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On the morning of December 6, 1917, ships and boats were in constant movement in Halifax Harbour. The First World War was in its fourth year and Halifax, the closest mainland North American naval port to Europe, was feeling its effect. At 8:45 A.M., the SS Mont-Blanc and the SS Imo collided. Minutes later, a powerful explosion devastated the city. Not only were homes and businesses devastated and civilians killed; when the explosion occurred, there were roughly two hundred vessels in the harbour, from warships to fishing schooners, coming and going with people and goods that had to get to Europe to support the war. Some were destroyed, ending up at the bottom of the harbour. Of the nearly two thousand people who lost their lives that day, hundreds were sailors and others associated with those ships. Using primary historical records and drawing on the author's personal experience of more than twelve hundred dives in Halifax Harbour, The Dangerous Harbour: Revealing the Unknown Ships and Wrecks of the Halifax Explosion examines who was on the harbour that day and what became of the vessels in the vicinity of the explosion. With twenty black-and-white images, including many underwater photos, The Dangerous Harbour examines what happened to those ships and sailors and explores what actually happened on the day of the Halifax Explosion—and why.

Catastrophe weaves together compelling stories and potent lessons learned from the calamitous Halifax explosion—the worst non-natural disaster in North America before 9/11. On December 6, 1917, the Canadian city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was shattered when volatile cargo on the SS Mont-Blanc freighter exploded in the bustling wartime harbour. More than nineteen hundred people were killed and nine thousand injured. Across more than two square kilometres some 1200 homes, factories, schools and churches were obliterated or heavily damaged. Written from a scholarly perspective but in a journalistic style accessible to the general reader, this book explores how the explosion influenced later emergency planning and disaster theory. Rich in firsthand accounts gathered in decades of research in Canada, the US, the UK, France and Norway, the book examines the disaster from all angles. It delivers an inspiring message: the women and men at “ground zero” responded speedily, courageously, and effectively, fighting fires, rescuing the injured, and sheltering the homeless. The book also shows that the generous assistance that later came from central Canada and the US also brought some unhelpful intrusions by outside authorities. Unable to imagine the horror of the initial crisis, they ignored or even vilified a number of the first responders. This book will be of particular interest to disaster researchers and emergency planners along with journalists, and scholars of history, Maritime studies, and Canadian studies.

Eric Davidson was a beautiful, fair-haired toddler when the Halifax Explosion struck, killing almost 2,000 people and seriously injuring thousands of others. Eric lost both eyes—a tragedy that his mother never fully recovered from. Eric, however, was positive and energetic. He also developed a fascination with cars and how they worked, and he later decided, against all likelihood, to become a mechanic. Assisted by his brothers who read to him from manuals, he worked hard, passed examinations, and carved out a decades-long career. Once the subject of a National Film Board documentary, Eric Davidson was, until his death, a much-admired figure in Halifax.

NATIONAL BESTSELLERThe'riveting'(National Post) tick-tock account of the largest manmade explosion in history prior to the atomic bomb, and the equally astonishing tales of survival and heroism that emerged from the ashes“Enthralling.... Gripping.... A captivating and emotionally investing journey.” —Pittsburgh Post-GazetteAfter steaming out of New York City on December 1, 1917, laden with a staggering three thousand tons of TNT and other explosives, the munitions ship Mont-Blanc fought its way up the Atlantic coast, through waters prowled by enemy U-boats. As it approached the lively port city of Halifax, Mont-Blanc's deadly cargo erupted with the force of 2.9 kilotons of TNT—the most powerful explosion ever visited on a human population, save for HIroshima and Nagasaki. Mont-Blanc was vaporized in one fifteenth of a second; a shockwave leveled the surrounding city. Next came a thirty-five-foot tsunami. Most astounding of all, however, were the incredible tales of survival and heroism that soon emerged from the rubble.This is the unforgettable story told in John U. Bacon's The Great Halifax Explosion: a ticktock account of fateful decisions that led to doom, the human faces of the blast's 11,000 casualties, and the equally moving individual stories of those who lived and selflessly threw themselves into urgent rescue work that saved thousands.The shocking scale of the disaster stunned the world, dominating global headlines even amid the calamity of the First World War. Hours after the blast, Boston sent trains and ships filled with doctors, medicine, and money. The explosion would revolutionize pediatric medicine; transform U.S.-Canadian relations; and provide physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who studied the Halifax explosion closely when developing the atomic bomb, with history's only real-world case study demonstrating the lethal power of a weapon of mass destruction.Mesmerizing and inspiring, Bacon's deeply-researched narrative brings to life the tragedy, bravery, and surprising afterlife of one of the most dramatic events of modern times.

A century ago, governments buoyed by Progressive Era–beliefs began to assume greater responsibility for protecting and rescuing citizens. Yet the aftermath of two disasters in the United States–Canada borderlands--the Salem Fire of 1914 and the Halifax Explosion of 1917--saw working class survivors instead turn to friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family members for succor and aid. Both official and unofficial responses, meanwhile, showed how the United States and Canada were linked by experts, workers, and money. In Disaster Citizenship, Jacob A. C. Remes draws on histories of the Salem and Halifax events to explore the institutions--both formal and informal--that ordinary people relied upon in times of crisis. He explores patterns and traditions of self-help, informal order, and solidarity and details how people adapted these traditions when necessary. Yet, as he shows, these methods--though often quick and effective--remained illegible to reformers. Indeed, soldiers, social workers, and reformers wielding extraordinary emergency powers challenged these grassroots practices to impose progressive'solutions'on what they wrongly imagined to be a fractured social landscape.

On December 6, 1917, harbour pilot Francis Mackey was guiding Mont Blanc, a French munitions ship, into Bedford Basin to join a convoy across the Atlantic when it was rammed by Belgian Relief vessel Imo. The resulting massive explosion destroyed Halifax's north end and left at least two thousand people dead, including pilot William Hayes aboard Imo. Who was to blame? Federal government and naval officials found in Pilot Mackey a convenient target for public anger. Charged with manslaughter, he was imprisoned, villainized in the press, and denied his pilot's license even after the charges were dropped. A century later he is still unfairly linked to the tragedy. Through interviews with Mackey's relatives, transcripts, letters, and newly exposed government documents, author Janet Maybee explores the circumstances leading up to the Halifax Explosion, the question of fault, and the impact on the pilot and his family of the unjust, deliberate persecution that followed.

On Thursday, December 6th 1917, a French freighter loaded with over 2,500 tons of high explosives collided with another vessel in the harbour of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and caught fire. At exactly 9.06am she blew up. The explosions, which was seen and heard fifty-two miles away, unleashed a man-made destructive force unequalled in power until the first atomic bomb. It levelled the Halifax waterfront, wiped out a square mile of the city from the face of the earth and sent an enormous wave crashing over the piers to tear ocean-going ships from their moorings. The Town That Died tells in full the whole story of this appalling disaster, which led to thousands of deaths and injuries while the homeless numbered in tens of thousands. Set against the background of the lives of many of the people involved, it tells exactly what happened on that morning, of the cruel twist of fate that meant it was impossible to rescue many of the people trapped in their burning homes and the bitter legal battle that was fought to establish who was to blame for the catastrophe. Michael Bird spent over a year researching this book, travelling over 7,000 miles to piece together the incredible story by interviewing survivors, discovering contemporary letters, diaries and newspapers and official documents and reports that had not been previously available. There is much that will shock in this study of human behaviour at a time when men and women were tested to breaking point. Predominantly, this is the story of the great courage, endurance and self-sacrifice shown by thousands of ordinary people when they found themselves caught up in the horror of The Town That Died.