A relief ship had arrived in Halifax Harbor that morning. The "Imo" was a Norwegian 4 mast steamer. The ship weighed in around 5000 tons and was 420 feet long by 45 feed wide. The "Imo" was originally the Runic, which was a passenger ship for the company called the White Star Line. The ship was mastered by Captain Haakon, and that day, pilot William Hayes was steering the massive ship through the narrows of the harbor.
The "Mont Blanc" was a French freighter. It was built 17 years before this day. The ship was considerably smaller than the Imo, with a weight of around 3000 tons. Captain Le Medec had brought the ship to the harbor the day before and Francis Mackey was piloting her at the time. The French vessel was 320 feet long, 44 feet wide, 15 feet deep, and contained enough explosives to blow up a city with no problems. The "Mont Blanc" was carrying 200 tons of TNT, 61 tons of gun cotton in the lower hold, 2300 tons of picric acid, and 35 tons of highly flammable Benzyl which were stored in barrels on the upper deck(the same fuel that ignited the rest of the fire to change history). Nobody but the crew of the "Mont Blanc" knew that they carried 3000 tons of destruction. At around7:30am, the "Mont Blanc" left the harbor heading to join the convoy of war ship in the Bedford Basin. At around the same time, the Imo crept forward also looking to leave the harbor.
The Imo did not swing towards Halifax, as the "Mont Blanc" had expected, instead it signalled that it was maintaining her course. The "Mont Blanc" saw only one course open to move towards Halifax port through the bows of the "Imo", and thus pass ship towards ship.
Maybe the ships would have passed with out incident, but the Imo signalled "full speed astern", as did the Mont Blanc, realizing it was too late the "Imo" tried reversing its engines, this ended up causing the massive ships bow to swing right, and it smashed into the side of the "Mont Blanc". They barely missed the TNT, but striking the picric acid stored directly beneath the drums of benzol on deck. The impact cut a wedge in the side of the "Mont Blanc" and struck sparks. The crew of the "Mont Blanc" were aware of their cargo amd immediately took off on towards the lifeboats, yelling out warnings that no one heard. They rowed their lifeboats towards Dartmouth, leaving the burning ship to drift towards Halifax which was pushed in that direction by the impact of the "Imo".
The Mont Blanc set towards an un-knowing Halifax pier had brushed against it which quickly set it on fire. Halifax Fire Department responded as quickly as possible and were positioning their fire engines up to the hydrants when the Mont Blanc exploded, creating the biggest man made explosion ever seen before the first nuclear bombs. Over 1900 people were killed instantly. Around 9000 more were injured, many with permanen injuries, such as blown off limbs. Almost 325 acres, just about all of north end Halifax was destroyed.
The "Mont Blanc" was shattered into little pieces that were blasted miles and miles. The barrel of one of her cannons landed three and a half miles away. Also part of her anchor shank that weighed over half a ton flew two miles in the opposite direction. Windows shattered 50 miles away and the shock wave was even felt in Sydney, Cape Breton. Hospitals were not able to cope with all the wounded. There was also a desperate need for housing, and a massive blizzard struck the city the following day, dumping 16 inches of snow over the already broken up city.
With astounding speed relief efforts were already in motion. Money came in from as far away as China and New Zealand. The Canadian government gave $18 million to the city as well the British government almost $5 million, the state of Massachusetts, which donated $750,000 in money and goods and gave volunteer assistance through the Massachusetts-Halifax Relief Committee. To this day, Halifax sends an annual Christmas tree to the city of Boston in gratitude.
The city of Halifax was gradually put back together, though nothing could compare to the lost lives. Within two months over almost 1,500 victims had been buried, some unidentified. A relief committee was set up to provide clothing, money and furniture and this committee existed for almost 60 years. There are still a few survivors of the blast receiving pensions from the relief committee's fund.
Three thousand houses were repaired in the first seven weeks. There were temporary apartments being constructed at the rate of one every hour. 328 houses were repaired and built from cement blocks known as hydrostones and they had modern plumbing and electricity. The area still known today as the Hydrostone, is considered one of the more attractive and desirable parts of Halifax in which to live. Its seventyseven years later and there are some but few survivors left to tell their stories. But Halifax has not forgotten because on every Dec. 6 at 9am there is a service by the memorial bells at Fort Needham.
