HALIFAX - 1917 harbor explosion

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Current News : One Thread

Boston was the first, but certainly not the only, community to respond. However, every single year since then, Halifax expressed its gratitude to Boston by sending a truly enormous XMAS tree. It is a local holiday symbol. I don't know why Halifax' thanks had to extend for so long, but I think it has done a great deal to cement ties between the two areas.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/273/region/International_disaster_aid_flo:.shtml

International disaster aid flowered during Halifax tragedy

By Diane Petryk-Bloom, Associated Press, 9/30/2001 16:49

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (AP) It was an accident linked to a war on another continent. A loaded French munitions ship collided with a Norwegian vessel setting off for New York to pick up World War I relief supplies.

At 7:30 a.m. on a cold, clear December 6, 1917, the French ship Mont Blanc crept into Halifax's Bedford Basin to wait for her convoy. To do so, it had to pass through a tight neck of water between Halifax and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, known as The Narrows. The relief ship Imo sailed out of the harbor at a fast clip.

Although proceeding slowly, the Mont Blanc had not been flying a regulation red warning flag indicating her dangerous cargo. The ships' crews failed to understand each other's signals and intents several times.

The ships hit, cutting a hole in the Mont Blanc's side, missing 400,000 pounds of TNT, but hitting picric acid stored directly beneath drums of benzol. Sparks from the collision started a fire. The ship carried 2,300 tons of wet and dry picric acid, 10 tons of gun cotton and benzol that weighed in at 35 tons, an extraordinary explosive cocktail.

Well aware of the potential of its ship's cargo, the crew of the Mont Blanc immediately abandoned ship. As they rowed toward Dartmouth in lifeboats they waved frantically and screamed warnings toward those on shore. They were not understood.

One woman looking out on the bay with her baby in her arms was astonished when one of the sailors clambered up the shoreline hill, grabbed her child and ran for the bushes. He probably saved their lives.

Propelled toward Halifax by the impact of the collision, the ship drifted to rest at busy Pier 6. Its flames grew. People, including many children on their way to school, continued to come down to the pier to watch. Others stood at the windows of their homes overlooking the bay.

The Halifax Fire Department was just positioning an engine at a hydrant when the Mont Blanc disintegrated in a blinding white flash. It was 9:05 a.m.

Three hundred twenty five acres of the city's industrial north end was laid waste. More than 1,900 people died instantly.

William MacDougall, a crane operator for Canadian National Railroad, was asked to report to work. He was issued two bottles of brandy to help him cope with what he was about to see.

For Jeanie Roberts of Plattsburgh, a native of Halifax, the World War I-era tragedy has both a personal and professional connection. She is proud to know that her grandfather MacDougall helped with the relief effort.

He never talked about it, but she knows the gentle man who used to give her great big peppermints on Sunday and fill a well in her porridge with molasses, did his part with quiet dedication. As a crane operator, he very likely helped in excavations that turned up some grisly sights. His daughter, Roberts's Aunt Sheila, believes the experience traumatized him, but he didn't come home with the gory details.

As executive director of the North Country Chapter of the American Red Cross, Roberts has studied how the community administered disaster relief and how Halifax coped. The disaster created triage, the method of sorting victims by the intensity of their medical need.

Among the 9,000 or so injured, eye damage was horrifyingly widespread. Shattering glass hardly a pane remained intact anywhere in Halifax or Dartmouth pierced and cut with astonishing severity. Two hundred fifty eyes were so damaged they would need to be removed. Thirty seven people were left completely blind. Twenty-five limbs were amputated.

According to the Nova Scotia Museum in Halifax, 1,600 homes were destroyed and 6,000 people left without shelter. Wood and coal-fired furnaces continued to burn after homes were gone. Oily soot got into wounds.

There were rows and rows of babies in emergency shelters that nobody claimed. The next day, 16 inches of snow came down on the devastation.

Word of the explosion reached Boston the same morning. By nightfall, a train loaded with relief supplies, medical personnel and members of the city's Public Safety Committee, left for Halifax.

The American Red Cross pitched in with its first international relief effort, Roberts said. It sent a trainload of first-aid supplies and living necessities. Help poured in from all over the world. Nearby areas in Nova Scotia responded with astonishing speed. When they heard of overcrowded hospitals and shelter, they opened all possible buildings to the disaster refugees.

''Doctors and nurses worked tirelessly into the night for days and days,'' Roberts said.

The MacDougall family lived in Stellarton, where Roberts's father, aunts and an uncle lived as children.

Within two months, 1,500 victims had been buried, many unidentified. Other victims were discovered in the spring, when excavation was easier.

In 1951, William MacDougall died. Aunt Sheila found the two bottles of brandy, dated 1917, in the back of his closet. He never opened them.

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2001


Moderation questions? read the FAQ