December, 1917, the height of World War I. Halifax, Nova Scotia, is a small but extremely busy seaport. All ships coming from or going to Europe must be inspected there. At the docks, loading and unloading go on continuously.
A French munitions ship, the Mont Blanc, has left New York for Halifax harbor, fully loaded with ammunition needed by the French. Manufacturers in the US at the time were making fortunes selling arms to the Europeans. The ship had little armament and could make only about seven knots -- the speed of a man jogging. It was a floating bomb.
She arrived late and was kept outside the harbor for the night by submarine nets. On the other side of the nets was the neutral vessel Emo, a Belgian ship carrying relief supplies for the wounded. She'd been delayed during inspection to make sure she carried no ammunition.
Next morning the Emo left and the Mont Blanc entered the harbor. Simple misunderstandings led to a collision. The Emo, not knowing the other's cargo, headed slowly back to port to assess the damage. The Captain of the Mont Blanc, seeing a spreading fire, ordered abandon ship. The crew rowed like mad. Shells and gasoline barrels began to go off, drawing a large crowd to the waterfront.
The Mont Blanc drifted closer to Pier Six while the crowd gathered to watch the spectacle. Then it exploded. The ship was ripped to pieces. It's 1100-ton anchor landed two miles away; one of its deck guns was blown three miles away. It was the greatest man-made explosion before Hiroshima.
The blast flattened the waterfront neighborhood and damaged hundreds of acres. It killed 1,600 people and wounded more than 9,000 others. It destroyed homes with wood-burning stoves and the rubble caught fire. The new fire department had been destroyed and the city lay helpless. A rescue and recovery response was speedily organized but efforts were hampered by a fierce blizzard.
The usual mass rumors ensued. A German zeppelin had dropped a bomb, there was a German saboteur aboard the Emo, and so forth. The inquiry came to no clear conclusion, and today there are still hints of the monster display hidden here and there within the city. It was of course a media sensation at the time and became part of our shared data base, but like many other disasters is slowly disappearing down the memory hole.
A French munitions ship, the Mont Blanc, has left New York for Halifax harbor, fully loaded with ammunition needed by the French. Manufacturers in the US at the time were making fortunes selling arms to the Europeans. The ship had little armament and could make only about seven knots -- the speed of a man jogging. It was a floating bomb.
She arrived late and was kept outside the harbor for the night by submarine nets. On the other side of the nets was the neutral vessel Emo, a Belgian ship carrying relief supplies for the wounded. She'd been delayed during inspection to make sure she carried no ammunition.
Next morning the Emo left and the Mont Blanc entered the harbor. Simple misunderstandings led to a collision. The Emo, not knowing the other's cargo, headed slowly back to port to assess the damage. The Captain of the Mont Blanc, seeing a spreading fire, ordered abandon ship. The crew rowed like mad. Shells and gasoline barrels began to go off, drawing a large crowd to the waterfront.
The Mont Blanc drifted closer to Pier Six while the crowd gathered to watch the spectacle. Then it exploded. The ship was ripped to pieces. It's 1100-ton anchor landed two miles away; one of its deck guns was blown three miles away. It was the greatest man-made explosion before Hiroshima.
The blast flattened the waterfront neighborhood and damaged hundreds of acres. It killed 1,600 people and wounded more than 9,000 others. It destroyed homes with wood-burning stoves and the rubble caught fire. The new fire department had been destroyed and the city lay helpless. A rescue and recovery response was speedily organized but efforts were hampered by a fierce blizzard.
The usual mass rumors ensued. A German zeppelin had dropped a bomb, there was a German saboteur aboard the Emo, and so forth. The inquiry came to no clear conclusion, and today there are still hints of the monster display hidden here and there within the city. It was of course a media sensation at the time and became part of our shared data base, but like many other disasters is slowly disappearing down the memory hole.