West Street Fire Station, 155–56
whistle signals, 128–29, 130, 134–35
Whitehead, Herbert, 144–45
White House, War of 1812 and, 27
White Star Line, 36, 107
Wilbrand, Joseph, 110
Willis & Bates, Halifax, 58
Wilson, Woodrow, 44, 96–98, 285
Witt, Major de, 219
Wolfville, Nova Scotia
Barss family settles in, 50
Barss on needing recruits from, 62, 67, 68
Barss takes his family to, 365
Great War news in, 53
Wood, John Taylor, 29, 30
Wood, S. T., 30
Woollams, Richard, 133
Work or fight law (U.S., 1917), 98
World War I. See Great War
World War II, 350, 366. See also atomic bomb
Wournell, Sandy, 188, 283
Wreck Commissioner’s Inquiry, 315, 316, 317–18
Wright, George, 38, 60
Wyatt, F. Evan
early life, 70–71
as Halifax Harbor chief examining officer, 13, 71–72
harbour gates ordered closed by, 14, 119–20
harbour pilot shortage and, 73–74
knowledge of Mont-Blanc cargo, 115, 127
night before explosion and, 120
safety concerns, 74
unaware of Imo’s departure time, 119
Wreck Commissioner’s Inquiry and, 317–18
YMCA, Halifax, 38, 59–60, 248, 263, 321
York Redoubt, British fort at, 22
Yost, Fielding, 363–64
Ypres, First Battle of (1914), 46–47
Ypres, Second Battle of (1915), 47–48, 49, 52
Ypres, Third Battle of (1917), 116
Zimmerman, Arthur, telegram, 97
Photos Section
View of Halifax and its harbor as it would have looked on the morning of December 6, 1917. (Library of Congress)
The North Halifax neighborhood of Richmond before the blast. “Here dwelt the artisan, the railroad man, the independent man of moderate means, the home maker, the man of enterprise building the city’s newer part.” (Nova Scotia Archives)
After launching a promising career with Imperial Oil in Montreal, Joseph Barss (center) quit to join the legendary Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry and fight in the Great War—against his parents’ wishes. (Barss family)
The Battle of Mont Sorrel, June 1916, where Barss was wounded while manning a machine gun. On June 2, during some of the war’s worst fighting, a German shell exploded near Barss, injuring his spine, paralyzing his foot, and giving him shell shock. (Archives Canada)
Barss recovering from his wounds at a military hospital, where he spent six months in a body cast. His doctors said he would never walk without a cane again, but he was determined to prove them wrong. (Barss family)
Barbara Orr’s family had just moved into a new home. When she saw Mont-Blanc burning, she knew, “Something awful is going to happen.” (Barbara Orr and Janet Kitz)
On their walk to school, James and Gordon Pattison took a detour to Pier 6 to watch Mont-Blanc burn. After the blast, they couldn’t find their younger brother. (James Pattison and Barbara Orr)
After the collision between Mont-Blanc and Imo, train dispatcher Vincent Coleman returned to his post to send an urgent telegraph: “Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbour . . . will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye, boys.” (PANS)
The only thing Noble Driscoll liked more than going to the movies was watching the endless parade of warships go past their home in Richmond. The explosion threw him back about a quarter-mile. Driscoll is front row, center, in this class photo. (Maritime Museum of the Atlantic)
Undated photos of the French freighter Mont-Blanc, which was old, poorly maintained, and slow by the time it was pressed into service during the war. In November 1917, in Gravesend Bay, New York, it loaded six million pounds of high explosives to deliver to the trenches across the Atlantic. (Alain Croce; MMA)
As the Chief Examining Officer of Halifax Harbour, F. Evan Wyatt warned, “It is not possible to regulate the traffic in the harbor, and it is submitted that I cannot in this regard accept the responsibility for any accident occurring.” (Original photograph provided by Janet Maybee and the Mackey family)
Crewmen of Mont-Blanc in detention after the blast. (MMA)
Francis Mackey, forty-five, could earn $1,000 a month as one of Halifax’s fourteen harbor pilots. He had a spotless twenty-four-year record until he boarded Mont-Blanc. (Courtesy of Joel Zemel)
The Great Halifax Explosion, as captured by Royal Navy Lt. Victor Magnus. (Ann Foreman)
At 9:04:35 a.m., the explosives on Mont-Blanc finally erupted. The center shot up to 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and shot outward at 3,400 mph, creating a mushroom cloud that could be seen for miles. (NSA)
Contemporary map of the explosion’s epicenter. (Royal Society of Canada)
The harbor minutes after the blast, while smoke still hung in the air. (NSA)
SS Imo, the Belgian relief vessel that collided with Mont-Blanc, setting in motion the explosion. The blast created a ground wave, an air wave, and a 35-foot tsunami that sent the 5,000-ton Imo across the Narrows, where it beached in the shallows of Dartmouth. (MMA)
Panoramic view of the destruction. (NSA)
The explosion wiped out 325 acres in one-fifteenth of a second, obliterating the Richmond neighborhood and leaving 25,000 people—almost half the city—homeless. (City of Toronto Archives)
While Mont-Blanc burned, Richmond School Principal Huggins let his eleven-year-old daughter Merle go ahead to the school. A few minutes later, the building was demolished. (MMA)
“I saw some terrible scenes of desolation and ruin at the [Western] Front,” Barss said, “but never, even in that old hard-hammered City of Ypres, did I ever see anything so absolutely complete.” (City of Toronto Archives)
Headlines of December 7, 1917.
December 6 telegram noting loss of communication with Halifax. (Library and Archives Canada)
A local clock that forever stopped at the moment of the blast. (MMA)
The night after the explosion, the worst blizzard in a decade hit Halifax, dumping 16 inches of snow with 45 mph winds, making relief and recovery harder—except preserving bodies. (MMA)
The Richmond neighborhood was officially renamed, “The Devastated Area,” with official passes for residents to check on their homes and relatives. Soldiers had authority to arrest or shoot looters. (NSA; MMA)
Officials decided to bury ninety-five unidentified bodies at a mass funeral for December 17, 1917—the first of many. (NSA)
The explosion created thousands of orphans, many wounded themselves. Families from around the world offered new homes. (MMA)
A young survivor of the blast.
Medical relief workers, likely including some from the Harvard medical team, upon their arrival into Halifax. (International Film Service/NSA)
About an hour after the blast, word spread that another explosion was coming (either from the explosives in Wellington Barracks, or the Germans), sending thousands of victims to North Commons. The threat was false, but the panic was real, and cost more lives. (Canadian Red Cross)
After the support from Massachusetts, the city of Halifax passed a formal resolution to thank the state.
Boston doctors stand in front of Bellevue, which they converted to a hospital within hours. Canadian Premier Robert Borden exclaimed, “The hospital is a triumph of organization ability!” (NSA)
Within two hours, Massachusetts Governor Samuel W. McCall (in bowler hat) telegrammed Halifax: “Massachusetts ready to go the limit.” They gave doctors, nurses, money, even housing—and named it for him. (NSA)
A 1919 poster proclaimed, “As though over night . . . A new city has risen out of the ashes of the old. We rub our eyes and look again—but the vision does not fade.” (NSA)
After witne
ssing so much tragedy, Barss decided to become a doctor. While in medical school, he married Helen Kolb and started the University of Michigan’s hockey program. (Lora Durkee/T. J. Garske)
The Halifax Memorial Explosion Bell Tower.
Barbara Orr had her parents’ and siblings’ names engraved on a bell. When they dedicated the church, Barbara was asked to play the bells, but was afraid to make a mistake. She played anyway—and it was beautiful. (Dennis Jarvis; MMA)
A view of Halifax and its harbor today. (Tony Webster)
About the Author
JOHN U. BACON is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including Three and Out; Fourth and Long; and Endzone. He appears often on NPR and national television, and teaches at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and the University of Michigan. He lives in Ann Arbor with his wife and son.
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Credits
Cover design by Owen Corrigan Case
Cover photographs: © plainpicture/Lohfink (waves); Tom Wood / Alamy Stock Photo (fireball)
Copyright
THE GREAT HALIFAX EXPLOSION. Copyright © 2017 by John U. Bacon LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-266653-6 (hardcover)
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EPub Edition November 2017 ISBN 978-0-06-266655-0
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