The Biggest Explosion Before The Atomic Bomb (Halifax, 1917)

The largest man-made explosion in history until the atomic bomb - and for twenty minutes before it, the city stood at its windows and watched the ship burn. Halifax, Nova Scotia, 6 December 1917. The French steamer Mont-Blanc came into the harbour carrying about three thousand tons of high explosive - picric acid, TNT, gun cotton, and barrels of benzol stacked on the deck above it. In the Narrows she met the Imo, an empty Norwegian steamer coming out on the wrong side of the channel. The collision barely dented either ship. It split open the benzol, and the fire ran up her side in seconds. Her crew knew exactly what was underneath it. They rowed for the far shore. The burning ship drifted against Pier 6 at the foot of a working-class neighbourhood called Richmond, and the whole district came out to look. Schoolchildren were let out of class. People went to their windows for a better view. At 9:04 and thirty-five seconds she went off with the force of nearly 3 kilotons. About 1,600 people died at once and the final count was at least 1,782. Nine thousand were injured. Surgeons removed 249 eyes - the injuries of people who had been standing at glass. Before the war, ships carrying explosives had not been allowed into Halifax harbour at all. German submarines were the reason the rule was relaxed. Three men were arrested. All three walked. The Supreme Court of Canada and the Privy Council both found the two ships equally to blame, and nobody was ever convicted of anything. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold Open 1:11 A City At War 2:02 The Two Ships 2:54 The Collision 4:01 Twenty Minutes 5:21 Nine Oh Four 6:29 The Morning After 7:23 Who Was To Blame SOURCES "Halifax Explosion", "SS Mont-Blanc", "SS Imo" and "Vince Coleman (train dispatcher)", Wikipedia, and the reporting and archives cited there Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry under Justice Arthur Drysdale, 1917-18; Supreme Court of Canada, 1919; Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, 1920 Nova Scotia Archives, Halifax Explosion collections IMAGES AND FILM W.G. MacLaughlan's 1917 film of the ruins, Nova Scotia Archives, William James / City of Toronto Archives, Library of Congress (no known restrictions), the Boston Daily Globe and the Halifax Herald, Arthur Lismer, Gauvin & Gentzel, Harry J. Moss, and Library and Archives Canada - all public domain. Ross Dunn (CC BY-SA 2.0); Toronto History (CC BY 2.0); BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives (CC BY 2.0); SyntaxTerror and Fredrik (CC BY-SA 3.0). Via Wikimedia Commons and the Library of Congress. #Halifax #History #Canada #Bomb