Halifax Explosion

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Halifax's Location in Canada

The Halifax Explosion was a Canadian disaster which occurred on Thursday, December 6, 1917, at 9:04:35 a.m. local time in Nova Scotia's Halifax Harbour.

The waterfront areas of the City of Halifax and its neighbouring community of Richmond, along with the waterfront area of the cross-harbour Town of Dartmouth were devastated when the French munitions ship Mont-Blanc collided in a narrow section of the harbour with the Norwegian ship Imo chartered to carry Belgian relief supplies.

The Mont-Blanc was inbound to the harbour that morning while the Imo was outbound. At the time, two-way passage by vessels through the narrow section of the harbour (called "The Narrows") connecting the Atlantic Ocean and outer harbour with the Bedford Basin was unrestricted, so long as vessels followed established collision regulations.

In the aftermath of the collision, Mont-Blanc caught fire and exploded, killing about 2,000 people and injuring thousands more. The explosion caused a tsunami, 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.

This was the largest artificial explosion until the first atomic bomb test explosion in 1945 and still ranks highly among the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions.

1 Events
2 Christmas
3 Literature about the Halifax Explosion
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Events

Image:Halifax Explosion Aftermath LOC 1.jpg Image:Halifax Explosion Aftermath LOC 2.jpg

On December 1, 1917, the French Naval ship Mont-Blanc, a 3,121-ton, nearly 100 metre long freighter, departed New York City to join a war convoy assembling in the Bedford Basin (Halifax). The vessel did not fly warning flags for its cargo in order to avoid being targeted by WWI German Naval forces. It carried on board 2,653,115 kilograms (2,653 tonnes) of explosives. The cargo would have been valued at $3,601,290 USD in 1917, and was comprised of the following:

223,188 kilograms of benzol
56,301 kilograms of nitrocellulose (guncotton)
1,602,519 kilograms of wet picric acid
544,311 kilograms of dry picric acid (highly explosive, and extremely sensitive to shock, heat and friction)
226,797 kilograms of TNT

On December 5, Mont-Blanc, captained by Aimé Le Médec, arrived at the examination point off McNabs Island and was waiting to be let into the harbour, but was too late. Halifax harbour had two antisubmarine nets that were closed for the night at sundown. These nets prevented both submarines and surface ships from entering or exiting. These nets were in place because of the war and the fear of the Central Powers attacking Allied shipping and reinforcements being sent to Europe - the primary threat being the German Imperial Navy's U-boat fleet. At the same time Imo, captained by Hakron From, was to sail for New York, but its coal supplier arrived late and they, too, missed the sunset cutoff time.

The next morning, December 6, Imo attempted to depart through the right channel but another ship was blocking its way. As a result, Imo started out through the left channel. Mont-Blanc was entering via the left channel at the same time, and both refused to yield. Eventually, Le Médec ordered Mont-Blanc to pass Imo and go into the center channel. Imo then stopped, but the backward action of the propellers brought her to the center channel where the two ships collided. Imo attempted to pull back, which generated sparks that quickly ignited vapours from Mont-Blanc’s benzol cargo, which was stowed on deck.

As the fire spread out of control, Mont-Blanc's crew were unable to reach fire-fighting equipment and, knowing their cargo, quickly abandoned ship upon the captain's orders. Fleeing in two rowboats, the crew reached safety on the Dartmouth shore as the burning ship continued to drift toward the Halifax shore. Other ships came to aid the burning Mont-Blanc, and onlookers gathered on the shore. Eventually Mont-Blanc drifted into Pier 6 on the Richmond waterfront which allowed the fire to spread onto land. Then, at 9:04:35, the cargo of Mont-Blanc exploded. The ship was instantly vaporised in the giant fireball that rose over 1.6 km (1 mi) into the air, forming a large mushroom cloud. The force of the blast triggered a tsunami that reached up to 18 meters above the high-water mark. Imo was lifted up onto the Dartmouth shore by the tsunami.

A 2.5 km² area of Richmond, Halifax and Dartmouth was levelled and windows were shattered as far away as Truro, 82 km north (as the crow flies). The explosion was heard as far away as Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (175 km north), and the pressure wave reportedly knocked a soldier off his feet in Cape Breton Island (minimum distance 205 km east). A portion of a large anchor from the Mont-Blanc was discovered 2 km from the epicentre.

The disaster resulted in approximately 2,000 deaths (as many as 1,000 died instantly), 9,000 injured (6,000 seriously) and — according to one conservative estimate — roughly US$30 million in damage (this estimate is given in 1917 dollars — calculated for inflation to 2005, this amount equals roughly US$500 million). Some 1.3 km² (325 acres) of urban/town area were destroyed, leaving 1,500 people homeless. A detailed estimate showed that of 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. Many of the wounds were also permanently debilitating, with many people partially blinded by flying glass. This was due to the ship burning in the harbor for several minutes, attracting the attention of the town, and when it exploded many of the people in the town had gathered at their windows to watch it burn, putting themselves directly in the path of flying glass. The large number of eye injuries led to great efforts on the parts of physicians, and a collaborative effort managed to greatly improve the treatment of damaged eyes. The leaps and bounds made in eye care because of this disaster is often compared to the huge increase in burn care knowledge after the Coconut Grove Fire in Boston. Halifax became known in subsequent years for its international reputation in care for the blind, accounting for the larger proportion of patients.

The deathtoll could have been worse if not for the self-sacrifice of an Intercolonial Railway dispatcher, Vince Coleman. Despite being aware of the impending explosion, he remained at his post to send out urgent telegraph messages to two incoming passenger trains of the danger. Although Coleman was killed in the disaster, the trains heeded the warning and stopped a safe distance from the blast. Furthermore, they also relayed the message further on to alert the authorities of the crisis to enable them to respond immediately.

The 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.

[edit] Christmas

Every Christmas since 1971, Nova Scotia has donated a large Christmas tree to the City of Boston in thanks and remembrance for the help the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee provided in the time of major need. The tree is Boston's premier Christmas tree and is lit in the Boston Common throughout the holiday season.

[edit] Literature about the Halifax Explosion

Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Explosion 1917, Laura M. MacDonald, Harper Collins Ltd., 2005.
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 Halfiax Explosion and the Royal Canadian Navy: Inquiry and Intrigue, John Griffith Armstrong, UBC Press, 2002.
Ground Zero: A Reassessment of the 1917 Explosion in Halifax Harbour, Alan Ruffman and Colin D. Howell, eds., Nimbus Publishing, 1994.
The Halifax Explosion: Realities and Myths, Alan Ruffman, 1992.
The Survivors: The Children of the Halifax Explosion, Janet Kitz, Nimbus Publishing, 1992
Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion and the Road to Recovery, Janet Kitz, Nimbus Publishing, 1989.
Miracles and Mysteries: The Halifax Explosion, December, 1917, Mary Ann Monnon, Lancelot Pres, 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.

[edit] References

Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Explosion 1917, Laura M. MacDonald, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2005. ISBN 0-00-200787-8.
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.
Canada National Archive on Halifax Explosion, with a map detailing on the Ground Zero of the explosion and the city
CBC Digital Archives: The Halifax Explosion
Historica Minutes: Halifax Explosion
CBC: Halifax Explosion
City of Ruins - A CBC Documentary
Shattered City - A CBC Mini-Series
Warheads - Physics and Technical Information