Issued by ROYAL PRINT & LITHO LTD.
HALIFAX, CANADA
Copyrighted 1917
INTRODUCTION
Thursday, December sixth, 1917, will be ever memorable as the date of the great disaster which, 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 parallel in our history. The fateful morning dawned both fine and fair, and the normal activities of the busy city were set in motion for the day. No one dreamed that in the magnificent harbor of Halifax the opening scene in a terrible drama of tragedy was already staged.
Proceeding up the harbor, and making for Bedford Basin, was the French steamer “Mont Blanc,” carrying a deck cargo of benzine and an under cargo of some three thousand tons of nitro-glycerine, and the world’s most powerful explosive, “T. N. T.” Leaving the upper harbor and steaming at slow speed was the Norwegian steamer “Imo,” with a cargo of relief for the war sufferers of Belgium. Slowly the two vessels approached each other; nearer and nearer they drew, reaching the Narrows between the harbor and Bedford Basin, at which point they should have passed. 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 of benzine caught fire and a few minutes later, at five minutes past nine to be exact, the three thousand tons 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 North End, practically two square miles of territory, became a burning ruin. A considerable section of the water front was completely shattered, and all over the city, public buildings and private dwellings were wrecked, and not a window remained anywhere intact.
The preponderating magnitude of the calamity can be somewhat realized by the terrible toll of dead 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 between Forty and Fifty Million Dollars.
The scenes following the great convulsion are utterly beyond the power of language to describe. Chaos reigned supreme, and our vocabulary fails to depict the heart-rending scenes witnessed on the streets and in the hastily improvised hospitals and morgues. Gallant acts of amazing heroism are recorded, and Halifax will never fully know all she owes to the military and naval forces stationed in the city for their magnificent services, so promptly rendered in the hour of her dire disaster.
No sooner had the appalling news flashed across the cables than messages of sympathy and offers of practical aid poured in from all parts of the Dominion and the U. S. A. The local Relief Committee was inspired and heartened by the prompt despatch from Boston of a special relief train, bringing a corps of doctors, surgeons, and Red Cross nurses with full equipment, under the direction of Hon. A. C. Ratchesky, the personal representative of Governor McCall of Massachusetts. Premier Borden arrived in Halifax on Friday morning, and issued the following statement expressive of the keen appreciation which all Canada felt at the magnanimous assistance of the American people:
“The people of Canada are profoundly grateful for the generous sympathy of the people of the United States in the terrible disaster which has overtaken the City of Halifax, and they most deeply appreciate the splendid aid which has been offered and sent from so many communities of our great kindred nation.”