A Brief History of: The Halifax Explosion (1917)

when you think of the destruction of World War one most slightly the first image would come to mind would be the trenches of the Western Front or maybe even a tragedy of Gallipoli however far from Europe in 1917 a harbor Nova Scotia Canada saw one of the largest explosions of the war yielding a death toll of nearly 2,000 people and flattening vast waves of the city of Halifax all because of two cargo ships colliding as speed of barely two miles an hour Halifax for most of its history has been a hub of Commerce and trading ever since its founding in 1749 this was due to its large natural harbour called the Bedford Basin allowing easy access from the Atlantic Ocean boil and narrow straits due to the convenience of the bay a bustling city developed under British rule for features of the land allowed the harbour to have a well-defended entrance and because of its the city became the center point for many British naval operations the harbour had two main parts with Halifax on the south and Dartmouth on the north with this link to the Navy the city developed well under periods of war as successive governments poured resources into the area's infrastructure the port developed even further after the construction of the Intercontinental railway and its deepwater terminal allowing large warships to dock in 1880 the city faced economic downturns joonie 1890s after Canadian factories further inland offer competition to Halifax industries in 1905 the British garrison left Halifax handing over power to the Canadian authorities eventually turning into a command post for the Royal Canadian Navy in 1910 and as such received another period of development Halifax gained renewed importance with the outbreak of World War one however due to the Royal Canadian Navy at a time having very few seaworthy ships the Royal Navy maintained the Atlantic sea routes and once again made halifax its north american base of operations eventually having management returned to the canadian royal navy in 1915 however the narrow strait leading into the port required ships to adhere to a strict speed limit for five knots which is around five point eight miles an hour the ships were expected to travel on the right port side as they passed on coming chips due to the risk of increasing new boat attacks the royal and canadian royal navy's adopted the convoy system for transatlantic journeys would he increase need for maintenance for larger amounts of ships senior Halifax the city saw an increase in population to 65,000 by 1917 a steady flow of troops animals weapons and supplies traveled through to harbour destined for the many theaters of war the port was protected by submarine nets gun batteries and patrol ships during loading and unloading due to the importance as a military installation for the Atlantic all neutral ships bound for North American ports had to report to Halifax for inspection before being allowed to continue on their journey it was this requirement for inspection that would spell disaster for the people living in Halifax the SS emo was a cargo ship built by the Harland & Wolff company in 1889 originally sailing under the name runic the ship was seen many name and company changes over his life however in 1917 she became the emo and was sailing as a neutral ship for a Belgian relief commission under the command of Captain hackin with a crew of 39 people she was travelling empty to collect supplies for Belgian from New York and as mandated for all neutral ships she arrived in halifax on the 3rd of december 1917 for inspection and was set to be in harbour for two days while she took on fuel with a scheduled departure day of the 5th due to her traveling without cargo she had to rely on her ballast to wade a ship below the waterline to make the most of the propeller and rudder however this didn't happen resulting in the ship being difficult to control Emoto was also a long and thin vessel and had a propeller on the right-hand side of the ship causing a transverse frost basically causing her to veer off to the left and in reverse veer off to the right not the most ideal ship to navigate the tight passage at Halifax the refuelling went over schedule and the emo couldn't leave on the 5th instead she was rescheduled to depart the next day on the morning of the 6th HMCS Arcadia signal clearance to the park and with a pilot on board the emo set off at 7:30 a.m. the ship entered the strait breaking the speed limit and attempt to make up the lost time for the one day delay in Halifax upon her journey down a strait she encountered SS clara sailing on the wrong side both ships agreed to pass each other starboard to starboard against what they should have done the use of excessive speed and the now wrong side running from the emo cause tugboat stella maris to take evasive action in order to avoid collision we'll come back to the emo in a bit but first we have to talk about the other major player in our story the SS Mont Blanc built in 1899 by Sir Alton Dixon and Co in Middlesbrough but Mont Blanc was an issue purchased by the société générale de transport maritime she changed several companies still under the French flag eventually being purchased in 1915 by the compound general transatlantic French state-owned company in charge of the country's cargo operations in 1917 she been charted to carry some explosives for the wartime effort from New York to France via Halifax the Mont Blanc screw were intending to reach Halifax in time to be part of a convoy amassing in the basin however she reached a Harbor on the 5th after the submarine Nets had gone up for the night stopping access to the port in the evening experienced Harbor pilot Francis Mackay boarded the Mont Blanc and request his special arrangements for her entry to the harbour in the form of an escort ship but none were given at 7:30 a.m. on the 6th Mont Blanc was cleared for entry to the harbour as the submarine nets had been lowered traveling on the krex Dartmouth sided a strike Mackay spotted the emo at a distance of around three-quarters of a mile travelling a trajectory that would cause a potential collision worried Mackay blew one short blast of the ship's communication whistle to indicate that Mont Blanc had the right-of-way in return emo replied with two blasts of her whistle indicating that she would not yield the Mont Blanc halted their engines and turned toward to Dartmouth cider the Narrows once again Mackay blew the whistle and Bekah game came emos two blasts indicating she would not yield again email also cut her engines but a collision was inevitable makkhi feared grounding the Montblanc due to the risk of setting off her explosive cargo and in a last-ditch effort steered support to avoid collision this caused both ships to be parallel to one another at the same moment emo blew free times on her whistle indicating that she was reversing her propeller but her height in the water caused by her lack of cargo and a transverse frost over offset propeller swung her into the Montblanc hitting her number one hold at 8:45 a.m. not much damage had been physically inflicted on a Montblanc but her deadly cargo of benzoyl had been disturbed causing vapors to be released sparks from the collision caused the vapors to ignite rating a fire onboard the fire quickly spread and became uncontrollable worried of the risk of explosion the captain ordered and abandoned ship five his time crowds her begun to line the shore watching the spectacle warning shouts from the abandoned crew from their lifeboats could not be heard over the noise of ng and Mont Blanc drifted and beach next to Pier six at the end of Richmond Street stella maris was dispatched to try and fight the fire but his single hose wasn't enough to quell the flames hey Thomas flyer and HMCS noble sent boats who attempt to use a line to drag the Mont Blanc free of the pier but it was too late at 9:04 a.m. the fire set off the explosives inside the Mont Blanc the explosion completely blew a partnership releasing white-hot shards of iron into Halifax and Dartmouth the explosion reached a temperature of five thousand degrees centigrade and released a shock wave of a thousand meters per second economist smoke rose nearly 12,000 feet into the air and the shock wave was felt as far away as a hundred and twenty-nine miles over 400 acres was destroyed and the floor of the hollow became visible as the explosion displaced water as the water rushed back into the harbour a 18 meter high tsunami was formed and raced towards the Halifax Isla Harbor the mo was carried to the Dartmouth side by the water where she became beached naman Blanc's 90 millimeter gun landed 3.5 miles away to the north and part of her anchor weighing half a tonne landed two miles to the south 21 of the 26 men aboard with a stella maris and nearly all remain on board the two boats dispatched to attach a line were killed all but one of the fleeing mont blanc crew survived but a death toll wouldn't end there every building within 1.6 miles of the blast especially in a suburb of Richmond were destroyed killing 1,600 people instantly injuring thousands more 300 which would later die from their wounds many people were blinded as they had watched a fire from their windows as the explosion shattered the glass in front of their faces multiple fires ignited for our Halifax as stoves were knocked over by the blast many recording side as whole blocks were set ablaze several factories near pier six were disintegrated killing their workers instantly vast waves of the city were flattened making them almost unrecognizable the railway yards at Richmond were destroyed damaging 500 railway cars Patrick Vincent Coleman stayed behind his post as a railway dispatcher 750 feet away from pier 6 after finding out about the fire aboard the Mont Blanc to send urgent telegraph messages to an incoming passenger train his actions saved the lives of those aboard sadly Coleman was killed in the explosion surviving police and firefighters initially started the rescue effort Avengers and volunteers began to help with any surviving vehicles being used to carry the dead and wounded trains of relieving firefighters came in from as far as 200 miles away made the Royal Navy ships in the harbor sent parties is sure to help with the rescue efforts although most the damage was seen on the Halifax side around 100 people were killed on the dartmouth side and several buildings suffered damage however it was slightly protected from the blast by the large size of the harbor troops from the harbours fortifications were sent to the city to offer help rescue trains were dispatched from the rest of Canada and parts of the US many were made homeless and an estimated cost of 569 million dollars worth of damage was caused in today's money it took several years for Halifax to completely rebuild forever due to the war effort the harbour continued to be used with its first convoy departing on the 11th of December and Dockyard operations resuming soon after many of the damaged piers were repaired and rail services resumed on the 9th after track clearance was completed a suburb of Richmond had seen the brunt of the destruction was completely rebuilt being a mainly working-class area it lacked proper infrastructure pre explosion because of ister destruction was seen as an opportunity to modernize the area with the first new homes finding new residents in 1919 an investigation was launched as initially it was thought to have been an attack by the Germans which was understandable due to the war that was going on the fear but it was a German attack resulted in the helmsman John Johansen of the emo being arrested under suspicion of espionage due to him having a letter on his person thought to be written in German how have it turned out to be written in Norwegian any German citizens and Halifax were rounded up and imprisoned the rumors were pushed on by the Halifax Herald even though there's very little evidence to prove this eventually the German fury dissipated as eyewitness reports became available and an inquest was set up working under the name of the wreck commissioners inquiry the investigation began in Halifax courthouse on the 13th of December 1917 presided over by justice Arthur Drysdale on a 4th of February 1918 we found freemen at fault for the collision and resulting explosion the Montblanc captain Emile mo deck the ship's pilot Francis Mackie and commander Evan Wyatt Royal Canadian Navy's chief examining officer in charge of the harbour the inquiry stated that it was the Montblanc sole responsibility to ensure she avoided collision due to her dangerous cargo an odd decision as the emo was travelling too fast but he suggested that the large anti French public opinion influenced the inquest findings the freemen were charged with criminal negligence and manslaughter however Benjamin Russell of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court overturned the charges due to lack of evidence both medic and Maquis were discharged but Wyatt went on to a grand jury hearing where he himself was acquitted in a trial that lasted less than a day in several hearings for the claims of damages for both ships initially ordered Mont block to be at fault but again the findings were overturned and found both ships were equally to blame after all of the legal fighting not a single person was convicted or fined for the Halifax Explosion this video was brought to you by my patrons if you'd like to support a channel you can from as little as one dollar a month thank you for watching I hope you enjoyed the video if you did help the channel by subscribing liking sharing and if you have a video suggestion let me know in the comments if you'd like to keep up to date with all new videos click the bell icon and always left to say is thank you for watching

Channel: Plainly Difficult

Views: 329,040

Keywords: halifax, history, ww1, canada, plainily difficult, education, youtube, 1917, nova scotia, mont blonc, imo, plainily, zepherus, cynical historian, atlantic, learning, richmond, darthmouth, bedford basin

Id: bHZZVUv4Sis

Length: 14min 20sec (860 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 05 2018