IMAGE OF 1917 HALIFAX EXPLOSION SURFACES

17 July 2020: On 6 December 1917, two ships, bound for the war in Europe and loaded with highly explosive munitions, collided. And exploded. The incident occurred in Halifax Harbor where a convoy was forming for the trip to the war. The resulting shock wave and fires leveled half of Halifax, NS, killed nearly 2,000 people and injured over 6,000. The property damage, as we might surmise, was monumental. The known images of the disaster show only the aftermath. Until now, there were no known pictures of the explosion. Now, perhaps there is: from the CBC we have the following:
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"The photo has the look of a very troubling dream," Dan Conlin says as he studies an old black-and-white image.

Conlin is a transportation historian who's spent a lifetime studying images of ships, trains and aircraft. He's also a former curator of Halifax's Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which houses a large collection of materials from the 1917 Halifax Explosion.

The image he's studying surfaced recently on Reddit with a user from Halifax, England, wondering if it was a "new" image of the 1917 disaster. "You have these tranquil little wavelets in the foreground and some stately, anchored vessels — including a sailing ship," Conlin said. "But in the background there are these awful, nightmarish clouds, including a horrible column that is rising into the sky. It looks like a surreal nightmare."
When Conlin first looked at it, the crisp details of the foreground and the blurry background raised his skeptical eyebrows. "There was quite a tradition in the World War I era of faking photos by doing composite photos, where you layer one image on top of another," he said.
One well-known photo of the explosion taken from McNabs Island was later suspected to have been doctored by a company. They seem to have added clouds for dramatic effect — and to sell more postcards. 

possibly "doctored" image

There is evidence this image of the Halifax Explosion was doctored to make it more dramatic, and to sell more copies of the postcard it was printed on. (Nova Scotia Archives)

But Conlin thinks in the nightmarish photo, it's more likely that the clouds are moving from the force of the explosion, while the ships were untroubled by any winds. The disaster killed nearly 2,000 people and badly hurt thousands more. It levelled the Richmond district in the north end.

"It's carnage and destruction out of Dante at the base of that cloud. People are dying and fires are starting and this awful event has hit Halifax in the distance," he said.

"That angry cloud gives you an idea of the violence and tragedy that is unfolding even as the shutter clicks. It's really rare and that photo, as far as I can tell, has never been published."

CBC sent the photo to Joel Zemel, who's written two books about the Halifax Explosion. He's studied hundreds of photos relating to the explosion and estimates fewer than 20 show the actual blast cloud. He's posted many of the known ones to his website.
"I haven't seen this one," he said.
He noted the clouds obscure the distance and it gives few clues as to where it was taken. The strange three-masted sailboat to the right seems out of place in the steam age, but could have been moored and hulked — that is, used as a floating warehouse.
The high angle limits where the photographer could be around the harbour. "One of the only vantage points that could take a photograph that high would be off HMCS Niobe, which was a depot ship in the harbour at the time."
The Niobe was anchored near what was then the Canadian naval college and today is CFB Stadacona. The explosion happened about 1.2 kilometres away, near today's Irving Shipyard.
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That image sure looks real to us, but were it faked, that would be the idea! We will take it as the real deal, since it appears no one today would gain anything from "finding" it now.

Until next time,
                                Fair Winds,
                                      Old Salt

MALLOWS BAY REFUGE - REDUX

10 July 2020: A while back, we wrote about Mallows Bay, the repository for WWI cargo ships that never saw action - or even use. This piece, lightly edited from CBS NEWS offers some updated insights to the remarkable nature preserve that started as a "dumping ground" for derelict ships has become. 
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Kayakers who take to the Potomac River as the weather gets warmer could find themselves immersed in floating history, if the tide is right. An ill-fated fleet of wooden steam ships has been rotting away in the brackish water of Mallows Bay in Maryland for nearly a century. 

"It's the largest collection of shipwrecks in the western hemisphere … just in this tiny bay," Joel Dunn, Chesapeake Conservancy president told CBS News' Christina Ruffini.

Joel Dunn took CBS News' Christina Ruffini through a trio of ships known as the "three sisters," a triangular area where the old boats have become floating forests. 

He said the area is home to over 100 decaying vessels.

yes, those tree-covered "islands" are - or were - ships

"Over 90 of them are from World War I and they were built in an effort to win the war," he said.

The ships were commissioned over a century ago in 1917, when President Woodrow Wilson needed more ships to fight German U-boats. The goal was to build 1,000 in less than two years — prioritizing quantity over quality.

"They were built quickly, inexpensively, with green wood," Maryland's underwater archeologist Susan Langley said. "Initially these were gonna be just expendable, and so they didn't put a lot of effort in."

The war ended before even one of the ships made it across the Atlantic. Eventually, they were gathered, stripped for salvage and abandoned in the bay.

According to Langley, a local tradition of watermen taking their old boats up the river "to die" added to the crowded number. 

"They use it as kind of a spare parts department for years, until it subsides back into the environment," she said. 

"That ship has now become a wildlife sanctuary, a wildlife mecca," Dunn observed. CBS News

Once the environment does take a ship, it takes it completely over. During a tour of the Potomac, Joel Dunn took CBS News past a trio of ships known as the "three sisters," a triangular area where the old boats have become floating forests. 

The once-endangered osprey is one of the many species of wildlife making a home among the shipwrecks.

Other wrecks can be seen covered in all manner of local plant life, beavers and even the once-endangered osprey. 

"That ship has now become a wildlife sanctuary, a wildlife mecca," Dunn observed. "It's got plants and animals that are thriving as a result of the structure the hull of the ship provides."

In addition to wildlife, the ships also bring tourism to the area. Dunn said he hopes they will get people "on the water" and "inspired to take part."

"We need the next generation of leaders and voters to care about the environment, to care about our history," he said. 

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While little has changed since our earlier report, the fact that this place exists should be of interest and worth a trip if you live nearby.  Kayaks  paddled among the not-quite-sunken ships enable you to observe all manner of wild life and the thriving local flora. And with the semi-lockdown in effect, the trip would not put you at risk of encountering crowds!

Until next time,  

                                      Fair Winds, 

                                            Old Salt

ROUND WARSHIP?

4 July 2020: Happy Independence Day to my American readers -wherever you might be! And while there will be very limited celebrations this year due the the corona virus restrictions on crowds and "social distancing" we still recognize the meaning and importance of this date.
We were planning on a new look at the Mallows Bay (Potomac River in Maryland) repository of abandoned WWI ships, but came across this piece from National Interest and thought it might be fun to offer. We'll address Mallows in a future post.
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 Much like the First World War era Lebedenko or “Tsar Tank,” the Novgorod is an excellent reminder of Imperial Russian military “out of the box” thinking that might have been better left in the box. 

While Czar Peter the Great of Russia sought to “westernize” his nation, and this included adopting what were then modern military tactics, weapons and even uniforms, he also founded the Russian Navy. He oversaw the construction of Imperial Russia’s warships and even some sea fortresses. 

However, even the forward-thinking Peter likely couldn't have envisioned something as truly revolutionary and completely Russian in design as the Novgorod, a monitor-style warship that was built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1870s. It goes down in the annals of naval history as one of the most unusual warships – and possibly the worst – ever built. 

It was round. 

The concept of a circular battleship actually wasn’t entirely Russian. The concept had first been considered by a Scottish shipbuilder named John Elder, which evolved under the Royal Navy's Edward Reed. It involved a shallow-draft vessel that was capable of traversing low-level waters such as rivers and lakes, where it could provide support to military units on land in a way more powerful warships of the era couldn't. 

River monitors had seen use in the American Civil War, while the British used riverboats in Africa, notably the Sudan, which is why no one seriously took up the concept of a round monitor when the existing vessels did a very good job. 

But there were other factors at play for the Russians. After the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Crimean War, Russia was no longer allowed to have a fleet in the Black Sea, while the country’s coffers were so depleted it couldn't have afforded one anyway! The treaty also prohibited Russia from establishing naval or military arsenals on the Black Sea coast. 

Rather than leave Sevastopol undefended, Russian Admiral Andrei Popov proposed to build a circular ship for the coast defense of the port. The circular warship could carry super-large, but also super-heavy guns. In theory the idea was that large warships would roll when delivering a broadside, while a side with the same width and length would not have such a problem. 

The circular design also allowed for more armoring, but it was far from as stable as Popov or its designers expected. In fact, in anything more than calm waters the accuracy of its main armament suffered greatly. 

The Novgorod was laid down and then constructed at the New Admiralty Shipyard of Saint Petersburg from 1871 until 1874. It was envisioned to be the first of a new class of monitors to protect the Black Sea and Dnieper Rivers. As a circular warship it was classified as a floating fortress and not listed as a fleet vessel. 

However, soon after construction began the restrictions were lifted, but Czar Alexander II opted to move forward with the project, and ordered the construction for 10 additional circular ships – the second to be called “Vitse-Admiral Popov.” 

The round warships did indeed carry the most powerful weapons of their time, but the Novgorod was slow. It only finally saw action in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) when she was stationed at Odessa to act as a floating deterrent. The round monitor was so slow that it couldn’t keep up with the inferior Turkish warships, and it was found that it was unable to fight away from the coast. If the battle didn’t come to the round monitor, the round monitor was unlikely to make it in time for a battle!  

However, Czar Alexander II apparently still liked the design enough that when Popov proposed a round Imperial yacht the Emperor agreed! Called the “Livadia,” it was assembled in England and transported to Sevastopol for a sea trial. It eventually was used to transport coal rather than the Imperial family. 

The two completed monitors remained in use following Czar Alexander II’s death, but for coastal defense. Both struck from the Naval Register in July 1903 and sold for scrap. Much like the First World War era Lebedenko or “Tsar Tank,” the Novgorod is an excellent reminder of Imperial Russian military “out of the box” thinking that might have been better left in the box. 

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Remember, friends, sometimes fact is stranger than fiction! But at the same time, had it worked, our modern day navies might look a whole lot different!

Until next time, 

                                   Fair winds!

                                    Old Salt