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                             _Views of the
                          Halifax Catastrophe_
                      Showing Effects of Explosion
                        _December Sixth ❧ 1917_

 H. H. MARSHALL Ltd., Publishers’ Agents
            Sole Distributers
       Halifax,                 Canada

                                PUBLISHED BY ROYAL PRINT & LITHO Limited
                                            HALIFAX, Canada




                       _The Halifax Catastrophe_


                ¶ Forty Views—showing extent of damage
                in Canada’s historic city as the result
                of terrific explosion on Thursday,
                December 6th, 1917, which killed 1500
                men, women and children; injured 3000
                and rendered 6000 homeless; causing
                property damage of nearly $50,000,000

                                      Issued by ROYAL PRINT & LITHO LTD.
                                                HALIFAX, CANADA

 Copyrighted 1917




                              INTRODUCTION


Thursday, December sixth, 1917, will be ever memorable as the date of
the great disaster which, with catastrophic suddenness, burst upon the
beautiful and old historic city of Halifax, causing widespread
destruction, death and desolation, the magnitude of which finds no
parallel in our history. The fateful morning dawned both fine and fair,
and the normal activities of the busy city were set in motion for the
day. No one dreamed that in the magnificent harbor of Halifax the
opening scene in a terrible drama of tragedy was already staged.

Proceeding up the harbor, and making for Bedford Basin, was the French
steamer “Mont Blanc,” carrying a deck cargo of benzine and an under
cargo of some three thousand tons of nitro-glycerine, and the world’s
most powerful explosive, “T. N. T.” Leaving the upper harbor and
steaming at slow speed was the Norwegian steamer “Imo,” with a cargo of
relief for the war sufferers of Belgium. Slowly the two vessels
approached each other; nearer and nearer they drew, reaching the Narrows
between the harbor and Bedford Basin, at which point they should have
passed. Then happened the inexplicable—save for the fatal phrase
“Someone had blundered”! The Norwegian vessel collided with the “Mont
Blanc,” and almost immediately her deck cargo of benzine caught fire and
a few minutes later, at five minutes past nine to be exact, the three
thousand tons of high explosives aboard exploded with a dull
reverberating roar and a crash that defies description. In a second of
time it was as though a fierce tornado had swept the City. The whole
North End, practically two square miles of territory, became a burning
ruin. A considerable section of the water front was completely
shattered, and all over the city, public buildings and private dwellings
were wrecked, and not a window remained anywhere intact.

The preponderating magnitude of the calamity can be somewhat realized by
the terrible toll of dead and wounded. The casualties were truly
appalling—1,200 dead, 2,000 or more wounded, and 6,000 rendered
homeless. Property damage was estimated to be between Forty and Fifty
Million Dollars.

The scenes following the great convulsion are utterly beyond the power
of language to describe. Chaos reigned supreme, and our vocabulary fails
to depict the heart-rending scenes witnessed on the streets and in the
hastily improvised hospitals and morgues. Gallant acts of amazing
heroism are recorded, and Halifax will never fully know all she owes to
the military and naval forces stationed in the city for their
magnificent services, so promptly rendered in the hour of her dire
disaster.

No sooner had the appalling news flashed across the cables than messages
of sympathy and offers of practical aid poured in from all parts of the
Dominion and the U. S. A. The local Relief Committee was inspired and
heartened by the prompt despatch from Boston of a special relief train,
bringing a corps of doctors, surgeons, and Red Cross nurses with full
equipment, under the direction of Hon. A. C. Ratchesky, the personal
representative of Governor McCall of Massachusetts. Premier Borden
arrived in Halifax on Friday morning, and issued the following statement
expressive of the keen appreciation which all Canada felt at the
magnanimous assistance of the American people:

  “The people of Canada are profoundly grateful for the generous
  sympathy of the people of the United States in the terrible disaster
  which has overtaken the City of Halifax, and they most deeply
  appreciate the splendid aid which has been offered and sent from so
  many communities of our great kindred nation.”

In an incredibly short space of time, considering the tremendous nature
of the calamity, confusion took on the semblance of order, and the eager
hands of willing citizens were busily engaged under the direction of
committees in ministering to the maimed and injured, reverent burial of
the untimely dead, catering for the hungry and providing for the
thousands rendered destitute and homeless through the sudden stroke of
swift catastrophe which has laid the city low.

Not yet, at this hour of writing, has Halifax recovered fully from the
shattering blow of that fateful Thursday, the sixth of December; but
with optimistic fortitude, with courage and with ardor, is already
grappling with the Herculean task of reconstruction; and thus it is that
the gloom of the present is even now radiantly relieved with the gleam
of a splendid vision—The Greater Halifax of Tomorrow. Surely here is
ample evidence that there is something in man, frail and human as he is,
which nevertheless defies and rises above catastrophe.

                                                          HAROLD T. ROE.

 Halifax, December 14th, 1917.

[Illustration:

  This picture was taken at the corner of Queen and Green Streets, three
    miles from the scene of the disaster, a few minutes after the
    explosion, and shows the cloud of smoke from the explosion.
]

[Illustration:

  This picture shows another view of the cloud of smoke from the
    explosion. This smoke cloud swept over the north end of the city and
    was visible in all sections of Halifax for more than a quarter of an
    hour.

  By courtesy of G. V. D. V.
]

[Illustration:

  In one brief minute this home was smashed to atoms. Furniture and
    bathtub can be seen mixed up in the debris.
]

[Illustration:

  This view is looking down on the roof of North Street Station and
    shows how that building was battered up.
]

[Illustration:

  This is an interior view of North Street Station after the explosion
    showing the roof smashed in and wreckage trains carrying debris
    away.
]

[Illustration:

  All that is left of St. Joseph’s Church.
]

[Illustration:

  Ruins at Richmond. This picture was taken shortly after the explosion.
]

[Illustration:

  All that is left of a residential section in the North End.
]

[Illustration:

  The havoc wrought among stores and homes on Gottingen Street.
]

[Illustration:

  This is a view of Roome Street School in the heart of the devastated
    area. As can be seen this building was completely wrecked.
]

[Illustration:

  Crowds swarming into Chebucto Road School to identify the dead.
]

[Illustration:

  This is a view of the new Alexander McKay School. It now resembles a
    shell-torn building in Flanders.
]

[Illustration:

  Crashing chimneys fell on the sick and dying and added to the awful
    horror of the explosion.
]

[Illustration:

  Motor lorries conveying the wounded to the new Military Hospital on
    Camp Hill.
]

[Illustration:

  This picture shows wreckage of Fire Chief Condon’s automobile after
    the explosion.
]

[Illustration:

  This picture shows the post office and customs house before the
    explosion. Although these buildings are located two miles from the
    scene of the explosion, they were more or less damaged.
]

[Illustration:

  A view of the wrecked St. Joseph’s School, with the ruins of St.
    Joseph’s Church showing in the rear.
]

[Illustration:

  Searching for bodies in the basement of a school.
]

[Illustration:

  The effect of the explosion on rolling stock and track.
]

[Illustration:

  Coffins piled up in front of Chebucto Road School at the funeral of
    nearly 100 unidentified dead.
]

[Illustration:

  Homeless people of the North End were forced to spend the night in
    canvas tents.
]

[Illustration:

  So terrific was the explosion that horses were torn from their waggons
    and instantly killed.
]

[Illustration:

  This is a scene at Richmond and shows how completely the buildings in
    that section were demolished.
]

[Illustration:

  All that remains of several large buildings in the devastated area,
    where the full force of the explosion was felt.
]

[Illustration:

  This is a picture of Clayton & Sons, Clothing Manufacturers’ block on
    Barrington Street, one of the largest buildings in the city.
    Practically every pane of glass in this building was shattered.
]

[Illustration:

  This is an interior view of the tailoring department of Clayton and
    Sons. This picture was taken after the blizzard of Friday and shows
    the snow piled up on the tables and the damage to the stock by the
    storm.
]

[Illustration:

  Rows of unidentified dead in the basement of Chebucto Road School.
]

[Illustration:

  Amid the Blinding Blizzard of Friday many found shelter in rows of
    canvas tents.
]

[Illustration:

  Wreckage of homes in the devastated area.
]

[Illustration:

  This shows how completely the train entrance to North Street Station
    was wrecked. The whole roof was swept away.
]

[Illustration:

  THE HOME OF THE HALIFAX HERALD AND THE EVENING MAIL AFTER THE
    EXPLOSION. The Herald building is situated more than two miles from
    the scene of the disaster, and so great was the explosion that every
    pane of glass in the building was shattered. On the north and west
    sides (not shown in the picture) the greatest damage was caused,
    frames and glass being blown in on the presses and other parts of
    the plant.
]

[Illustration:

  The motor fire engine “Patricia” as she appeared when purchased by the
    City of Halifax a few years ago.
]

[Illustration:

  The motor fire engine “Patricia” as she appeared after the explosion.
]

[Illustration:

  This house is situated more than a mile from the scene of the
    explosion, but the interior was completely wrecked and the furniture
    was blown out on the street.
]

[Illustration:

  Searching for human lives amid the debris in the devastated Richmond
    section.
]

[Illustration]

[Illustration:

  All that is left of two homes in the Richmond section.
]

[Illustration:

  Oland’s Brewery. This building is a complete wreck and all that
    remains standing is the smoke stack.
]

[Illustration:

  The Protestant Service at Chebucto Mortuary, from which nearly 100
    unidentified dead were buried.
]

[Illustration:

  The Roman Catholic Service at Chebucto Mortuary, from which nearly 100
    unidentified dead were buried.
]




                          TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES


 1. Silently corrected typographical errors.
 2. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
 3. Enclosed underlined font in _underscores_.





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Halifax Catastrophe, by Anonymous

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