Description:

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.

Publlished Nov 2023