Transcriber's Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
¶ Forty Views—showing extent of damage in Canada’shistoric city as the result of terrific explosion onThursday, December 6th, 1917, which killed 1500 men,women and children; injured 3000 and rendered 6000homeless; causing property damage of nearly $50,000,000
Thursday, December sixth, 1917, will be ever memorable as the date of the great disasterwhich, with catastrophic suddenness, burst upon the beautiful and old historic city of Halifax,causing widespread destruction, death and desolation, the magnitude of which finds no parallelin our history. The fateful morning dawned both fine and fair, and the normal activities of the busycity were set in motion for the day. No one dreamed that in the magnificent harbor of Halifax theopening scene in a terrible drama of tragedy was already staged.
Proceeding up the harbor, and making for Bedford Basin, was the French steamer “MontBlanc,” carrying a deck cargo of benzine and an under cargo of some three thousand tonsof nitro-glycerine, and the world’s most powerful explosive, “T. N. T.” Leaving the upperharbor and steaming at slow speed was the Norwegian steamer “Imo,” with a cargo of relief for thewar sufferers of Belgium. Slowly the two vessels approached each other; nearer and nearer theydrew, reaching the Narrows between the harbor and Bedford Basin, at which point they should havepassed. Then happened the inexplicable—save for the fatal phrase “Someone had blundered”!The Norwegian vessel collided with the “Mont Blanc,” and almost immediately her deck cargo ofbenzine caught fire and a few minutes later, at five minutes past nine to be exact, the three thousandtons of high explosives aboard exploded with a dull reverberating roar and a crash that defies description.In a second of time it was as though a fierce tornado had swept the City. The whole NorthEnd, practically two square miles of territory, became a burning ruin. A considerable section of thewater front was completely shattered, and all over the city, public buildings and private dwellingswere wrecked, and not a window remained anywhere intact.
The preponderating magnitude of the calamity can be somewhat realized by the terrible toll ofdead and wounded. The casualties were truly appalling—1,200 dead, 2,000 or more wounded,and 6,000 rendered homeless. Property damage was estimated to be