For those of you who don’t know about it, the Explosion was a devastating event during the War, when the Imo collided with the Mont-Blanc, a munitions ship. The resulting explosion was the largest man-made explosion in history until the advent of the atomic bomb. It leveled a large chunk of the North End of the city, killed 2000 Haligonians, injured 9000 more. Many bodies were never recovered thanks to the 15m tsunami that the explosion generated, washing many bodies into the harbour. The shock wave broke windows in Truro, a town almost 100kms away, and was felt in Cape Breton.
The Mont Blanc’s anchor lies on the other side of the peninsula, over 3kms away from the explosion site.
My mom’s side is from Halifax, my grandfather (rip) was less than a year old at the time. They lived on Herring Cove road and (what is that,…10 miles away?) and it blew out all thier windows facing downtown.
Depending on where on Herring Cove Rd (I live just off Herring Cove Rd in Armdale), it’s at least 3.5 kms from the blast site (the anchor is close to Herring Cove Rd)
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The city of Boston provided much help to our fair city in the aftermath of the Explosion, and in gratitude for this help, Halifax sent a Christmas tree to our good neighbours to the south in 1918, a tradition that was resumed in the '70s and has continued to this day.
The city of Boston provided much help to our fair city in the aftermath of the Explosion, and in gratitude for this help, Halifax sent a Christmas tree to our good neighbours to the south in 1918, a tradition that was resumed in the '70s and has continued to this day.
Thank you Boston.
Perhaps this was a trade? I know we (Halifax) used to run them most of thier booze during prohibition.
The city of Boston provided much help to our fair city in the aftermath of the Explosion, and in gratitude for this help, Halifax sent a Christmas tree to our good neighbours to the south in 1918, a tradition that was resumed in the '70s and has continued to this day.
Thank you Boston.
Perhaps this was a trade? I know we (Halifax) used to run them most of thier booze during prohibition.
We had a book in our house growing up that had stories of the biggest disasters and I remember reading about this then. I didn’t remember that the town took a huge shot as well.
The percentage of the townspeople injured or killed is insane.
Yes, it is crazy how much damage it did to the city.
One in fifty people had some kind of eye injury following the blast. A lot of people were watching the ship burn from inside their homes, behind windows. The blast shattered virtually every window facing it. The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) was formed out of the need to provide support for so many people who lost their sight in the explosion.
