Nothing in the history of the Maritimes stands out like the Halifax Explosion of 1917, the greatest human-caused cataclysm of the pre-atomic age. It occured when Halifax was the departure point for convoys transporting troops and armaments to Europ during the World War I.

Shortly after dawn on December 6, a Norwegian ship called the Imo, a vessel carrying relief supplies to Belgium, and a French munitions carrier called the Mont Blanc were manoevring in the Halifax Harbour. The Norwegian ship was steaming for the open sea, while the Mont Blanc, a small vessel, was heading for the harbour stuffed with explosives and ammunition, including half a million pounds of TNT - though it flew with no flags to indicate the hazardous nature of the cargo. As the ships approached each other, the Imo was forced to steer into the wrong channel by a poorly positioned tugboat. With neither ship clear about the other's intentions and each attempting to take evasive action, they collided, and the resulting sparks caused the ignition of the drums of flammable liquid stored on the Mont Blanc's deck. A fire took hold, and the crew abandonned their vessle, which drifted under de force of the impact towards the Halifax shore.

A large crowd had gathered on the waterfrod to witness the spectacle when the TNT exploded. The blast killed 2,000 people instantly and flattened over 300 acres of north Halifax, with fire enguling much of the rest. Windows were broken in Truo over 90km away and the shock-wave was felt in Cape Breton. Nothing remained of the vessel and part of its anchor, a piece of metal weighing over half a ton, was later found more than 4km away.

To make matters even worse, a blizzard dumped 40cm of snow on Halifax too, that same day, hampering rescue attempts. The bodies of many vicitms were not recovered until the spring.

www.halifaxexplosion.org