[16] “It has one of the finest, if not the finest, ports in North America. In 1900 a great tidal wave swept over the city, causing enormous damage and loss of life. While the city has had a certain growth since that time, it has been far outstripped by Houston, Dallas, and other Texas cities.”—Kirby Page, formerly of Texas, in a letter to the author.
[17] Another principle is suggested for study by the following sentence in Ross' Foundations of Sociology (p. 206): “Brusk revolution in the conditions of life or thought produces not sudden, but gradual changes in society.” This might easily be elaborated.
[18] The relationship of poetry and disaster is of interest. In a recent article on Disaster and Poetry a writer asks “whether often, if not always, suffering, disease and disaster do not bring to him [the poet] the will to create.”—Marks, Jeanette, “Disaster and Poetry,” North American Review, vol. 212, no. 1 (July, 1920), p. 93.
[19] Thomas, [op. cit.], p. 23.
[20] In this storm a ship from Madagascar was driven into a South Carolina port. In gratitude the Captain gave the Governor a sack of seed.
[21] It is perhaps due to the reader to say that while this volume treats specifically of Halifax, the writer has studied the records of many disasters and these have been kept in mind in drawing his conclusions. He participated in the rescue and relief work at Halifax in 1917, and at the time of the Titanic disaster accompanied one of the expeditions to the scene. He was in New York when the Wall Street explosion occurred, and made a first hand study of its effects.
[22] During the month of December, 1915, alone, 30,000 tons of munitions passed over the railroad piers of Halifax.
[23] The Mont Blanc, St. Nazaire, Captain Lemedec, Pilot Francis Mackay, owners La Compagnie General Transatlantique 3,121 tons gross, 2252 net register, steel, single screw, 330 ft. long, 40 ft. beam, speed 7½ to 8 knots, inward bound, from New York to await convoy. Cargo 450,000 lbs. trinitrotoluol, 2300 tons picric acid, 35 tons benzol, employed in carrying munitions to France.
[24] The Imo, Christiania, Captain Fron, Pilot William Hayes, owners Southern Pacific Whaling Company, 5,041 tons gross, 3161 tons register, steel, single screw, 430 ft. long, 45 ft. beam, speed 11 to 12 knots, outward bound to New York, in ballast, employed in carrying food to Belgium.
[25] The greatest previous explosion was when 500,000 pounds of dynamite blew up in Baltimore Harbor.