December 6th, 1917.
The port city of Halifax is just beginning to wake up.
The harbor is busy with activity: with World War I raging in Europe, Halifax has become
an important waystation for cargo ships traveling to and from the embattled Allied nations.
Suddenly, at 9AM, an explosion unlike any the world had ever seen before ripped through
the city, flattening buildings, beaching ships, and killing thousands of people.
When it was over, Halifax looked like a city that had been bombed from the air, indeed,
many suspected initially that German spies were to blame for the disaster.
But the true cause, once it was established, would shock Canada and tie up the courts for
years afterwards.
All the while, the city of Halifax was left to rebuild, as it embarked on one of the most
ambitious reconstruction programs in North American municipal history.
Birth of a Port City
On the eastern coast of Canada, the peninsula of Nova Scotia juts out into the Atlantic
Ocean.
As a result, it was one of the first places that was settled by Europeans.
The French made Cape Breton Island their base, building a fortress called Louisbourg.
To counter the French, the British determined to settle the area themselves in 1749.
Edward Cornwallis, the Governor of Nova Scotia, settled on a small peninsula situated in an
inlet off the Atlantic Ocean on the eastern side of Nova Scotia.
Cornwallis christened his new settlement Halifax, after the Earl of Halifax, the President of
the Board of Trade back in Britain, and therefore Cornwallis’ boss (which makes the name of
the place a rather obvious bit of brown nosing if you ask us).
The harbor that Halifax overlooks is one of the largest natural harbors in the world,
which made it an ideal location for a maritime trading port and naval base.
Over the course of the next 150 years, Halifax grew in size and importance as an important
trade link between British possessions in the Caribbean and Europe.
It became the capital of Nova Scotia and the most prosperous city in Atlantic Canada.
But the growth experienced in Halifax during the 19th century was nothing compared to the
massive boom that took place in the city over the course of the First World War.
Wartime Halifax
When the great powers of Europe went to war in 1914, it drew in most of the world with
it.
Canada followed Great Britain into war as part of the Allied powers, and sent soldiers
to the Western Front.
But equally important to the war effort was the shipping of war material to the Allies
in Europe.
Great Britain especially, being an island, relied on shipping from its former colonies
to sustain its army and its civilian population.
Germany, leading member of the Central Powers who fought against the Allies in the war,
recognized the importance of the Atlantic trade route to the Allies, and in an attempt
to cripple them, sent a fleet of submarines, known as U-boats, into the Ocean to attack
merchant ships.
To counter the U-boat threat, the Allies organized their merchant ships into convoys, protected
by naval ships.
Halifax was designated as the departure point for all convoys leaving North America for
Europe.
Ships from both Canada and the United States (who, while officially neutral, were happy
to continue merchant shipping to the Allies) gathered in Halifax Harbor, which became a
boom town as goods were shipped via rail to Halifax for shipping to Europe.
In addition, all ships from neutral nations traveling from Europe to destinations in North
America were required to report to Halifax first for inspection.
Halifax became one of the busiest ports in the world, its tonnage increased ninefold
from what it had been before the war.
The population of Halifax and its neighboring city of Dartmouth increased dramatically,
especially the Richmond District along the docks, where thousands of people lived and
worked in war industries.
Prelude to Disaster
On December 5th, 1917, the Norweigan ship SS Imo found itself trapped in Halifax harbor.
It had sailed from the Netherlands to Halifax, on its way to New York to pick up relief supplies
for the people of Belgium, which had been devastated by the war.
It was given permission to leave that day by port authorities, but its load of coal
fuel hadn’t arrived until late in the afternoon.
Being a neutral ship, getting the ship fueled wasn’t a high priority.
By the time the coal load was taken onboard the Imo, the protective anti-submarine nets
that stretched across the harbor had been raised for the evening, trapping the ship
in Halifax Harbor until the following day.
Meanwhile, the French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc arrived in Halifax from New York, intending
to join a convoy to France, but it didn’t arrive until the submarine nets were in place,
so it was stuck outside the harbor.
The Mont-Blanc was fully loaded with the most dangerous cargo imaginable: 3,000 tons of
explosives and highly flammable liquid fuel.
Before the war, this ship would never have been allowed into Halifax Harbor, but the
fear of German U-boats had led to a relaxation of regulations.
The next day, December 6th, dawned cold and clear.
At 7:30 in the morning, the submarine nets were lowered, and both the Imo and the Mont-Blanc
were given permission to get underway.
The upper and lower portions of the harbor are connected by a strait called the Narrows,
the two ships would have to pass each other to get to their destination.
The rules of the “road” dictated that ships were to stay on the right, or starboard,
side of the channel, passing ships going in the opposite direction off to their left,
or “port to port”.
The Imo was traveling at a higher speed than usual, an attempt by the crew to make up for
the delay from the night before.
It came across a ship in its way and was forced to steer to port to get around it.
Imo was forced even further to the left side of the channel by another boat in the way.
The Norweigian ship was now on the wrong side of the channel, in the way of oncoming ship
traffic.
The Mont-Blanc arrived on the scene, on the correct side of the channel and now on a collision
course with the Imo.
Mont-Blanc let out a blast of its whistle, indicating she had the right of way.
But the Imo responded with two blasts of its whistle, an indication that it wasn’t going
to change course.
Presumably the crew of the Imo thought that Mont-Blanc would get out of the way, but it
didn’t.
And the crew of Mont-Blanc had neglected to fly the red flag that would have warned others
of its dangerous cargo.
Both ships suddenly realized they were about to collide, and executed emergency maneuvers,
but it was too late: at 8:45 AM, the two ships crashed into each other in the Narrows.
The collision was not serious: both ships remained afloat.
But the force of the crash caused stacks of deck cargo on the Mont-Blanc to topple over
and break open.
The deck of the ship was flooded with benzol, a liquid fuel similar to gasoline.
The Imo reversed its engines and pulled away, breaking apart from the French ship.
As it did so, sparks showered the deck and set the benzol on fire.
Within seconds the blaze spread out of control.
The crew of the Mont-Blanc, knowing it was only a matter of minutes until the fire set
off the ship’s explosive cargo, abandoned ship.
They attempted to warn people on shore of the danger, but few heard them.
The burning ship attracted a crowd of onlookers to the shoreline, and more to look on from
the windows of their houses.
Surrounding ships gathered around the burning ship, trying to put it out, unaware of the
danger.
20 minutes after the collision, the fire reached the thousands of tons of TNT and picric acid
in
the cargo hold.
The Explosion
The blast was unlike anything the world had ever seen before.
The explosive yield is estimated at the equivalent of 2.9 kilotons of TNT, at the time the largest
man made explosion in history.
The force of the explosion tore the Mont-Blanc apart: one piece was found 3.5 miles (5.6
km) north of the explosion, while another was found 2 miles (3.2 km) to the south.
The harbor floor was momentarily exposed at the epicenter of the blast, a tsunami formed
and flooded the entire area of the harbor.
The wave drove the Imo on shore on the Dartmouth side of the harbor across from Halifax.
A massive blast wave radiated outwards from the explosion, flattening everything in its
path.
Entire blocks worth of houses were blown to smithereens, larger buildings like churches
and factories collapsed under the pressure wave.
People suffered horrific injuries, many had glass from windows driven into their eyes,
rendering them partially or completely blind.
Houses collapsed on top of people, trapping them.
Overturned lamps and stoves started fires throughout the city, killing trapped citizens
who hadn’t been killed outright in the explosion.
A pillar of smoke rose thousands of feet into the air, while the shock wave of the explosion
could be felt as far away as Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island.
Every building in a 1.6 mile (2.6 km) radius around the epicenter was either destroyed
or heavily damaged.
More buildings were consumed in the fires that broke out afterwards.
In short, almost the entire city of Halifax was completely destroyed.
Dartmouth, across the harbor, was also heavily damaged.
The death toll was horrific: 1,600 people were killed instantly, and a further 400 died
of injuries sustained in the disaster.
A further 9,000 people were injured, a total casualty figure representing 20% of the population
of the city.
The death toll could have been even worse if not for the self sacrifice of a heroic
railway dispatcher named Vince Coleman.
Coleman’s telegraph station was situated 750 feet from where the burning ship was,
and he was one of the few who heard the warnings from Mont-Blanc’s crew about the dangerous
cargo onboard.
Coleman knew that a passenger train from New Brunswick was due to arrive any minute, and
continued to send urgent messages to stop all trains in the area.
Coleman was killed in the explosion, but the train heeded his warning and stopped a safe
distance away, saving the lives of 300 passengers.
Rescue and Response
Survivors of the blast began to dig through the rubble for survivors immediately.
Firefighters from all over the city swarmed into the affected area, battling the flames
and rescuing trapped survivors.
Rescue crews from navy ships in the area were sent ashore to help, and trains were dispatched
from all over Atlantic Canada and from the Northeastern United States carrying medical
supplies and volunteers.
Their efforts were hampered by a blizzard that struck that night, dropping 16 inches
(41cm) of snow on the area.
It was a double edged sword: it helped to put out the fires, but also suspended relief
efforts, and people who hadn’t died in the explosion or the fires died of exposure while
awaiting rescue.
Investigators initially blamed the Mont-Blanc for the disaster, saying that, given her cargo,
it was her crew’s responsibility to avoid a collision at all costs.
This was believed to have been driven in part by anti-French sentiment in the area at the
time, and it wasn’t until 1920 that the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in
London ruled that both the Mont-Blanc and the Imo were equally to blame for the accident.
No one was ever charged or held liable for the explosion.
Efforts quickly transformed from rescuing survivors and recovering the dead to rebuilding
what had been destroyed.
6,000 people were left homeless and 25,000 were left with insufficient shelter.
And the dockyards needed to be repaired, because there was still a war on.
Incredibly, within five days of the explosion, convoys began running out of Halifax Harbor
again.
Reconstruction
The Richmond District on the North End of Halifax had borne the brunt of the blast,
being almost completely leveled.
The Halifax Relief Commission, formed within a matter of hours after the disaster, was
in charge of reconstruction and relief efforts.
It viewed the reconstruction of Richmond as an opportunity to improve the conditions of
those living there.
Prior to the explosion, Richmond was a working class neighborhood that lacked cultural amenities
and even paved roads.
Utilizing the new discipline of urban planning, the Halifax Relief Commission called on designer
Thomas Adams to plan a new neighborhood where Richmond once stood.
Adams planned a community of 326 large houses, all facing a tree-lined, paved street.
Plenty of green space was allowed for in the planning.
The neighborhood is now known as the Hydrostone, after the special compressed cement blocks
used to construct the new homes, which were strong and fireproof (an important consideration
when many wooden houses had just burned down.)
Not everyone benefited from the reconstruction of the city, however.
The black community of Africville, already denied most municipal services due to persistent
racism, was not given any of the relief funds, and no new houses were constructed in the
neighborhood.
In the 1960s, the area was declared a slum, and all the residents were forcibly displaced
and their homes demolished.
Meanwhile, the Mi’kmaq First Nations community was flattened by the explosion and following
tsunami.
Those who weren’t killed were forcibly displaced, put into segregated housing, and then eventually
moved throughout Nova Scotia, their land, long coveted by white developers, was taken
from them.
Recovery
While reconstruction efforts were just beginning, the First World War ended on November 11th,
1918, and the resulting loss of demand for shipping precipitated an economic downturn
in Halifax that persisted for the next decade.
With the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, things got even worse.
The city didn’t recover until the start of World War II in 1939, when Halifax again
became an important merchant convoy assembly point.
In an odd twist of fate, the city suffered another ammunition explosion in 1945, when
a munitions bunker caught fire.
However, the city’s municipal authorities had learned the lessons of 1917 well, and
successfully evacuated the area.
When the explosion took place, only one person was killed, and the damage to buildings was
much less severe.
Postwar, the economy of Halifax remained strong due to Cold War shipbuilding industries, the
beginning of offshore drilling for oil, and other diverse economic interests.
Today, Halifax is the largest city in Eastern Canada, and has amalgamated with Dartmouth
and other surrounding communities into one large municipal area that is the center of
commerce and politics in Nova Scotia.
Initially, few memories existed to commemorate those lost in the Halifax Explosion.
It was an incredibly traumatic event for the survivors, affecting everyone in Halifax,
and they just wanted to forget it happened and move on with their lives.
Commemorations weren’t done by the city until the 50th anniversary in 1967, and permanent
memorials soon followed, including a memorial library and sculptures all over the city,
where individual neighborhoods mounted pieces of Mont-Blanc that had landed there after
the explosion.
Now, over 100 years later, the survivors of the Halifax Explosion are all gone, but the
disaster is still remembered as one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history,
and one of the worst tragedies in Canadian history.
But it is also remembered for how the people of Halifax came together to rescue trapped
fellow citizens, to save their city from burning to ashes, and to rebuild their city into one
of the finest in all of Canada.