The Great Halifax Explosion
By John U. Bacon
Reviewed by Jim Gallen
North American images of the Great War focus on pictures of trenches scaring the French countryside, aircraft swirling above No Man’s Land and reports of the sinking of the Lusitania. For Haligonians the most important date of the Great War is December 6, 1917 when Halifax Harbor blew up. The Great Halifax Explosion is the eloquently told story of that day, its lead-up and its aftermath.
The United States was not a belligerent in the Great War prior to the spring of 1917 but it had played a role before then. What would become the Arsenal of Democracy in a later war was, in the Great War, a munitions factory for the Allies. Their needs were so great that the French government required 40-50 ships every two weeks to transport its purchases across the Atlantic. These demands and loss of shipping drew marginal vessels into the trade.
Such a vessel was the French Mont-Blanc, an aged, minimally maintained cargo ship under a new skipper, Captain Aime Joseph Marie Le Medec, who had never guided a ship or as large as Mont-Blanc or one full of high explosives across the seas. His cargo of 6 million pounds of high explosives made for the perfect bomb: 62 tons of gun cotton, similar to dynamite; 246 tons of new and particularly combustible airplane fuel called benzol, packed in 494 steel drums and stacked three and four barrels high; 250 tons of TNT; and 2,366 tons of picric acid, a notoriously unstable and poisonous chemical more powerful than its cousin, TNT, which was used to make shells, the Great War’s principle weapon. The benzol, normally used for airplane fuel, stacked on the deck made a perfect fuse to heat up the high explosives below. Piric acid does not explode until it reaches 572 degrees Fahrenheit and TNT does not detonate until it reaches 1,000 degrees. A spark that would the benzol alight would ensure that the explosives below would explode.
The requirement that vessels carrying explosives must fly a red flag was made optional to avoid signaling the nature of their cargo to U-boat captains. Captain Le Meduc chose not to display the waring.
The author explains the difference between “low explosives”, like propane, gasoline and gunpower which require the addition of oxygen to ignite them and keep them burning. By contrast “high explosives” combine the fuel and the oxidant in a single molecule that requires only extreme heat or a solid bump to explode.
The Allies had adopted the convoy system in which cargo or troop ships were herded together and protected by destroyer and other U-boat chasers. Though initially scheduled to sail from New York Captain Le Medec had to admit that Mont-Blanc could not keep up with the convoy so he was ordered to Halifax and given sealed directions to Boudreaux to be opened only if he was unable to join a convoy there.
After hugging the coasts. Mont-Blanc arrived at Halifax and picked up pilot Francis Mackey, one of the best in the business, to guide it through the harbor. Arriving after the submarine gates had been closed, Mont.Blanc spent one night outside the harbor.
Inside the harbor, the Imo’s status as a Belgian relief ship was clearly displayed by lettering on its sides. Imo had successfully crossed the Atlantic several times, whether due to its neutrality or luck no one can say. She was empty and riding high in the water as she began moving on December 6.
At 7:50 a.m. Mont-Blanc lifted anchor and started for the outer gate while, at the other end of the harbor, Imo began traveling in the opposite direction. At 8:46 a.m., after a series of mixed whistle signals, lurches to starboard and port and reversal of engines, Imo’s bow carved a V-shaped hole in Mont-Blanc’s plating running from waterline up to her deck. The sparks resulting from the crashing metal ignited the barrels of benzene, sending flames across the deck and billows of smoke into the sky. Quickly concluding that no action would prevent an explosion, Le Medec ordered the crew to abandon ship. Pilot Makey’s desperate idea to point the ship to sea away from most populated parts of Halifax and Dartmouth (opposite sides of the harbor) in hopes of forcing enough water into the ship to douse the flames went unheeded. By 8:48 crewmen were rowing away from the burning ship. At 8:52 Mont-Blanc settled into Pier 6 and a minute later tugboat Stella Maris was using its hose in a futile attempt to extinguish the flames. Unsuspecting crowds gathered along the shore, in buildings and roads to observe this unprecedented conflagration.
In one-fifteenth of a second, at 9:04:35. December 6, 1917 Mont-Blanc erupted in the most powerful, man-made, non-nuclear explosion in history. A flash of literally blinding white light was followed by a devastating air blast and a tsunami. After the shockwave a mushroom cloud arose, although asymmetrical unlike the now familiar clouds that follow nuclear explosions as Mont-Blanc disappeared. Estimates were that 1,600 were killed instantly, 400 to 800 died afterward, 9,000 were wounded and 25,000 left homeless.
Confronted with destruction unknown on the Western Front the survivors began to rescue the trapped, collect and treat the injured, assemble supplies, identify and prepare the dead for burial and help all to begin to process the images indelibly burned into their minds. The fates, however, were not finished with Halifax as that night the temperature fell from 40F to 16F and the region was blanked by 16’ of snow.
Unlike many communities, Massachusetts had prepared for an emergency. When the telegram from Halifax was received in Boston at 10:13 a.m. the Massachusetts Relief Commission sprang into action. At 11 a.m. the Governor of Massachusetts and Commission chairman sent a reply telegram assuring Haligonians “Massachusetts ready to go the limit in rendering every assistance you may be in need of.” A little after 10 p.m. a relief train with eleven surgeons and doctors, an ophthalmologist and an anesthetist, ten nurses, six American Red Cross representatives, four leaders of railroads, five reporters and boxes of medical supplies began their journey through the blizzard. More support from Boston and elsewhere would continue to flow into Halifax. Although the region got back on its feet, for the rest of the century the limping, the blind, the deaf, the nervous and the story tellers would remind Haligonians of the day the Great War reached neighborhoods.
It is said that December 6, 1917 was the day when the American-Canadian relationship transformed from uneasy rivals to that of allies who would fight side by side in World War II, Korea and Afghanistan. It was also a day on which traditions were born. Annually Nova Scotians compete for the honor of having their tree selected to be the official Christmas Tree of the Boston Common, a gift from the people of Nova Scotia to the People of Boston.
The Great Halifax explosion is a story to be told and author John U. Bacon has told it very well. He skillfully introduces the reader to the relevant history and geography and weaves the lives of several individuals into the narrative of the setting of the scene, the tragedy and its aftermath. I have read at least one other book about the Halifax explosion and seen references to it in several works but The Great Halifax Explosion is by far the most engaging and edifying one I have found. It seizes the reader’s attention and stokes a desire for more all the way to the last page.
Publisher : Mariner Books; 1st Edition (November 7, 2017)
Hardcover : 432 pages
ISBN-10 : 0062666533
ISBN-13 : 978-0062666536
Replies