The Halifax Explosion is a maritime disaster in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, which occurred on the morning of 6 December 1917. The Norwegian ship SSÃ, Imo collided with SSÃ, Mont -Blanc , a French cargo ship loaded with high explosives, in the Narrows, the strait connecting the Upper Halifax Harbor to the Bedford Basin. The fire aboard a French ship ignited its cargo, causing a huge explosion that destroyed Richmond district in Richmond. About 2,000 people were killed by explosions, debris, fire or collapsed buildings, and about 9,000 others were wounded. The explosion was the largest man-made explosion before the development of nuclear weapons, releasing an equivalent energy of about 2.9 kilotons of TNT (12,000 GJ).
Mont-Blanc is under the orders of the French government to carry its high explosive cargo from New York City via Halifax to Bordeaux, France. At around 8:45 am, he collided with low speed, roughly one vertex (1.2 mph or 1.9 km/h), with an unusual Imo , hired by the Commission for Assistance in Belgium to select a supply of relief supplies in New York. The fires that took place on French ships quickly grew out of control. About 20 minutes later at 9:04:35 am, Mont-Blanc exploded.
Almost all structures within a radius of 800 meters (half a mile), including the Richmond community, were wiped out. Pressure waves pounding trees, bending iron rails, demolished buildings, earthed vessels (including Imo , stranded at the edge of the next tsunami), and scattered fragments of Mont-Blanc for kilometers. Almost no windows in the city survived the explosion. Across the harbor, at Dartmouth, there is also widespread damage. The tsunami created by the blast wiped out the Mi'kmaq First Nation community that has lived in the Tufts Cove area for generations.
A relief effort began immediately, and the hospital quickly became full. Rescue trains began arriving on the day of explosions from all over Nova Scotia and New Brunswick while other trains from central Canada and the northeastern United States were blocked by a snowstorm. The construction of temporary shelters to house many displaced people started immediately after the disaster. A preliminary judicial investigation found that Mont-Blanc had been responsible for the disaster, but the call then determined that both ships were to blame. There are several memorials for the victims of the explosion in the North End.
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Dartmouth is located on the east coast of Halifax Port, and Halifax is on the west coast. Halifax and Dartmouth have developed during the war; The harbor is one of the most important British Navy naval bases in North America, a wartime trading center, and a home for privateers who hit the UK's enemies during the American Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the 1812 War.
The completion of the Intercolonial Railway and the Deep Water Terminal in 1880 enabled increased steam ship trade and led to the acceleration of port development, but Halifax faced an economic downturn in the 1890s when local factories lost ground to competitors in central Canada. The British Garrison left town in late 1905 and early 1906. The Canadian government took over the Halifax Dockyard (now the Halifax CFB) of the Royal Navy. This ship later became the headquarters of the Royal Navy of Canada at its founding in 1910.
Just before the First World War, the Canadian government initiated a determined effort, costly to develop port and waterfront facilities. The outbreak of war brought Halifax back to fame. Because the Royal Canadian Navy has virtually no ships of its own, the Royal Navy took responsibility for maintaining the Atlantic trade route by adopting Halifax as a base for North American operations. In 1915, port management fell under the control of the Royal Canadian Navy under the supervision of Captain Superintendent Edward Harrington Martin; in 1917 there was a growing naval fleet in Halifax, including patrol boats, tugs, and minesweepers.
The population of Halifax/Dartmouth has risen to between 60,000 and 65,000 people in 1917. The convoy brought people, animals and equipment to the European war theater. The two main departure points are in Nova Scotia in Sydney, on Cape Breton Island, and Halifax. The hospital ship took the injured to the city, and the new military hospital was built in the city.
The success of the U-boat German attack on ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean led the Allies to form a convoy system to reduce losses while transporting goods and troops to Europe. The merchant ships gather at Bedford Basin at the northwest end of the harbor, which is protected by two sets of anti-submarine nets and guarded by a Canadian Navy patrol vessel.
Convoys depart under the protection of British cruisers and destroyers. A large army garrison protects the city with its fortifications, rifle batteries, and anti-sea nets. These factors prompted a large expansion of military, industrial, and urban housing, and the weight of goods passing through the harbor increased almost ninefold. All neutral vessels heading to the port in North America must report to Halifax for inspection.
Maps Halifax Explosion
Disaster
The Norwegian Ship SSÃ, Imo has been sailing from the Netherlands on a trip to New York to take aid supplies for Belgium, under the command of Haakon From. The ship arrived in Halifax on Dec. 3 for a neutral inspection and spent two days in Bedford Basin waiting for a refueling supply. Although granted permission to leave the harbor on 5 December, Imo ' s is delayed because its coal load does not arrive until late afternoon. The fuel loading did not finish until after the anti-submarine nets were raised for the night. Therefore, the ship could not hold anchors until the next morning.
The French cargo ship SSÃ, Mont-Blanc arrived from New York on 5 December, under the command of AimÃÆ'Â © Le Medec. The vessel is loaded with TNT explosives and picratic acids, benzole fuels that are highly flammable, and guncotton. He intends to join a slow convoy meeting in Bedford Basin that is ready to leave for Europe but too late to enter the harbor before the net is raised. Ships carrying a dangerous cargo were not allowed into the harbor before the war, but the risks posed by German submarines had caused regulatory relaxation.
Navigating into or out of the Bedford Basin requires travel through a strait called the Narrows. The vessel is expected to stick to the right side (right) of the channel as they pass the incoming traffic; in other words, the ship must pass through the port to the port. The vessel is limited to 5 knots (9.3 km/h, 5.8 mph) inside the harbor.
Collisions and fires
Imo was given permission to leave Bedford Basin with a signal from the HMCS guard ship Acadia at about 7:30 am on the morning of December 6th, with Pilot William Hayes on board. The ship enters the Narrows well above the port speed limit in an attempt to make up for the delay experienced in loading the coal. Imo met the American steamship SS Clara which was piloted on the western (western) side of the harbor. Pilots agree to pass from right to right. Immediately afterwards, Imo was forced to head further towards Dartmouth beach after passing the Stella Maris tugboat, which traveled to the port to Bedford Basin near mid-channel. Horatio Brannen, captain of Stella Maris , saw Imo approaching in excessive speed and ordered his ship closer to the west coast to avoid an accident.
Francis Mackey, an experienced port pilot, had boarded Mont-Blanc on the night of December 5, 1917; he asked about "special protection" like a guard ship, remembering Mont-Blanc's cargo, but no protection was imposed. Mont-Blanc started moving at 7:30 am on December 6 and was the second ship to enter the port because an anti-submarine net between Georges Island and Pier 21 was opened for the morning. Mont-Blanc to Bedford Basin on the Dartmouth side of the harbor. Mackey continues to watch the ferry traffic between Halifax and Dartmouth and other small boats in the area. He first saw Imo when he was about 0.75 miles (1.21 km) away and became worried because his path seemed to be heading to the right side of the ship, as if to cut himself. Mackey gave a short explosion of the ship's whistle signal to indicate that he had the right way but met with two short bursts of Imo , indicating that the approaching vessel would not produce his position. The captain ordered Mont-Blanc to stop the engine and corner a little to the right, closer to the Dartmouth side of the Narrows. He pulled out another whistle, hoping another ship would also move to the right but once again met with a double explosion in the negation.
Sailors on the nearest ship heard a series of signals and, realizing that the collision was near, gathered to watch when Imo stopped at Mont Blanc. Both boats have cut their engines at this point, but their momentum takes them right on top of each other at slow speeds. Unable to subdue his ship for fear of surprise that would trigger his explosive charge, Mackey ordered Mont-Blanc to drive hard to the port (right helmet) and cross the Imo bow Imo ' s push to handle number 1 Mont Blanc , on the right side.
The collision occurred at 8:45 am. The damage to Mont Blanc was not severe, but it toppled the broken barrel open and flooded the deck with benzol that quickly flowed into the hold. When Imo ' kicks, he quickly breaks away, creating a spark in Mont-Blanc ' . This triggers steam from benzol. The fire burns in the waterline and moves quickly to the side of the ship when benzol is spewed from a crushed drum on Mont-Blanc's ' deck. The fire quickly became uncontrollable. Surrounded by thick black smoke, and fearing he would soon explode, the captain ordered the crew to leave the ship. More and more Halifax residents gather on the streets or stand at the windows of their homes or businesses to witness spectacular fires. Mont-Blanc's panic crew shouted from two of their lifeboats to some of the other boats their boats would explode, but they could not be heard above the noise and confusion. As the lifeboats walked across the harbor to Dartmouth beach, the abandoned ship continued to drift and spell itself at Pier 6 near the foot of Richmond Street.
By bumping two scows at the time of the collision, Stella Maris immediately responded to the fire, tethered the barge and steamed back toward Pier 6 to spray the burning ship with their fire hoses. The captain of the tugboat, Horatio H. Brannen, and his crew realized that the fire was too strong for their single hose and retreated from the burning of Mont Blanc. They were approached by a whaler from HMS Highflyer and then the steam pinnace of HMCS Niobe . Captain Brannen and Albert Mattison of Niobo agreed to secure the line to the stern of a French ship to pull it away from the dock to avoid igniting it. The five-inch hawser (127-millimeter) originally manufactured is considered too small and the order for hawser ten inches (254 millimeters) goes down. At this point the explosion occurred.
Explosion
At 9: 04: 35 is an uncontrolled fire aboard the Mont-Blanc vessel triggering its very explosive charge. The ship was completely destroyed and a powerful explosive wave emanated from the explosion at over 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) per second. Temperatures of 5,000 ° C (9,000 ° F) and pressure of thousands of atmospheres accompanied by a detonation moment at the center of the explosion. The hot iron shards dampened Halifax and Dartmouth. Mont-Blanc Rifle ' s forward 90 mm, the barrel melted, landed about 5.6 kilometers (3.5 miles) north of the blast site near Albro Lake in Dartmouth, and anchor calf, weighing half a ton, landed 3.2 kilometers (2.0 miles) south at Armdale.
The cloud of white smoke rose to over 3,600 meters (11,800 feet). The shock wave from the explosion penetrates the earth at a speed 23 times faster than the speed of sound and is felt as far as Cape Breton (207 kilometers or 129 miles) and Prince Edward Island (180 kilometers or 110 miles). An area of ​​more than 160 hectares (400 hectares) was completely destroyed by the explosion, and the harbor floor was momentarily hit by the volume of displaced water. Tsunamis are formed by wavy water to fill the void; it rises as high as 18 feet (60 feet) above the high water mark on the Halifax side of the harbor. Imo was taken to the beach at Dartmouth by the tsunami. The explosion killed all but one in the whaler, everyone in the pinnace and 21 of the 26 men in Stella Maris ; he ended up at the beach of Dartmouth, badly damaged. The son of the captain, First Mate Walter Brannen, who had been thrown into the hold by the explosion, survived, as did four others. All but one of the crew members Mont-Blanc survived.
More than 1,600 people died instantly and 9,000 others were injured, more than 300 of whom later died. Each building is within a 2.6 kilometer (1.6 mi) radius, over 12,000 total, destroyed or severely damaged. Hundreds of people who have watched the fire from their homes were blinded when an explosive wave smashed windows in front of them. Stoves and lights that are overturned by explosive forces trigger fires across Halifax, especially in the North End, where entire city blocks are trapped in hell, trapping people inside their homes. Firefighters Billy Wells, who was thrown from the explosion and his clothes torn from his body, described the victims of the destruction they were facing: "The scene was horrible, with people hanging in a dead window, some with their heads missing, and some thrown into telegraph cables at over the head. "He was the only member of the eight man firefighting crew of Patricia to survive.
The big brick and stone factories near Pier 6, like the Acadia Sugar Mill, disappear into a pile of unrecognizable debris, killing most of their workers. The Nova Scotia cotton mill located 1.5 km (0.93 miles) from the explosion was destroyed by fire and the collapse of its concrete floor. The Royal Naval College of Canada was badly damaged, and some cadets and instructors were disabled. The Richmond Railway Yards and the station were destroyed, killing 55 railroad workers and destroying and destroying more than 500 rail cars. North Street station, one of Canada's busiest, was badly damaged.
The death toll could be worse if not for the self-sacrifice of the Intercolonial Railway operator, Patrick Vincent (Vince) Coleman, who operates at the restaard about 750 feet (230 m) from Pier 6, where the blast occurred. He and his co-worker William Lovett knew of a dangerous load on a charred ship aboard a Mont-Blanc from a sailor and started running away. Coleman recalls that the passenger train coming from Saint John, New Brunswick, would arrive at the railyard within minutes. He returned to his post alone and continued sending urgent telegraph messages to stop the train. Several variations of the message have been reported, among them from the Atlantic Maritime Museum: "Raise the wagon Amunition ship burning on the dock to make Pier 6 and it will explode.T guess this will be my last message.Goodby boys." answered to bring all the trains coming to Halifax to stop. It was heard by other stations along the Intercolonial Railway, helping the train attendants to respond immediately. No. Passenger Train. 10, an overnight train from Saint John, is believed to have heeded warnings and stopped a safe distance from the explosion at Rockingham, saving the lives of about 300 train passengers. Coleman was killed at his post when the explosion tore through the city. He was honored with Heritage Minute in the 1990s, sworn in to the Canadian Railway Hall of Fame in 2004, and the new Halifax-Dartmouth Ferry was named for him in 2018.
Rescue attempt
First aid efforts come from surviving neighbors and colleagues who pull and dig victims from buildings. Early informal responses were soon followed by surviving police, firefighters and military personnel starting to arrive, just as people who owned vehicles worked; cars, trucks, and freight cars of all kinds are required to collect the wounded. Victim floods soon begin to arrive at the city hospital, which is quickly overwhelmed. The new military hospital, Camp Hill, admitted about 1,400 victims on December 6.
The firefighters were among the first to respond to the disaster, rushed to Mont-Blanc to try to extinguish the fire before the explosion. They also played a role after the explosion, with fire companies arriving to help from all over Halifax, and at the end of the day from as far as Amherst, Nova Scotia (200 kilometers or 120 miles) and Moncton, New Brunswick (260 kilometers or 160 miles) on the train help. West Street Station Station 2 at Halifax Fire Department was the first to arrive at Pier 6 with the first Patricia crew, Canada's first fire engine. In the final moments before the explosion, the hose was released as the fire spread to the dock. Nine members of the Halifax Fire Service lost their lives doing their duty that day.
Royal Navy cruisers at the harbor sent some of the first organized organized rescue forces ashore. HMS Highflyer , along with HMS Changuinola , HMS Knight Templar and HMS Calgarian cruisers ship ship to land with the rescue party and medical personnel and immediately start taking wounds on the boat. The US Coast Guard cutter, USRC Morrill , also sent rescue forces ashore. At sea, the USS Tacoma and the USS Von Steuben (formerly SS Kronprinz Wilhelm cruiser ship) pass through Halifax en route to the United States. Tacoma was badly shaken by an explosive wave passed by his crew into a public place. Seeing the big and rising smoke, Tacoma changed direction and arrived to help save 2pm. Von Steuben arrived half an hour later. The Old Colony, anchored in Halifax for repairs, suffered minor damage and was quickly converted into a hospital ship, run by doctors and officers from British and American naval vessels at the harbor.
The confused victims were soon afraid that the explosion was the result of a bomb dropped from a German plane. Troops in batteries and rifle barracks immediately changed if the city was attacked, but within an hour it switched from defense to the rescue role because the cause and location of the explosion were determined. All available troops were called from the harbor fort and barracks to the North End to rescue the victims and provide transportation to the city hospital, including two army hospitals in the city.
Adding to the chaos is a fear of a potential second explosion. Vapor clouds were fired from the ventilator in an ammunition magazine in the Wellington Barracks when navy personnel extinguished the magazine by fire. The fire was quickly extinguished; the cloud was visible from the block away and quickly caused a rumor that another explosion was imminent. The uniformed officers ordered everyone away from the area. When gossip spread throughout the city, many families left their homes. The confusion hampered efforts for more than two hours until fear was driven away by noon. Many saviors ignore the evacuation, and the naval rescue continues to work without interruption at the harbor.
The railroad workers who survived the railyards at the heart of the disaster did the rescue work, pulling people from the harbor and from underneath the rubble. The night train from Saint John had just approached the town when it was hit by an explosion but only slightly damaged. It continued into Richmond until the track was blocked by junk. Passengers and soldiers on board use emergency equipment from trains to dig people out of the house and bandage them with sheets from sleeping cars. The train was full of wounds and left town at 1:30 with a doctor on board, to evacuate the wounded to Truro.
Led by Lieutenant Governor MacCallum Grant, a prominent citizen formed the Halifax Assistance Commission around noon. The organizers organized members in charge of arranging medical assistance for Halifax and Dartmouth, providing transportation, food and shelter, and covering medical and funeral costs for the victims. The Commission will continue until 1976, participate in reconstruction and assistance efforts and then distribute pensions to the victims.
Rescue trains were sent from across the Atlantic Canada, as well as the northeastern United States. Truro left the first around 10 carrying medical and supplies personnel, arriving in Halifax at noon and returning to Truro with the injured and homeless with 3:00. The track became impassable after Rockingham, on the western bank of the Bedford Basin. To reach the wounded, rescue workers must walk through parts of the destroyed city until they reach the point where the military begins to clear the streets. By nightfall, a dozen trains had reached Halifax from the cities of Nova Scotian, Truro, Kentville, Amherst, Stellarton, Pictou, and Sydney and from the cities of New Brunswick, Sackville, Moncton, and Saint John.
Relief efforts were stalled the next day by a snowstorm that covered Halifax with 16 inches (41 cm) of snow. Trains that were on the way from other parts of Canada and from the United States stalled in a pile of snow, and a telegraph line that was hastily repaired after the explosion was destroyed again. Halifax was isolated by the storm, and the rescue committee was forced to suspend the search for survivors; a storm relief effort to extinguish the fire across the city.
Destruction and loss of life
The exact number killed by the disaster is unknown. The Halifax Explosion Remembrance Book, an official database compiled in 2002 by Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, identified 1,950 victims. A total of 1,600 people died in the explosion, tsunami, and collapse of buildings. The last body, a caretaker who died at the Exhibition Grounds, was not discovered until the summer of 1919. Another 9,000 were injured. 1,630 houses were destroyed in explosions and fires, and another 12,000 were damaged; about 6,000 people lost their homes and 25,000 people did not have adequate housing. The urban industrial sector is largely lost, with many workers among the victims and shipyards heavily damaged.
The morgue committee headed by Alderman R. B. Coldwell was quickly formed at Halifax Town Hall on the morning of the disaster. The Chebucto Road School (now the Maritime Performing Arts Academy) at the western end of Halifax was chosen as the main morgue. A company from the Royal Canadian Engineers (RCE) repaired and transformed the school basement to function as a morgue and classroom to serve as an office for Halifax coroners. Trucks and carriages soon began to arrive. Coroner Arthur S. Barnstead took over from Coldwell when the morgue began operating and applied the system to carefully calculate and decompose the body; it was based on a system developed by his father, John Henry Barnstead, to identify the victim's Titanic in 1912.
Many of the wounds inflicted by the explosion are permanently debilitating, such as those caused by flying glass or by blast flashes. Thousands of people stopped to watch the burning ships in the harbor, many of the buildings inside, leaving them directly on shattered glass paths from broken windows. About 5,900 eye injuries were reported, and 41 people lost sight of them permanently.
Estimated damage worth 35 million US dollars (c $ 569 million today). Around $ 30 million in financial aid was raised from various sources, including $ 18 million from the federal government, over $ 4 million from the British government, and $ 750,000 from the state of Massachusetts.
Dartmouth
Dartmouth is not densely populated like Halifax and is separated from the explosion by the width of the harbor, but still severely damaged. Nearly 100 people are thought to have died on the Dartmouth side. Windows was destroyed and many buildings were damaged or destroyed, including Brewery Oland and part of Starr Manufacturing Company. The Nova Scotia Hospital is the only hospital in Dartmouth and many victims are being treated there.
Mi'kmaq Settlement
There are some small Mi'kmaq bags inside and around the bays of the Bedford Basin on Dartmouth beach. Right across Pier 9 on the Halifax side, there is a community at Tufts Cove, also known as Turtle Grove. The settlements, dating from the 18th century, have become controversial because the white settler landowners want to move the Mi'kmaq population. In the years and months before the explosion, the Ministry of Indian Affairs has actively tried to force Mi'kmaq to surrender their land, but this did not happen at the time of the explosion. The fire aboard Mont-Blanc captured the attention of many spectators on both sides of the harbor. The physical structure of the settlements was obliterated by the explosion and tsunami. The exact death of Mi'kmaq is unknown; records show that nine bodies were found, and settlements were not rebuilt after the disaster. The Halifax Remembrance Book lists 16 members of the Tufts Cove Community as dead; not all the dead listed as at Tufts Cove are Natives. Survivors were housed in a racially segregated building under generally poor conditions and eventually spread around Nova Scotia.
Africville
The Africville black community, on the southern shore of the Bedford Basin adjacent to the Halifax Peninsula, is spared from the direct force of the explosion by the shadow effect of the elevated land to the south. Africville's small and fragile houses were heavily damaged by the explosion. The family recorded the deaths of five residents. Africville received a small amount of donated grants and no progressive reconstruction was invested in other parts of the city after the explosion.
Investigation
Many people in Halifax initially believed that the explosion was the result of a German attack. The Halifax Herald continues to spread this belief for some time, for example reporting that Germany has mocked the victims of the explosion. While John Johansen, the Norwegian helmsman Imo, was being treated for serious injuries sustained during the explosion, it was reported to military police that he had been suspicious. Johansen was arrested on suspicion of being a German spy when a search found a letter about his man, which was supposed to be written in German. It turned out that the letter was actually written in Norwegian. Immediately after the explosion, most of the surviving Germans in Halifax had been arrested and imprisoned. Eventually the fear disappears because the real cause of the explosion is known, though rumors of German involvement persist.
A judicial inquiry known as Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry was formed to investigate the cause of the collision. The event began at Halifax Court House on 13 December 1917, led by Justice Arthur Drysdale. The investigation report of February 4, 1918 blamed Captain's captain, Aimà ©  © Le MÃÆ'§ dec, ship pilot, Francis Mackey, and Commander F. Evan Wyatt, officer the Royal Canadian Navy chief's inquiry responsible for ports, gates and anti-submarine defense, to cause a collision. Drysdale agrees with the opinion of LA Demers Commissioner Dominion Wreck that "it is the responsibility of Mont-Blanc '
Drysdale also oversaw the first civil litigation trial, in which the owners of both ships searched for each other's damage. His decision (April 27, 1918) found Mont-Blanc completely guilty. Subsequent appeals to the Supreme Court of Canada (May 19, 1919), and the Advisory Committee of the Advisory Committee in London (March 22, 1920), define Mont-Blanc and Imo blame the navigation error that caused the collision. No party has ever been convicted of any crime or successfully prosecuted for any action that triggered the disaster.
Reconstruction
Efforts began immediately after the explosion to clear debris, repair buildings, and build temporary housing for victims displaced by the explosion. By the end of January 1918, about 5,000 were still without shelter. A reconstruction committee under Colonel Robert Low builds 832 new housing units, complemented by the Massachusetts-Halifax Relief Fund.
The train service is partly returned from the temporary terminals in the South End of the city on December 7th. Full service resumes on December 9 when the track is cleared and North Street Station reopens. The Canadian Government Railway creates a special unit for cleaning and repairing railroad yards and rebuilding rail docks and Naval Dockyard. Most of the docks re-operated in late December and repaired in January. The Halifax neighborhood in the North End Richmond bears the burden of explosion. In 1917, Richmond was regarded as a working class neighborhood and had several paved roads. After the explosion, the Halifax Relief Commission approached Richmond reconstruction as an opportunity to improve and modernize the North End city. The English city planner Thomas Adams and the architectural firm of Montreal Ross and Macdonald were recruited to design a new housing plan for Richmond. Adams, inspired by the Victorian city park movement, aims to provide public access to green space and to create a low, low-density and multifunctional urban environment. Planners designed 326 large houses that each faced a tree-lined boulevard. They determined that homes were built with new and innovative refractory materials, compressed cement blocks called Hydrostone. The first of these houses was occupied by March 1919. Upon completion, the Hydrostone neighborhood consists of homes, businesses and parks, which help create a new sense of community in the North End of Halifax. It has now become an upscale neighborhood and shopping district. In contrast, poor and undeveloped Africville areas were not included in the reconstruction effort.
Every building in the Halifax shipyard requires several levels of rebuilding, as well as HMCS Niobe and the dock itself; all minesweepers and Royal Canada Navy patrol boats are not damaged. Prime Minister Robert Borden promised that the government would "cooperate in every way to reconstruct Halifax Harbor: this is very important for the Empire". Captain Symington of the USS
Legacy
The Halifax explosion is one of the largest non-nuclear explosions. A broad comparison of 130 large explosions by the Halifax historian Jay White in 1994 concluded that "Halifax Harbor remains unchallenged in its entirety for five criteria considered together: number of casualties, explosive forces, radius of destruction, number of explosives, and total property values ​​destroyed." For many years thereafter, the Halifax Explosion was the standard by which all large explosions were measured. For example, in his report on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Time was writing that the explosive power of the Little Boy bomb was seven times that of the Halifax Explosion.
The large number of eye injuries caused by the disaster led to a better understanding on the part of doctors about how to care for damaged eyes, and "with the newly formed Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Halifax became internationally known as a treatment center for the blind. according to Dalhousie University professor Victoria Allen. The lack of coordinated child care in such disasters is also noted by William Ladd, a Boston surgeon who came to help. His insights from the explosion are generally credited with inspiring him to pioneer pediatric surgery specializations in North America. The Halifax blast also inspired a series of health reforms, including around public sanitation and maternity care.
After influencing almost every family and working collectively in Halifax, the event was very traumatic for the entire living community, so the memory was mostly oppressed. After the first anniversary, the city stopped commemorating the explosion for decades. The second official warning did not occur before the 50th anniversary in 1967, and even after that, the activity stopped again. Construction began in 1964 at the Halifax North Memorial Library, designed to commemorate the victims of the explosion. The library entrance features the first monument built to mark the explosion, Halifax Explosion Memorial Sculpture, created by artist Jordi Bonet. The statue was dismantled by the Halifax Regional Municipality in 2004 and was largely destroyed while in the warehouse. By 2015, the remaining fragments are sent to the Bonet family in Montreal despite a public campaign to return the statue to the warning screen. The Halifax Explosion Memorial Bells was built in 1985, relocating the memorial bell bell from the nearby church to a large concrete statue at Fort Needham Hill, facing the "ground zero" area of ​​the explosion. The Bell Tower is the location of annual civil ceremonies every December 6th. A warning at Halifax Fire Station at Lady Hammond Road respects the firefighters who died in response to the explosion. Fragments Mont-Blanc have been installed as environmental monuments for explosions at Albro Lake Road in Dartmouth, at Regatta Point, and elsewhere in the area. Simple monuments mark the mass graves of victims of the blast at Lawn Lawn Cemetery and Bayers Street Cemetery. A Warning Book listing the names of all known victims featured at the North Memorial Library of Halifax and at the Maritime Maritime Museum, which has a large permanent exhibit on the Halifax Explosion. Harold Gilman was commissioned to make a painting commemorating the event; his work, Halifax Harbor at Sunset, tells very little about the recent destruction, because the point of view is rearranged so the harbor looks undisturbed.
The Hugh MacLennan novel Rising Barometer (1941) is set in Halifax at the time of the explosion and includes a thoroughly researched description of its impact on the city. Following MacLennan's footsteps, journalist Robert MacNeil wrote Burden of Desire (1992) and used the explosion as a metaphor for social and cultural change at the time. The use of MacLennan and MacNeil from the genre of romance to articulate the explosion is similar to the first attempt by Lieutenant Colonel Frank McKelvey Bell, author of the short novel A Romance of the Halifax Disaster (1918). This work follows the love story of a young woman and an injured soldier. Keith Ross Leckie wrote a miniseries entitled Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion (2003), which took the title but has no connection with Janet Kitz's non-fiction book Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion and The Road to Recovery (1990). The film was criticized for its distortion and inaccuracy.
In 1918, Halifax sent a Christmas tree to the City of Boston as a thank-you and a warning for the help given by the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee immediately after the disaster. The prize was revived in 1971 by the Christmas Tree Producers Association of Lunenburg County, which started a massive annual tree donation to promote the export of Christmas trees as well as recognize Boston's support after the explosion. The gift was later taken over by the Nova Scotia Government to continue the gesture of good will and to promote trade and tourism. The tree was the official Christmas tree of Boston and was lit in Boston Common throughout the holiday season. In honor of its symbolic interests for both cities, the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources has specific guidelines for selecting trees.
See also
- List of accidents and incidents involving transport or storage of ammunition
- Tom Black Blast of 1916
- the Chicago Port disaster in World War II
- Bombay Explosion (1944), explosion aboard ship in Bombay Harbor
- Texas City disaster, involving a ship registered in France carrying an explosive charge
- RFA Explosion Bedenham , an ammunition explosion at Gibraltar Harbor
- Ripple Rock
Footnote
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
- Relic Notes: Halifax Explosion
- Halifax CBC Explosion Website: a great interactive website about explosions
- Maritime Museum of the Atlantic website Halifax Explosion page
- The Nova Scotia Archives Book of Remembrance Halifax, the victim database with 1950 names
- Vision Regeneration, explosion and reconstruction by Nova Scotia Archives
- "Just One Big Mess": The Halifax Explosion documentary, 1917 NFB.
- Think Like a Historian: Halifax Explosion Historica Canada video series.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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