100 Catastrophic Disasters by Nigel Cawthorne

Author:Nigel Cawthorne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing Limited

Rescue workers did not arrive on the scene until the morning after the crash

Shipwrecks

Halfiax was Canada’s major wartime port

Halifax 1917

On 6 December 1917, the Norwegian vessel Imo ran into the Mont Blanc, a French freighter loaded with 5,000 tons of explosives, in the harbour at Halifax, Nova Scotia. The collision set off the French ship’s cargo, resulting in an explosion that could be felt over sixty miles away. The blast killed 1,635 people.

Halifax was the home of Canada’s major wartime port, where troops and supplies were loaded for the perilous journey across the Atlantic to England. In December 1917, it was packed with shipping, which included the cruiser HMS Highflyer and the SS Imo, which had “Belgian Relief” on her sides to emphasise her neutrality to U-boats and was on her way to New York to load relief supplies for Belgium.

The previous evening, the Mont Blanc had arrived from New York, where she was loaded with a cocktail of explosives and volatile material. The ship had her holds lined with wood held together with non-sparking copper nails. However, she remained a hazard as too many volatile cargoes had been mixed together. When she entered Halifax, she was carrying 2,300 tons of wet and dry picric acid, used for making lyddite for artillery shells; 200 tons of TNT; 10 tons of gun cotton and drums of Bezol – high octane fuel – stacked on her decks. However, she arrived too late to be let through the anti submarine nets, and had to wait until the next day to enter the harbour.

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