The Great Halifax Explosion

by John U. Bacon

  Chapter 44

  The Reunion

  In 1920, the Halifax Relief Commission started paying out pensions to 1,028 survivors. By 1994, it continued to send checks to 21 of them.

  In between, on June 23, 1984, the Richmond School sent out reunion invitations to all those students who had attended the original school before Mont-Blanc had destroyed it sixty-seven years earlier.

  Gordon and James Pattison both showed up. James’s courses in drafting and mechanics had paid off when he became foreman of the Dartmouth Oil Refinery’s mechanical division. His career sent him to Peru, but he had moved back to Kentville, Nova Scotia, a few minutes from Wolfville and just an hour or so away from Halifax. That night, he brought his leather school bag complete with his seventh-grade books, which might have saved his life when the ship blew up.

  Noble Driscoll still lived so close that he could walk to the reunion, arriving with his brother, Al. Noble had taken Principal Huggins’s advice, left school, and started working for Creighton’s as a deliveryman, as did Al. Noble worked his way up to the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission, and managed the liquor store on Agricola Street for many years.

  Archie Upham and his sister, Millicent, had come back, too. Like their father, Charles, Archie worked on the railway. Millicent had trained as a hairdresser in Montreal before settling in Halifax and marrying fellow survivor Bill Swindells, who had become a baker famous for his fruitcakes.

  Barbara Orr joined them. She had married George Thompson, raised a family of her own, and now enjoyed her grandchildren.

  Even decades after the explosion, Barbara would often dream she was at home with her family. But when she woke, she would realize all she had was a small piece of broken china, a school picture of her sister Mary and her brother Ian, and recurring dreams of being a fourteen-year-old girl in Halifax, eating breakfast with her mother and siblings in their home on Richmond Hill on Thursday morning, December 6, 1917.

  “Sometimes,” she said, “it seemed as if it had all happened to someone else.”

  A year after the Richmond reunion, on June 9, 1985, they gathered again to christen the memorial tower on top of Fort Needham, overlooking the neighborhood that used to be Richmond, and below that, the site of the explosion. Millicent Upham Swindells and her granddaughter, Anne-Louise Ihasz, inserted a time capsule in the tower, to be opened on December 6, 2017, the hundredth anniversary of the explosion.

  Barbara Orr played the bells at the dedication alongside Bill Orr, her cousin, whose family took her in when she needed a home.

  Against all odds, the survivors had found ways to overcome their staggering losses and lead productive, fulfilling lives—even happy ones.

  In December 1918, just a few months after the Red Sox won their fifth World Series in fifteen years behind the pitching of their young lefthander, Babe Ruth, the city of Halifax sent a huge Christmas tree to Boston to thank them for their help during Halifax’s darkest hour. In 1976, 200 years after the Americans broke from the British, Halifax resurrected the tradition, and has sent a fifty-foot, two-ton tree to Boston Commons every year since.

  It is a testament to a time when the worst the world could inflict brought out the best in two countries. In the process, it forged a hard-earned friendship, one strong enough to overcome 141 years of distrust, subterfuge, and occasional violence, one that has stood for a century as an example to the rest of the world.

  Acknowledgments

  I had wanted to write this book for more than a decade for a lot of good reasons, including the chance to visit Halifax. The city is as welcoming as advertised, but the people were even better.

  The former dean of Dalhousie University’s business school, James McNiven, and his scholarly daughter-in-law, Lisa, gave me two thorough tours of Halifax and Dartmouth. Noted author Blair Beed followed up with a detailed exploration of the Richmond neighborhood and beyond.

  After decades of neglect, the Halifax Explosion has enjoyed a quarter century of attention from dedicated scholars, starting with Janet Katz’s pioneering books Shattered City and Survivors, both filled with remarkable interviews, accounts you can’t find anywhere else. Other noted authors include Alan Ruffman, who compiled the authoritative Ground Zero, the best investigation of the scientific aspects of the explosion. Joel Zemel’s Scapegoat provides the most thorough research of the central figures, the ships, and the court transcripts, while Beed produced a book that is particularly helpful for my work, 1917 Halifax Explosion and American Response.

  In addition to this cabal of serious scholars, Halifax is also home to the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, where the inimitable Garry Shutlak has been helping wayward researchers find their way with good cheer for decades, and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (MMA), where Roger Marsters and Richard McMichael have done world-class work on Titanic, the explosion, and more. Author and raconteur Stephen Kimber, who updated Thomas H. Raddall’s Halifax: Warden of the North, has become a trusted friend and guide.

  All of these authors and experts agreed to meet with me on my trips to their city, giving generously of their time and knowledge during our long conversations.

  In addition, Lisa McNiven was nice enough to read the manuscript and offer helpful suggestions. Several people read parts or all of the manuscript for factual accuracy, with Ashley Sutherland devoting herself to that single mission. At the MMA, Amber Laurie tracked down more than a dozen photographs for this book. Mandy O’Brien did the same at the City of Toronto archives, as did Garry Shutlak and Philip Hartling at the Archives of Nova Scotia. Chantal Allan’s Bomb Canada and David MacKenzie’s Canada 1911 were both very helpful, as were the authors.

  The grandchildren of Joseph Ernest Barss—Joe, Ted, and Bob Barrs, and John Messenger—answered my endless emails promptly and patiently, supplying the raw materials for their grandfather’s story, plus lots of inside information. Ernest’s son, Joe, gave me a few great interviews back in 1999, when I was writing about Barss for my first book, Blue Ice: The Story of Michigan Hockey. I only wish he was here to see this. Thanks also to the good people at the University of Michigan: Lora Durkee, Greg Kinney, and Matt Trevor.

  I never would have had the chance to meet the experts in Halifax if my agents and publisher hadn’t helped me first. Jay Mandel and Eric Lupfer at William Morris Endeavor are simply the best in the business, providing the kind of encouragement and expertise that turns inchoate ideas into great proposals. And thanks to their assistants, Lauren Shonkoff and Kitty Dulin, who kept the wheels turning with a smile.

  Acclaimed editor Peter Hubbard at HarperCollins/William Morrow helped transform that proposal and piles of research into this book. He believed in this little-known story from the start, and saw it through to completion with a calm, confident professionalism that was most welcome during many hectic weeks, as was his sense of humor. We were both backed to the hilt by HarperCollins’s esteemed publisher, Liate Stehlik. Nick Amphlett and his staff of copy editors performed their vital work with care, and Maureen Cole was a champion with publicity.

  As usual, I relied on many friends to help make sure my work was on track, none more important than James Tobin, an award-winning author who read several drafts of the proposal and the manuscript. He provided detailed, savvy advice, and offered much-needed empathy and advice during our many meetings. John Lofy helped shape the proposal, while a small army of smart friends read the manuscript, including Eric Adelson, Jim Carty, L. Todd Johnson, Barney Klein, Thomas Lebien, Howard Markel, Jonathan Marwill, Jim Russ, Jed Thompson, Bob Weisman, Pete Uher, and Bill Wood. They gave me excellent feedback from a variety of perspectives. The good folks at Camp Michigania served as a focus group after my first speech on the then-unfinished book, concluding that “six million pounds of high explosives” sounds better than three thousand tons. Christopher Soles, a fellow camper, dug up all the information on picric acid a writer could ever need.

  My wife, Christie, not only helped with every task listed above—from research to feedback to photos to
scheduling trips to Halifax—she kept our home humming with warmth and humor during my many days, weeks, and months in the “writer’s cave.” Our two-year-old son, Teddy, provided joy, perspective, and inspiration; you’re the best reason we do all this.

  While I was exploring one of the greatest tragedies in history, being with both of you reminded me on a daily basis just how fortunate I am.

  Bibliography

  Africville Genealogy Society, The Spirit of Africville, Halifax: Lorimer, 2010.

  Allan, Chantal, Bomb Canada and Other Unkind Remarks in the American Media, Edmonton: Athabasca University Press, 2009.

  Allen, Thomas B., Tories: Fighting for the King in America’s First Civil War, New York: HarperCollins, 2010.

  Armstrong, J. G., The Halifax Explosion and the Royal Canadian Navy, Vancouver: UBC Press, 2002.

  Azzi, Stephen, Reconcilable Differences: A History of Canada–US Relations, Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2015.

  Beed, Blair, 1917 Halifax Explosion and American Response, Halifax: Self, 1988.

  Bird, Kai, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, New York: Vintage Books, 2006.

  Bird, Michael J., The Town That Died, Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1962.

  Boileau, John, Half-Hearted Enemies: Nova Scotia, New England, and the War of 1812, Halifax: Formac Publishing Ltd, 2005.

  Boyd, Michelle Hébert, Enriched by Catastrophe: Social Work and Social Conflict after the Halifax Explosion, Halifax: Fenwood Publishing, 2007.

  Brown, G. I., The Big Bang: A History of Explosives Gloucestershire, UK: Sutton Publishing Limited, 2001.

  Clark, Christopher, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914, New York: Harper Perennial, 2014.

  Conant, Jennet, 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.

  Conant, Jennet, Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.

  Cunningham, Hilary, ed., Insight Guides: Canada, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995.

  David, Saul, “How Germany Lost the WWI Arms Race,” BBC News, February 16, 2012, http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17011607.

  Dekers Hall of Fame Biographies, located in the concourse of Yost Fieldhouse.

  DeLory, Barbara, Historic Halifax Streetscapes Then and Now, Three Walking Tours, vol. 1, Halifax: New World Publishing, 2016.

  Diamond, Dan, Total Hockey, New York: Total Sports, 1998.

  Dupuis, Michael, Bearing Witness: Journalists, Record Keepers and the 1917 Halifax Explosion, Halifax: Fernwood, 2017.

  Dutil, Patrice, and David MacKenzie, Canada 1911: The Decisive Election that Shaped the Country, Toronto: Dundurn, 2011.

  Flemming, David B., Explosion in Halifax Harbour: The Illustrated Account of a Disaster that Shook the World, Halifax: Formac Publishing, 2004.

  Fingard, J., J. Guildford, and D. Sutherland, Halifax: The First 250 Years, Halifax: Formac Publishing, 1999.

  Fingard, J., The Dark Side of Life in Victorian Halifax, Nova Scotia: Pottersfield Press, 1989.

  Flink, James J., The Automobile Age, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990.

  Flink, James J., The Car Culture, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1975.

  Glasner, Joyce, The Halifax Explosion: Surviving the Blast that Shook a Nation, Canmore, Alberta: Altitude Publishing, 2003.

  Goodchild, P., J. Robert Oppenheimer: Shatterer of Worlds, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981.

  Goodwin, Doris Kearns, The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014.

  Gray, Charlotte, The Promise of Canada: 150 Years—People and Ideas That Have Shaped Our Country, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016.

  Gray, Edwin A., The U-Boat War 1914–1918, London: Leo Cooper, 1994.

  Hadley, M. L., and R. Sarty, Tin Pots and Pirate Ships: Canadian Naval Forces and German Sea Raiders 1880–1918, Montreal: McGill Queens University Press, 1991.

  Helen Kolb Barss letters to her children, Barss family archives.

  Hemingway, Ernest, A Farewell to Arms, New York: Scribner’s, 1957.

  Hemingway, Ernest, A Moveable Feast, New York: Touchstone, 1996.

  Hemingway, Ernest, The Sun Also Rises, New York: Scribner, 1954.

  Hersey, John, Hiroshima, New York: Vintage Books, 1989.

  History Journal, “U-Boats in World War I,” https://historyjournal.org/2012/08/28/u-boats-in-world-war-i/

  Hochschild, Adam, To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914–1918, Boston: Mariner, 2012.

  Hollander, Zander, The Complete Encyclopedia of Hockey, Detroit: Gale Research, 1983.

  Holzman, Morey, and Joseph Nieforth, Deceptions and Doublecross: How the NHL Conquered Hockey, Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2002.

  Jasanoff, Maya, Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World, New York: Vintage Books, 2012.

  Jennings, Peter, and Todd Brewster, The Century, New York: Doubleday, 1998.

  Jobb, D., Crime Wave: Con Men, Rogues, and Scoundrels from Nova Scotia’s Past, Nova Scotia: Pottersfield Press, 1991.

  Joseph Ernest Barrs letters, 1915–1916, Barss family archives.

  Joseph Ernest Barss official military records, Barss family archives.

  Kahn, Edgar A., M.D., Journal of a Neurosurgeon, Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1972.

  Kahn, Edgar A., M.D., “Albert Kahn: His Son Remembers,” Michigan History Magazine, July-August, 1981, pp. 24–31.

  Kazin, Michael, War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914–1918, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017.

  Keegan, John, The First World War, New York: Vintage Books, 1998.

  Keegan, John, The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme, New York: Penguin Books, 1983.

  Keegan, John, A History of Warfare, New York: Vintage Books, 1994.

  Kelly, Cynthia C., Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians, New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc., 2007.

  Kitz, Janet F., Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion and the Road to Recovery, Halifax: Nimbus Publishing Ltd., 1989.

  Kitz, Janet F., Survivors: Children of the Halifax Explosion, Halifax: Nimbus Publishing Ltd., 2000.

  Kitz, Janet F., and Joan Payzant, December 1917: Re-Visiting the Halifax Explosion, Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2006.

  Larabee, Ann, The Dynamite Fiend: The Chilling Tale of A Confederate Spy, Con Artist, and Mass Murderer, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

  Larson, Erik, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, New York: Broadway Books, 2016.

  Larson, Erik, Isaac’s Storm: A Man, A Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History, New York: Crown Publishers, 1999.

  Lord, Walter, A Night to Remember: The Classic Account of the Final Hours of the Titanic, New York: Holt Paperback, 2004.

  Lord, Walter, The Good Years: From 1900 to The First World War, Whitefish: Kessinger Publishing, 2010.

  Louder, Dean, ed., The Heart of French Canada: From Ottawa to Quebec City, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992.

  Lyman, George Hinckley, The Story of the Massachusetts Committee on Public Safety, Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1919.

  MacDonald, Laura M., Curse of the Narrows, New York: Walker and Company, 2005.

  MacKenzie, David, and Patrice Dutil, Canada 1911: The Decisive Election that Shaped the Country, Toronto: Dundurn, 2011.

  MacKenzie, Shelagh, and Scott Robson, eds., Halifax Street Names: An Illustrated Guide, Halifax: Formac Publishing Company, 2002.

  MacMillan, Margaret, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, New York, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2003.

  MacMillan, Margaret, The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914, New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2014.

  MacNeil, Robert, Burden of Desire, New York: Bantam Doubleday Publishing Group, Inc., 1992. />
  MacNeil, Robert, Wordstruck, New York: Penguin, 1990.

  Madej, Bruce, et al., Michigan: Champions of the West, Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing, 1997.

  Mahar, J., and R. Mahar, Too Many to Mourn, Halifax: Nimbus Publishing Ltd., 1998.

  Manchester, William, Winston Spencer Churchill: The Last Lion, New York: Bantam, Doubleday, Dell, 1983.

  March, William, Co. K, Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1933.

  Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, various websites, Halifax, 2000.

  Marwil, Jonathan L., A History of Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI: Ann Arbor Observer Press, 1987.

  Maybee, Janet, Aftershock: The Halifax Explosion and the Persecution of Pilot Francis Mackey, Halifax: Nimbus Publishing Ltd., 2016.

  McCullough, David, The Johnstown Flood, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987.

  Media Guides from the University of Michigan hockey team, 1937–present, plus the 1999–2000 media guides of the University of Minnesota, Boston University, Boston College, and Dartmouth.

  Metson, G., and A. MacMechan, The Halifax Explosion: December 6th, 1917, Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1978.

  Meyers, Mike, Canada, Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2016.

  Millichope, David, Halifax in the Great War, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military, 2015.

  Murray, Florence J., At The Foot of Dragon Hill, New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, Inc., 1975, pp. vii–x.

  National Film Board of Canada, Between Friends/Entre Amis, Ottowa: McClelland and Stewart, 1976.

  Peckham, Howard H., The Making of the University of Michigan: 1817–1992, Ann Arbor: Bentley Library of the University of Michigan, 1994.

  Perry, Will, The Wolverines, Huntsville, AL: Strode Publishers, 1974.

  Prince, Samuel Henry, Catastrophe and Social Change: Based Upon a Sociological Study of the Halifax Disaster, New York: Columbia University, 1920.

  Raddall, Thomas H., In My Time: A Memoir, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1976.

  Raddall, Thomas, H., and Stephen Kimber, Halifax: Warden of the North, updated edition, Halifax: Nimbus Publishing Ltd., 2010.