prominence. The city had grown in population to over 50,000 people and Dartmouth was home to over 6,500 residents. The majority of Canada's 400,000 soldiers sent to the European front by the end of 1917 passed through Halifax, as well as hospital ships returning the wounded. All neutral ships bound for North America had to report to Halifax for inspection. A large army garrison protected the city with forts, gun batteries, and anti-submarine nets. These factors drove a major military, industrial and residential expansion of the city. while the weight of goods passing through the harbour increased nearly ninefold. Management of the harbour was haphazardly organized by the British and Canadian militaries, along with civilian authorities. Record traffic in the harbour and antiquated control systems resulted in numerous collisions.

By 1917, the success of German U-boat attacks on ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean led the Allies to institute a convoy system to safely transport goods and soldiers to Europe. Merchant ships gathered at Bedford Basin on the northwestern end of the Harbour, which was protected by two sets of anti-submarine nets and guarded by patrol ships of the Royal Canadian Navy. The convoys departed under the protection of British Royal Navy cruisers and destroyers.

Explosion

The Norwegian ship SS Imo had sailed from Holland en route to to New York to take on relief supplies for Belgium. She arrived in Halifax on December 3 for neutral inspection and spent two days in Bedford Basin awaiting refuelling supplies. Though ready to depart late on the 5th, the Imo was held up one additional night as her refuelling was not completed until after the anti-submarine nets had been raised for the night. The French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc arrived from New York that same evening. Fully loaded with munitions including TNT, picric acid, benzol and guncotton, she intended to join a convoy gathering in Bedford Basin readying to depart for Europe, but was likewise too late to cross into the harbour before the nets were raised. Ships carrying dangerous cargo were not allowed into the harbour before the war, but the risks posed by German submarines had resulted in a relaxing of regulations.

Ship collision and fire

Crossing from the outer harbour into the basin required passage through a section known as "the Narrows", which allowed traffic in both directions simultaneously. The rules for shipping traffic was similar to that of land-based traffic – ships were expected to keep to the starboard (right) side of the Narrows as they passed oncoming traffic. The Imo was granted clearance to leave the basin at 7:30 AM on the morning of December 6, but due to traffic, entered the Narrows on the port (left) side. Imo was forced to remain in the wrong lane as it passed the tugboat Stella Maris, which had been approaching from Halifax. The captain of the Stella Maris saw the Imo coming, and realizing the ship was coming at excessive speed, ordered his crew to return closer to shore to avoid the risk of incident. The Imo was travelling down the Narrows at nearly seven knots, well above the harbour speed limit of five knots.

Meanwhile, the Mont-Blanc had cleared examination and taken on Francis Mackay, an experienced harbour pilot, by 7:00 AM and began to make its way to the basin. She stopped briefly to allow ferry traffic between Halifax and Dartmouth to pass before resuming passage down the Narrows at a speed of four knots. She then spotted the Imo approaching in her lane, at a high rate of speed. Mackay gave a short blast of his ship's signal whistle to indicate that his vessel had the right of way, but was met with two short blasts from the Imo, indicating that the approaching vessel would not yield its position. Surmising that Imo's pilot had been forced to the wrong lane by other traffic, Mackay ordered the Mont-Blanc to halt its engines and angle slightly to starboard, and closer to the Dartmouth side of the Narrows. He let out another single blast of his whistle, hoping the other vessel would likewise move to starboard, but was again met with a double-blast in negation.

Sailors on nearby ships heard the series of signals between the two and, realizing that a collision was imminent, gathered to watch as the Imo bore down on the Mont-Blanc. Though both ships had cut their engines by this point, inertia carried them right on top of each other. Unable to ground his ship for fear of a shock that would set off his explosive cargo, Mackay ordered the Mont-Blanc to steer hard to port in a last-second bid to avoid a collision. The two ships began to pass almost on top of each other, but when Mackay thought he had narrowly escaped, the Imo sent out three signal blasts, indicating they were reversing their engines. The action caused the ship to swing into the Mont-Blanc and the resulting collision pushed the Imo nearly nine feet into the other vessel's hull.

The collision occurred at 8:45 AM. The Imo quickly reversed engines again in an effort to disengage, an action which caused sparks inside the Mont-Blanc's hull. The sensitive picric acid ignited the vapours from crushed drums of benzol on Mont-Blanc's decks, quickly producing an uncontrollable fire on the forward end of the ship. Consumed by thick black smoke, and fearing she would explode almost immediately, both Mackay and the ship's captain, Aimé Le Medec, ordered the crew to abandon ship. A growing number of Halifax citizens gathered on the street or stood at the windows of their homes or businesses to watch the spectacular fire. The frantic crew of the Mont-Blanc shouted to some of the boats rushing to their assistance that Mont-Blanc would explode, but they could not be heard above the roaring fire. Meanwhile, the abandoned ship drifted slowly towards Pier 6 and the Richmond neighbourhood on the Halifax side of the shore.

Explosion

At 9:04:35 AM, the cargo of the Mont-Blanc exploded with more force than any manmade explosion before it. The force released was equivalent to roughly three kilotons of TNT (about 1.26 × 10¹³ joules). The explosion destroyed the ship, launching the remains of her hull 300 metres (980 ft) into the air and sending white-hot shards of iron raining down upon Halifax and Dartmouth. The barrel of one of Mont-Blanc's guns landed approximately 5.6 kilometres (3.5 mi) north of the explosion site near Albro Lake in Dartmouth, while part of her anchor landed 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) south at Armdale.

A resulting cloud of white smoke rose to over 6,100 metres (20,000 ft). The shock wave from the blast travelled at nearly 23 times the speed of sound and was felt as far away as Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island. An area over 160 hectares (400 acres) was completely destroyed by the explosion, while the harbour floor was momentarily exposed by the volume of water that evaporated. A tsunami was formed by water surging in to fill the void, which rose up as high as 18 metres (60 ft) above the harbour's high-water mark on the Halifax side. The Imo was carried onto the shore at Dartmouth by the tidal wave.

Over 1,500 people were killed instantly while 9,000 were injured. Every building within a 16-mile radius, over 12,000, was destroyed or badly damaged. Hundreds of people who had been watching the fire from their homes were blinded when the blast wave shattered the windows in front of them.

View from the waterfront looking west from the ruins of the Sugar Refinery across the obliterated Richmond District several days after the explosion. The remains of Pier 6, site of the explosion, are on the extreme right.

Since the explosion occurred in the winter, the blast caused stoves, lamps and furnaces to tip or spill, spreading fires throughout the devastation, particularly in Halifax's North End, leaving entire streets on fire. Fuel reserves were high in preparation for the winter. Many people who had survived the blast were trapped in these fires. Problems were compounded as firemen from surrounding communities arrived and were unable to use their equipment, as hoses and hydrants were not standardized across communities or regions. However, the winds cooperated, and firemen, soldiers and other volunteers had most of the fires contained by evening.

A view across the devastation of Halifax two days after the explosion, looking toward the Dartmouth side of the harbour. The Imo can be seen aground on the far side of the harbour.

Some 1.32 square kilometres (326 acres) of Halifax was destroyed, essentially leaving a 1.6 kilometres (1 mi) radius around the blast site uninhabitable. Many people who had gathered around the ship either to help or watch were killed in the blast or were hit by the resulting tsunami. Others who had been watching from the windows of their homes and businesses were killed instantly, blinded or otherwise severely injured by flying glass as their windows shattered inwards.

Professor Howard Bronson of Dalhousie University later wrote that the disaster had damaged buildings and shattered windows as far away as Sackville and Windsor Junction, about 16 kilometres (10 mi) away. Buildings shook and items fell from shelves as far away as Truro (100 kilometres or 60 miles) and New Glasgow (126 kilometres or 80 miles). The explosion was felt and heard in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, roughly 215 kilometres (130 mi) north, and as far away as North Cape Breton, 360 kilometres (220 mi) east.

The Halifax Explosion was one of a series of massive ammunition explosions which followed the large-scale manufacture, transport and use of high explosives in the 20th century and resulting in a number of large, artificial, non-nuclear explosions. An extensive comparison of 130 major explosions by a team of scientists and historians in 1994 concluded that, "Halifax Harbour remains unchallenged in overall magnitude as long as five criteria are considered together: number of casualties, force of blast, radius of devastation, quantity of explosive material, and total value of property destroyed."

The Royal Naval College of Canada building was destroyed, and several cadets and instructors maimed.

Rumoured second explosion

A rumour of a second explosion had started roughly an hour after the first. Despite the high number of disciplined rescue workers, many of whom were military personnel, and although there are no records of an order to evacuate, soldiers reportedly had begun to clear the area with fear that smoke rising from the naval munitions magazine at Wellington Barracks was an impending second explosion. This site did store a large amount of explosive material and munitions, but the smoke/steam was a result of scattered coals being extinguished by personnel on site. Many rescue efforts were halted as masses of people fled to the high ground and open areas of Citadel Hill, Point Pleasant Park and the Halifax Commons, under the order of uniformed men. Rescuers and victims alike were delayed until almost noon when the situation was cleared, although some rescue parties ignored the evacuation and kept working. In the chaos and confusion, fear of German attacks had become rampant, leaving many to believe that the initial blast had been deliberate, further fuelling the fear of a second explosion.

Blizzard

The next day brought a blizzard that dropped 40 centimetres (16 in) of snow on the community. Those who remained trapped in rubble, the injured, or those who had not been found or tended to, were often left in the bitter cold, adding to the loss of life. Rescuers were forced to work through the storm, and many people who were left homeless found shelter wherever they could. Houses left standing did not have windows after the blast, leaving survivors to use tar paper, carpets and other available materials to seal their homes from the elements. The snow, however, did aid firemen in ensuring any remaining fires were extinguished.

Human loss and destruction

Explosion aftermath: Halifax's Exhibition Building

While it is unknown exactly how many deaths resulted from the disaster, a common estimate is 2,000, with an official database totalling 1,950 names made available through Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management in the Book of Remembrance. As many as 1,600 people died immediately in the blast, the tsunami, and collapse of buildings, with an additional 9,000 injured, 6,000 of them seriously. 1,630 homes were destroyed in the explosion and fires, with 12,000 more houses damaged. This disaster left roughly 6,000 people homeless and without shelter and 25,000 without adequate housing. The city's industrial sector was in large part gone, with many workers among the casualties and the dockyard heavily damaged.

The explosion was responsible for the vast majority of Canada's World War I-related civilian deaths and injuries, and killed more Nova Scotian residents than were killed in combat. Detailed estimates showed that among those killed, 600 were under the age of 15, 166 were labourers, 134 were soldiers and sailors, 125 were craftsmen, and 39 were workers for the railway.

Explosion aftermath: the St. Joseph's Convent, located on the southeast corner of Gottingen and Kaye streets.

Many of the wounds inflicted by the blast were permanently debilitating, with many people partially blinded by flying glass or by the flash of the explosion. Thousands of people had stopped to watch the ship burning in the harbour, with many people watching from inside buildings, leaving them directly in the path of flying glass from shattered windows. Roughly 600 people suffered eye injuries, and 38 of those lost their sight permanently. The large number of eye injuries led to better understanding on the part of physicians, and with the recently formed Canadian National Institute for the Blind, they managed to greatly improve the treatment of damaged eyes. The significant advances in eye care as a result of this disaster are often compared to the huge increase in burn care knowledge after the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in Boston. Halifax became internationally known as a centre for care for the blind, accounting for a large proportion of patients.

According to estimates, roughly $35 million Canadian dollars in damages resulted (in 1917 dollars; adjusted for inflation, this is about CAD$500 million in 2007 dollars).

Communities affected

While the city of Halifax's North End neighbourhood of Richmond suffered the most damage from the explosion, several neighbouring communities and settlements were also affected by the blast.

Dartmouth

The Dartmouth side of the harbour was not as densely populated as Halifax and was separated from the blast by the width of the harbour, but still suffered heavy damage. Estimates are that almost 100 people died on the Dartmouth side. Windows were shattered and many buildings were damaged or destroyed, including the Oland Brewery and parts of the Starr Manufacturing Company. Nova Scotia Hospital was the only hospital on the Dartmouth side of the harbour and many of the victims were treated there.

Mi'kmaq settlement

The small Mi'kmaq settlement directly opposite Halifax, in Tuft's Cove (also known as Turtle Grove), was completely obliterated. Unfortunately, little information was recorded on the effects of the disaster on the First Nations community. The settlement is known to have dated back to the 18th century, and on November 6 was slated to be relocated as reservations were established through Indian reserve status lobbying. Fewer than 20 families resided in this community, and had not begun their move before the collision and fire drew the attention of onlookers around the harbour. Records show that 9 bodies were recovered, and the settlement was abandoned in the wake of the disaster.

Africville

The black community of Africville, on the southern shores of the Bedford Basin, adjacent to the Halifax Peninsula, was spared the direct force of the blast by the shadow effect of the raised ground to the south. However Africville's small and frail homes were heavily damaged by the explosion and were described by a relief doctor as ruined but still standing. Africville families recorded the deaths of five residents. Africville received little of the relief funds and none of the progressive reconstruction invested into other parts of the city after the explosion.

Heroism and rescue efforts

Many individuals, groups and organizations contributed to the rescue and relief in the days, months, and years following the disaster. Specific acts of heroism and bravery by individuals are detailed below.

Vince Coleman

Main article: Vince Coleman (train dispatcher)

The death toll could have been worse if not for the self-sacrifice of an Intercolonial Railway dispatcher, P. Vincent (Vince) Coleman, operating at the Richmond Railway Yards. He and his co-worker learned of the danger from the burning Mont-Blanc from a sailor and began to flee. Coleman remembered, however, that an incoming passenger train from Saint John, New Brunswick was due to arrive at the rail yard within minutes, and he returned to his post to send out urgent telegraph messages to stop the train.

Stop trains. Munitions ship on fire. Approaching Pier 6. Goodbye.

Coleman's message brought all incoming trains to a halt and was heard by other stations all along the Intercolonial Railway helping railway officials to respond immediately. The Saint John train is believed to have heeded the warning and stopped a safe distance from the blast at Rockingham, saving the lives of about 300 railway passengers. The rescued train was later used to carry injured and homeless survivors to Truro, Nova Scotia. Coleman was killed at his post as the explosion ripped through the city. He is honoured as a hero and fixture in Canadian history, notably being featured in a "Heritage Minute" one-minute movie and a display at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

Tug Stella Maris

Main article: Stella Maris (ship)

Towing a string of barges at the time of the collision, the tug Stella Maris responded immediately to the fire, anchoring its barges and steaming beside the flaming Mont Blanc. The tug's crew began spraying Mont Blanc with their fire hose and were preparing to tow the burning ship away from the city when Mont Blanc exploded. The blast killed 19 of the crew aboard Stella Maris although five miraculously survived when the smashed tug was washed up on the Richmond shore.

Firemen

See also: Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency

Firemen were among the first to respond to the disaster, rushing to Mont-Blanc to attempt to extinguish the blaze before the explosion even occurred. They also played an instrumental role in regaining control of the devastated city after the blast, with members arriving to assist from across Halifax, and by the end of the day from as far away as Springhill (180 kilometres or 110 miles), Amherst, Nova Scotia (200 kilometres or 120 miles), and Moncton, New Brunswick (260 kilometres or 160 miles), via relief trains.

Halifax's Fire Department at the time comprised 8 fire stations, 122 members (36 of whom were fully employed), 13 apparatus (1 of which was motorized), and roughly 30 horses. West Street's Station 2 was the first to arrive at pier 6 with the crew of the American LaFrance-built Patricia, the first motorized fire engine in Canada.

They were responding to Box 83, the dockyard alarm at the corner of Roome Street and Campbell Road (now Barrington Street), as Mont-Blanc drifted toward its resting place at Pier 6. Although the dockyard alarms were routine for the department, today was different, as North End general storekeeper Constant Upham could see the serious nature of the fire from his home and called surrounding fire stations to advise them. Upham's store was on Campbell Road, directly in view of the burning ship, and as one of the few buildings at the time with a telephone, he placed his call sometime after 8:45 that morning. Despite this warning, none of the firemen knew that the ship carried munitions. It was believed however, that the vessel's crew was still onboard, as West Street's Station 2, Brunswick Street's Station 1, Göttingen Street, and Quinpool Road's Station 5 responded to Upham's call.

Fire Chief Edward P. Condon and Deputy Chief William P. Brunt were next on the scene, arriving from Brunswick Street in the department's 1911 McLaughlin Roadster. The heat was so overwhelming, no one could look at the inferno. Chief Condon pulled the Box 83 alarm again. In the final moments before the explosion, hoses were being unrolled as the fire spread to the docks. Retired Hoseman John Spruin Sr. was on his way from Brunswick Street in a horse-drawn pumper, and Hoseman John H. E. Duggan was travelling from Isleville Street's Station 7 with another horse-drawn firefighting wagon.

None of the firemen knew the danger that they faced as 9:04 arrived, bringing about the explosion that obliterated the dockyard fire site. Fire Chief Edward Condon and Deputy Chief William Brunt were killed immediately along with the Patricia's crew members: Captain William T. Broderick, Captain G. Michael Maltus, Hoseman Walter Hennessey, and Hoseman Frank Killeen. Teamsters John Spruin and John Duggan were both struck and killed by shrapnel en route to the fire. Their horses were also killed instantly in the blast. Patricia hoseman Frank D. Leahy died on December 31, 1917 from his injuries. Nine members of the Halifax Fire Department lost their lives performing their duty that day.

The only surviving member at the scene was Patricia driver Billy (William) Wells, who was opening a hydrant at the time of the blast. He recounts the event for the Mail Star, October 6, 1967,

That's when it happened ... The first thing I remember after the explosion was standing quite a distance from the fire engine ... The force of the explosion had blown off all my clothes as well as the muscles from my right arm...

It is explained that Billy was standing again as the tsunami came over him. He managed to remain on land.

...After the wave had receded I didn't see anything of the other firemen so made my way to the old magazine on Campbell Road ... The sight was awful ... with people hanging out of windows dead. Some with their heads off, and some thrown onto the overhead telegraph wires ... I was taken to Camp Hill Hospital and lay on the floor for two days waiting for a bed. The doctors and nurses certainly gave me great service

Notably, firefighter Albert Brunt also survived the blast, by chance, as he slipped while attempting to jump onto the Patricia as it rounded a corner on its way to the docks.

A new pumper was purchased by the city and arrived just a few days after the explosion. The Patricia was later restored by the American LaFrance company for $6,000, who donated $1,500 to a fund for the families of the firemen. The families of firemen killed in the blast received $1,000 from the city (close to $15,000 in 2007 dollars), with the exception of one, who received $500.

On the 75th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion, December 6, 1992, the Halifax Fire Department erected a monument at the current Station 4, at the corner of Lady Hammond Road and Robie Street, in honour of the fallen members who died fighting the fire on Mont-Blanc.

Medical relief

Almost immediately following the blast, Halifax hospitals began to overflow with the dead and injured. Anybody with medical training and experience, both military and civilian, found themselves tasked with the treatment of thousands.

Facilities

Halifax at the time had four public hospitals, four military hospitals, and seven private hospitals. The most important were Victoria General Hospital and Camp Hill Hospital, taking many of the critically injured while redirecting minor injuries to other sites and temporary facilities.

Victoria General Hospital was the largest civilian hospital in Halifax at that period. Three operating rooms ran non-stop after the explosion, treating the critically injured. The original structure no longer exists, as the current Victoria Building replaced it in 1948. However, the institution still exists today as the VG site, part of the QEII Health Sciences Centre, a 10 building group of facilities formed in 1996.

Located behind Citadel Hill, Camp Hill Hospital was a military hospital completed earlier the same year. It was built quickly in order to treat the large number of wounded returning from the war in Europe. It was completed only a few months before the explosion, and treated 1,400 wounded in the first 24 hours after the blast.

Archibald MacMechan, who collected many accounts of the disaster, describes Camp Hill Hospital as,

a synonym for horror ... broken bones, scalds, burns due to the contact with stoves or boilers, contusions, maiming, internal injuries--but undoubtedly the most ghastly wounds were those inflicted by the flying glass.

Camp Hill Hospital was also administratively absorbed into the QEII Health Sciences Centre, and none of its original facilities exist today. Its grounds now comprise the Halifax Infirmary site of the QEII, including the Camp Hill Veterans' Memorial Building, the Abbie J. Lane Memorial Building, and the new Halifax Infirmary Building.

Also, the Hospital for the Insane, also known as Mount Hope helped handle the casualties on the Dartmouth side of the harbour. Having opened in 1859, Mount Hope was designed to support 250 patients when completed. It was renamed to the Nova Scotia Hospital in the early 20th century. It accommodated 200 patients following the blast. The hospital still exists today as part of the Capital District Health Authority, and is a fully accredited teaching facility affiliated with Dalhousie University.

Many of the emergency procedures involved eye injuries and removals, lacerations, or amputations, with operating rooms and medical wards working around the clock for several days. Medical students at Dalhousie University were enlisted to assist, even those who had just begun studying in September. The Red Cross, Salvation Army and Saint John Ambulance all focused their resources to the disaster, and away from the war overseas.

Naval medical relief

Military medical staff, mainly from British naval vessels in the harbour such as HMS Highflyer, HMS Knight Templar and HMS Calgarian provided some of the first response teams searching for and treating survivors. Medical staff from these British Navy ships set up an improvised hospital ship aboard the coastal passenger ship SS Old Colony, which was enroute from the U.S. to Britain for naval conversion, and which had been tied up in Halifax for repairs. In the afternoon the USS von Steuben, a seized German liner turned troop transport, and the USS Tacoma (CL-20), a Protected Cruiser that was returning to the U.S. from Convoy Duty across the Atlantic arrived to assist.

Relief trains

Relief trains with doctors, nurses and supplies first arrived from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick towns within hours of the explosion and continued throughout the day and into the evening. The first outside relief train arrived via the Intercolonial Railway from Truro, Nova Scotia, 95 kilometres (60 mi) away, at about noon, followed by a Dominion Atlantic Railway relief train from Kentville, 100 kilometres (60 mi) away. By nightfall, about a dozen trains had brought help from across the Maritimes, a day and a half ahead of American relief trains, including trains from Amherst, Nova Scotia (200 kilometres or 120 miles), Moncton, New Brunswick (260 kilometres or 160 miles) and New Glasgow, Nova Scotia (160 kilometres or 100 miles). These trains not only brought medical staff and supplies but also evacuated wounded to hospitals outside Halifax in towns such as Truro.

Later, American support was strong, particularly from Massachusetts, with support trains bringing doctors, nurses, orderlies and much needed supplies to the effort. A relief train left from Boston, 1,100 kilometres (700 mi) away, at 10:00 PM on the day of the explosion. Relentlessly chugging through wintry terrain, it was delayed by heavy snowfall but reached Halifax a day plus a few hours later, at 3:00 AM on December 8, unloading much needed food, water, medical supplies, and some aid workers to relieve the Nova Scotia medical staff, many of whom had worked without rest since the morning of the explosion.

Medical lessons

The lack of coordinated pediatric care in such a disaster was noted by a surgeon from Boston named William Ladd who had arrived to help. His insights from the explosion are generally credited with inspiring him to pioneer the specialty of pediatric surgery in North America.

Survival stories

Eric Davidson

Main article: Eric Davidson (survivor)

Eric Davidson was two and a half at the time of the explosion. He was playing with his toy train on the sill of the living room window, when he, his mother and sister saw the smoke of the fire in the harbour. When the blast occurred, the window shattered in front of Eric's face, blinding him completely. Despite his disability from an early age, Davidson went to on be a mechanic for the City of Halifax until his retirement in 1980. At the time of his death in 2009, he was the second last survivor of the explosion to draw pension money related to injuries sustained in the explosion.

Ashpan Annie

Main article: Ashpan Annie

Anne M. Welsh (née Liggins) was 23 months old at the time of the explosion. Her house on north Barrington Street was ripped apart by the force of the blast, killing her mother Anne and brother Edwin. Annie was blown under the stove by the explosion, landing in the container of ash underneath the appliance. The still-warm ashes kept Annie protected against exposure to the December weather amidst the destruction, until she was discovered 26 hours later by a soldier named Private Henneberry. Her father was a soldier stationed overseas; her grandmother and aunt retrieved her from the Pine Hill Convalescent Hospital, where she had been cared for after being recovered from the wreckage. She died in July 2010.

Bill Owen

Bill Owen was born May 16, 1917. He was six months old during the explosion and continues to live in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He says he just may be the last survivor of the explosion.

Marie Esther Ramsey (nee Mahoney)

Marie Esther Ramsey (nee Mahoney) was born on Easter Saturday, April 7, 1917, daughter of Stella May Ferguson and James Dennis Mahoney. She was eight months old when the Great Halifax explosion occurred. She was saved from serious injury by her grandmother who, upon hearing the explosion, threw the blankets over Marie in her crib and shielded her from the breaking glass when the shockwave hit their home on Maynard Street. Marie also survived the second Halifax explosion. Marie is still alive at 96 years old (as of this printing) and resides in Gatineau (Aylmer), Quebec. She may very well be the oldest survivor of the Great Halifax explosion. Marie passed away in March of 2014.

Investigation

The newspaper Halifax Herald was noteworthy in continuing to propagate this belief for some time, for example reporting that Germans had mocked victims of the Explosion. When the wounded Norwegian sailor, the helmsman of the Imo Johan Johansen, sought treatment at the American relief hospital, doctors confined him and reported to the police that he was German and behaving suspiciously. Johansen was arrested and a search turned up a letter on his person, supposedly written in German, proving him a spy. Later it turned out that the letter was actually written in Norwegian. Most of the German survivors in Halifax were rounded up and imprisoned. Eventually the fear dissipated as the real cause of the explosion became known, although the suspicion that Johansen had something to do with the explosion persisted for some time.

A judicial inquiry into the collision began at the Halifax Court House within days of the explosion. The Inquiry's report in January 1918 blamed Mont-Blanc's captain, Aimé Le Medec; pilot Francis Mackey; and Frederick Wyatt, the Royal Canadian Navy officer in charge of harbour movements, for navigational errors that led to the explosion. Following the Inquiry, all three were charged with manslaughter. However the charges against Le Medec and Mackey were deemed excessive and dropped, leaving only Wyatt to face a trial where he was acquitted by the jury. A subsequent appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada in May 1919 determined that Mont-Blanc and Imo were equally to blame for errors that led to the collision.

Reconstruction

The North End Halifax neighbourhood of Richmond bore the brunt of the explosion. In 1917, Richmond was considered a working class neighbourhood and was excluded from basic city services such as weekly garbage pick-up or paved roads After the explosion, the Halifax Relief Commission approached the reconstruction of Richmond as an opportunity to improve and modernize the city’s North End. English town planner, Thomas Adams, and Montreal architect, George Ross were recruited to design a new housing plan for Richmond. Adams, inspired by the Victorian Garden City Movement, aimed to provide public access to green spaces and to create a low rise, low density and multifunctional urban neighbourhood. The planners designed 324 large homes that each faced a tree-lined, paved boulevard. Ross and Adams specified that the homes be built with a new and innovative fireproof material, blocks of compressed cement called Hydro-stone. The two planners designed the construction of over 300 new homes using Hydro-stone for the hundreds of North End residents who had been rendered homeless after the explosion.

Once finished, the Hydrostone neighbourhood consisted of homes, businesses and parks, which helped create a new sense of community in the North End of Halifax. Adams and Ross were revolutionary in their enlightened approach to the reconstruction of the working-class, poor neighbourhood. The construction of this new and cutting-edge urban neighbourhood was criticized by many upper-class Haligonians who thought the Hydrostone was too extravagant for its working class residents.

Legacy

The Halifax Explosion Memorial Sculpture in 1985

The Halifax North Memorial Library was built as in 1966 to commemorate the victims of the explosion. The library entrance featured the first monument built to mark the explosion, the Halifax Explosion Memorial Sculpture, created by artist Jordi Bonet. However, the sculpture was dismantled by the Halifax Regional Municipality in 2004 and some parts have been scattered and lost. The Halifax Explosion Memorial Bells were built in 1985, relocating memorial carillon bells from a nearby church to a large concrete sculpture on Fort Needham Hill, facing the ground zero area of the explosion, to serve as a memorial to the lives lost or changed forever by the Halifax Explosion. The Bell Tower is the location of an annual civic ceremony at 9:00 am every December 6. A memorial at the Halifax Fire Station on Lady Hammond Road honours the firefighters killed in their response to the explosion. Fragments of Mont-Blanc have been mounted as neighbourhood monuments to the explosion at Albro Lake Drive in Dartmouth, Regatta Point in Armdale, and at the Convoy Place Park in the North End of Halifax. Simple monuments mark the mass graves of explosion victims at the Fairview Lawn Cemetery and the Bayers Road Cemetery. A Memorial Book listing the names of all the known victims was created in 2001. Copies of the book are displayed at the Halifax North Memorial Library and at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which has a large permanent exhibit about the Halifax Explosion.

The Halifax Explosion Memorial Bell Tower

The canonical novel Barometer Rising (1941) by the Canadian writer Hugh MacLennan is set in Halifax at the time of the explosion and includes a carefully researched description of its impact on the city. Following in MacLennan's footsteps, journalist Robert MacNeil penned Burden of Desire (1992) and used the explosion as a metaphor for the societal and cultural changes of the day. MacLennan and MacNeil exploit the romance genre to fictionalize the explosion, similar to the first attempt by Lieutenant-Colonel Frank McKelvey Bell, a medical officer who penned a short novella on the Halifax explosion shortly after the catastrophic event. His romance was A Romance of the Halifax Disaster (1918), a melodramatic piece which follows the love affair of a young woman and an injured soldier. There is also a young adult fictional story in the Dear Canada series, named No Safe Harbour, whose narrator tries to find the other members of her family after the blast.

More recently, the novel Black Snow (2009) by Halifax journalist Jon Tattrie followed an explosion victim's search for his wife in the ruined city, and A Wedding in December (2005) by Anita Shreve has a story-within-the-story set in Halifax at the time of the explosion. The explosion is also referred to in some detail in John Irving's novel Until I Find You (2005) as well as Ami McKay's The Birth House (2006) in which protagonist Dora Rare travels to Halifax to offer her midwifery skills to mothers who go into labour after the explosion. In the 2009 novel, Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon, the shadowy schooner Golden Fang is revealed as a reoutfitted Preserved, a vessel said to have survived the explosion. In 2011, Halifax writer Jennie Marsland published her historical romance Shattered, which is set before the explosion and in its fallout.

Keith Ross Leckie scripted a miniseries entitled Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion (2003), which took the title but has no relationship to Janet Kitz's acclaimed non-fiction book Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion and the Road to Recovery (1989). The miniseries follows soldier Charlie Collins through a romantic affair and his recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder. The movie exploited computer technology in order to achieve impressive special effects on a budget. However, the film was panned by critics and criticized by historians for distortions and inaccuracies. One aspect which was criticized was the representation of German spies in the city. Jim Lotz's The Sixth of December (1981) also toys with the fictional idea that Halifax was home to a network of enemy spies during the war.

In 1918, Halifax sent a Christmas tree to the City of Boston in thanks and remembrance for the help that the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee provided immediately after the disaster. That gift was revived in 1971 by the Lunenburg County Christmas Tree Producers Association, who began an annual donation of a large tree to promote Christmas tree exports as well as acknowledge the Boston support after the explosion. The gift was later taken over by the Nova Scotia Government to continue the goodwill gesture as well as to promote trade and tourism. The tree is Boston's official Christmas tree and is lit on Boston Common throughout the holiday season. Knowing its symbolic importance to both cities, the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources has specific guidelines for selecting the tree. Besides the annual Christmas Tree donation, a notable proportion of Nova Scotians (and Haligonians in particular) identify as supporters of Boston's major professional sports league teams, a loyalty which is often traced to the relief effort of 1917. [1] [2]

See also

• List of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions

References

Bibliography

• Armstrong, John (2002). The Halifax Explosion and the Royal Canadian Navy. Vancouver: UBC Press. ISBN 9780774808910.
• Gilmour, Don (2001). Canada: A People's History. Vol. 2. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd. ISBN 0-7710-3340-0.
• Kitz, Janet (1989). Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion and the Road to Recovery. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-921054-30-0.
• Kitz, Janet; Payzant, Joan (2006). December 1917: Revisiting the Halifax Explosion. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-55109-566-1.
• Mac Donald, Laura (2005). Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Explosion of 1917. Toronto: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-200787-8.
• Ruffman, Alan, ed. (1994). Ground Zero: A Reassessment of the 1917 Explosion in Halifax Harbour. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1551090953.

General references

• The Town That Died: The True Story of the Greatest Man-Made Explosion Before Hiroshima—A Chronicle of the Halifax Disaster, Michael J. Bird, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1967. ISBN 0-7700-6015-3.
• CBC Digital Archives: The Halifax Explosion
• Historica Minutes: Halifax Explosion
• A City of Ruins - A CBC Documentary
• Shattered City - A CBC Mini-Series
• Warheads - Physics and Technical Information
• Halifax Metro Area - Guide
• St. Paul's Online - Virtual Tour of St. Paul's

Further reading

• Beed, Blair (2002). 1917 Halifax Explosion and American Response. 2nd Edition. Dtours Visitors and Convention Service. ISBN 0-9684383-1-8.
• Explosion in Halifax Harbour: The illustrated account of a disaster that shook the world, David B. Flemming, Formac Publishing, 2004.
• The Halifax Explosion: Surviving the Blast that Shook a Nation, Joyce Glasner, Altitude PRess, 2003.
• The Halifax Explosion: Realities and Myths, Alan Ruffman, 1992.
• Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion and the Road to Recovery, Janet Kitz, Nimbus Publishing, 1989.
• The Survivors: The Children of the Halifax Explosion, Janet Kitz, Nimbus Publishing, 1992.
• The Halifax Explosion December 6, 1917, Graham Metson, McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1978.
• Miracles and Mysteries: The Halifax Explosion, December, 1917, Mary Ann Monnon, Lancelot Press, 1977.
• The Great Halifax Explosion, Dec. 6, 1917, Joan Horwood, Avalon Publications, 1976.
• Catastrophe and Social Change: Based upon a sociological study of the Halifax Disaster, Samuel Henry Prince, AMS Press, 1968.
• The Town That Died: The True Story of the Greatest Man-Made Explosion Before Hiroshima, Michael J. Bird, 1962.
• Barometer Rising, Hugh MacLennan, Collins Publishing, 1941.
• A Bolt of Blue, Joseph Sheldon, Cox Brothers Halifax, 1918.
• Heart Throbs of the Halifax Horror, Archibald MacMechan and Stanley K. Smith, G.E. Weir Halifax, 1918.
• Too Many To Mourn - One Family's Tragedy in the Halifax Explosion, James Mahar and Rowena Mahar, Nimbus Publishing, 1998.

External links

• CBC Halifax Explosion Web Site a large interactive web site about the explosion
• The Halifax Explosion - CBC Archives with video clips
• The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic Halifax Explosion web page
• The Nova Scotia Archives Halifax Explosion Book of Remembrance, a database of victims with 1,950 names
• A Vision of Regeneration, the explosion and reconstruction by the Nova Scotia Archives
• Halifax Regional Municipality Halifax Explosion webpage and list of monuments
• Halifax Explosion Web Page - Library and Archives of Canada
• HalifaxExplosion.org a web page created by Prince Andrew High School students and Saint Mary's University
• Photographs of the memorial to the Unidentified Dead, Halifax Explosion
• The Boston Christmas Tree
• Halifax Firefighters Museum
• Watch the NFB documentary, Just One Big Mess": The Halifax Explosion, 1917

Category:Disasters in Nova Scotia Category:Maritime history of Canada Category:History of Nova Scotia Category:Explosions in Canada Category:Fires in Canada Category:20th-century explosions Category:History of the Halifax Regional Municipality Category:1917 fires Category:1917 in Canada Category:Maritime incidents in 1917 Category:Industrial fires and explosions Category:Ship fires