28 June 2016: End of June folks and the real part of Summer looms! Also looming is the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America! And you can well imagine the celebrations going on up and down the country! The "biggie" of course is in New York Harbor on 4 July and while we will not be in attendance for the craziness, we will enjoy all the action broadcast live on the television. Hopefully, weather (and the Coast Guard) permitting we will get out to the mustering area in Sandy Hook Bay on the 3rd.. Pics if possible. And in a fit of irony, the story we bring you today from Popular Mechanics is about a huge bang - explosion in 1917 in Halifax Harbor, Nova Scotia. Not, however, a 4th of July or New Year's celebration!
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On the morning of December 6, 1917, two ships—the Norwegian steamship Imo and the French steamship SS Mont-Blanc—were passing through a bottleneck known as the Narrows that led to the harbor of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The captains noticed each other and blasted their horns, each trying to make the other move out of the way. Because they were both hemmed in by the shore, neither wanted to break toward the shore, and eventually, Mont-Blanc turned away from it.
The French ship’s insistence on staying away from shore may have seemed strange to anyone watching the encounter, but to those on board, it was deadly serious. They—and only they—knew that Mont-Blanc carried 2,367 metric tons of explosives on its way to Europe in service of the World War I war effort. Risking a collision with the harbor was out of the question.
So, Mont-Blanc turned away from shore and Imo turned towards. In the maneuver, Imo appeared to narrowly miss Mont-Blanc, but suddenly—perhaps because that meant they were pointed toward shore instead—chose to reverse engines. The ship swung and collided with Mont-Blanc, burrowing nine feet into the munitions ship. In the ensuing chaos, Imo created sparks that set off Mont-Blanc’s payload.
Boom.
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| Norwegian ship Imo |
The resulting explosion was the largest that had ever been seen and remained so until the advent of the atomic bomb. Because the two ships were so close to shore, as Encyclopedia Britannica explains, the blast “flattened more than 1 square mile (2.5 square km) of the city of Halifax.” A 60-foot wave inundated three blocks into the city, carried Imo onto solid ground, destroyed 1,600 buildings, and left miles worth of debris. In the end, the blast killed 1,963 people and injured an estimated 9,000 more—the overwhelming majority of whom were on land in Halifax. Halifax’s 1911 census population was 80,257, meaning the Halifax Explosion cost the city more than 2% of its population in one horrifying accident.
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| aftermath |
Shipwrecks with high death tolls end up enforcing very sad lessons that, typically, sailors and others who work in shipping have been trying to solve for decades or even longer. Part of the reason this explosion destroyed so much is that the waterway into the harbor at Halifax is so tight. After the explosion, Halifax made a new policy that only one ship at a time could pass through the Narrows. It’s also best practice that a vulnerable ship should stay out at sea until the conditions are navigable without this type of risk.
During wartime and carrying needed ammunition, however, it’s easy to see how a captain (or his superiors) might insist on pushing through a dangerous waterway at an inopportune time. That said, the disaster now serves as a reminder that these best practices are in place for a reason. “Although it was far from the front lines, this explosion left a lasting imprint on Halifax in a way that many regions experience environmental change as a result of war,” environmental scientist Jonathan Bridge wrote in 2023.
For the 100th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion in 2017, local disaster scholar and family doctor Adam Rostis contributed a short chapter to a book on ocean governance. “In 1917 disasters were viewed as exceptional events beyond the daily societal background noise of tragedies and avoidable mortality,” he concludes. “However, disaster is now more and more enmeshed within political and economic systems, to the point where it becomes impossible to distinguish disaster from everyday existence.”
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As it happens, I was in Halifax (no, not in 1917) during a research/lecture tour in 2001 and there are still remnants and, of course, many memories of the disaster. But, lessons were learned and hopefully, a similar situation can be avoided in the future. [Note: another ammunition disaster occurred in Port Chicago, California on 17 July 1944 when a Liberty ship, E.A. Bryan, blew up at the Naval Magazine in Contra Country. 4600 tons of explosives killed 320 and injured another 390. 50 Black seamen (of 258) who were loading the ship were singled out for court martial (mutiny) and sentenced to 15 years in prison.]
And as a further bit: follow up to the last post on Andrew Bedwell's attempt to cross the Atlantic in something the size of a bathtub. He didn't make it - 90 miles and 3 days out, he had an accident (unknown) and tried unsuccessfully to sail back. When that would not work he requested a tow which also failed and he abandoned the little vessel at sea. Sadly, not a big surprise there!
Until next time, stay safe - and to our American readers, Happy Independence Day!
Fair Winds,
Old Salt
