Horton Journal of Canadian History ~ Papers
The Halifax Explosion
by
Marissa La Pierre
The Halifax Explosion was the biggest disaster the Maritimes has ever known. To this day people still remember the horrible tragedy, those who died, and those who lived to help.
As World War I raged in Europe, the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia was dealing with an ongoing movement of war ships carrying troops, relief supplies and munitions. On Thursday, December 6, 1917, around eight that morning, the Belgian relief ship Imo left its mooring in Bedford Basin and was headed for open sea. At about the same time, the French ship Mont Blanc was heading up the harbour to moor. She was awaiting a convoy to accompany her across the Atlantic. A convoy was very important because of the amount of explosives the ship contained. Stored in the holds, and laying on deck were 35 tons of benzol, 300 rounds of ammunition, ten tons of gun cotton, 2,300 tons of picric acid (used in explosives), and 20 tons of TNT.
The Imo passed into the Narrows, and was travelling fast and too close to Dartmouth when the Mont Blanc first spotted her. The Mont Blanc was not flying the regulation red flag to indicate she was carrying explosives. She signaled that she was in her correct channel, but the Imo responded by signaling that she was intending to move closer to Dartmouth and more into the Mont Blanc’s channel. The Mont Blanc was by this time very close to the Dartmouth shore and was traveling too slow so she signaled that she was still intending to pass starboard. The Imo did not swing toward Halifax, but remained her course. The Mont Blanc saw only one course open and that was to pass starboard to starboard by swinging to port, towards Halifax. The Imo and the Mont Blanc both signaled "full speed astern", but it was too late. The Imo struck the Mont Blanc – missing the TNT, but hitting the picric acid stored directly beneath the drums of benzol on deck. The impact ripped a wedge in the Mont Blanc’s side and sparks were struck.
The crew of the Mont Blanc was aware of the danger and immediately took the lifeboats and headed for Dartmouth. The ship, now furiously burning, drifted towards Halifax after being propelled in that direction by the Imo’s impact.
Members of the Halifax Fire Department responded quickly, and were positioning their engine up to the nearest hydrant when the Mont Blanc disintegrated in a blinding white flash. A mushroom-shaped cloud rose kilometers high, and 3,000 tons of the exploded ship rained down on the area. This created the biggest manmade explosion before Hiroshima and the nuclear age. It was 9:05am.
Next came the pressure wave which washed up the shore line and rocked the ships nearby, some from their moorings, some smaller vessels were over whelmed and sunk. This man-made ‘tsunami’ traveled across to the shores of Dartmouth. It funneled up Tufts cove, which was north of the explosion, and came to a settlement of the Micmac. The whole encampment was washed by the gigantic wave.
After the blast, the rain of shrapnel, and the destructive wave, came the fires. The blast had turned houses into kindling wood, and also overturned coal and wooden stoves, which were in widespread use due to the winter temperature.
There were 20 minutes between the time when the ship caught fire, and when it actually exploded. This gave plenty of time for spectators, including many children, to form on the docks to watch the ship burning. It was enough time for others to gather at windows, and this was the reason why many people were injured by flying glass. One thousand people were left blind.
Over 1,900 people were killed by the initial blast, and within a year well over 2,000 had been counted. Around 9,000 more were injured. Three hundred and twenty-five acres, almost all of north-end Halifax, was destroyed. The barrel of one of her cannons landed three and a half miles away, while part of her anchor, weighing over half a ton, flew two miles in the opposite direction. Windows were shattered up to 50 miles away, and the shock wave was felt in Sydney, Cape Breton.
By nightfall another factor arose and contributed to the final death toll: the worst blizzard in years. "It was almost as if Fate, unconvinced that the exploding chemicals in the hold of the Mont Blanc had struck a death blow to Halifax, was now calling upon nature to administer the coup de grace."
Since Halifax was a naval port, there were many disciplined rescue workers available, but an hour after the explosion a rumour spread that the Navel Magazine at Wellington Barracks was on fire and there was going to be another explosion. Mass amounts of people left the north end of Halifax, to Citadel hill and the parks to the south. The naval magazine did not blow, and was made safe by dumping its contents into the harbour. Slowly the rescuers moved back into the area.
An interview was done shortly after with a girl named Stella Hartlen. She was working at the time on Barrington Street. She did not know there had been an explosion but knew something terrible had happened. She lived in the North End and headed toward her home. "One sad sight I saw a little girl sitting on the floor with her schoolbag on her back – dead. She must have been blown there," Stella recalls. "It was a terrible day."
Stella reached where her home used to be and went to a nearby field where the neighbors had assembled. "My next-door neighbor, when she saw me, said, "You needn’t look; they’re all gone," Stella says.
Stella was the only survivor of the family of eleven.
News spread very quickly and relief efforts were sent in motion. Money came in from as far away as China and New Zealand. The Canadian government gave $18 million, the British gave $5 million, but most Haligonians remember the generosity sent from Massachusetts, which donated $750,000 in money and goods and gave much assistance through the Massachusetts-Halifax Relief Committee. Halifax continues the tradition of sending an annual Christmas tree to the city of Boston in gratitude.
Within two months 1,500 victims had been buried, some unidentified. The remaining victims were discovered in the spring, as excavation became easier. A relief committee was set up to provide clothing, money and furniture, and this committee existed for almost 59 years. There are still a few survivors of the blast who receive pensions from the Relief Committee’s fund.
Three thousand houses were repaired in the first seven weeks. In January, temporary apartments were constructed at the rate of one every hour.
Rumors were spread around that Zeppelins, or maybe a German Navel bombardment, had attacked Halifax. Anti-German hysteria was high, which was taken out on survivors with German sounding names. Earlier in the year, in Britain, a munitions factory had blown up. Although it has been proven an accident, people believed it was the ‘dastardly Hun’. The same stubborn belief that it was the work of the Germans persists today by some survivors of the explosion
Seventy-four years later, there are few survivors left to tell their stories. However, Halifax has not forgotten, and every December 6 at 9am there is a service by the Memorial Bells at Fort Needham, close to where the Mont Blanc exploded.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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http://agcwww.bio.ns.ca/pubprod/of3154html_bm1411/p9.html
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