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On the morning of 6 December 1917, the French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc and the Norwegian vessel SS Imo collided in the harbour of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Laden with high explosives, Mont-Blanc caught fire and detonated, devastating the Richmond district of Halifax. At least 1,782 people, largely in Halifax and Dartmouth, were killed by the blast, debris, fires, or collapsed buildings, and an estimated 9,000 others were injured. The blast was the largest human-made explosion at the time. Mont-Blanc was under orders from the French government to carry her cargo from New York City via Halifax to Bordeaux, France. At roughly 8:45 am, she collided at low speed, about one knot (1.2 mph; 1.9 km/h), with the unladen Imo, chartered by the Commission for Relief in Belgium to pick up a cargo of relief supplies in New York. On Mont-Blanc, the impact damaged benzol barrels stored on deck, causing them to leak vapours, which were ignited by sparks from the collision, setting off a fire on board that quickly grew out of control. A tsunami created by the blast wiped out a community of Mi'kmaq, who had lived in the Tufts Cove area for generations. Relief efforts began almost immediately, and hospitals quickly became full. Rescue trains began arriving the day of the explosion from across Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, while other trains from central Canada and the Northeastern United States were impeded by blizzards. Construction of temporary shelters to house the many people left homeless began soon after the disaster. The North End of Halifax has several memorials to the victims of the explosion.

Dartmouth lies on the east shore of Halifax Harbour, and Halifax is on the west shore. The completion of the Intercolonial Railway and its Deep Water Terminal in 1880 allowed for increased steamship trade and led to accelerated development of the port area, The British garrison left the city in late 1905 and early 1906, and the Canadian government took over the Halifax Dockyard (now CFB Halifax).

The Halifax Explosion Remembrance Book, an official database of the Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, identified 1,782 victims.

Immediately following the explosion, most of the German survivors in Halifax had been rounded up and imprisoned.

Efforts began shortly after the explosion to clear debris, repair buildings, and establish temporary housing for survivors left homeless by the explosion. The North End Halifax neighbourhood of Richmond bore the brunt of the explosion. After the explosion, the Halifax Relief Commission approached the reconstruction of Richmond as an opportunity to improve and modernize the city's North End.

For instance, in its report on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Time wrote that the explosive power of the Little Boy bomb was seven times that of the Halifax Explosion. Construction began in 1964 on the Halifax North Memorial Library, designed to commemorate the victims of the explosion. The library entrance featured the first monument built to mark the explosion, the Halifax Explosion Memorial Sculpture, created by artist Jordi Bonet. The Halifax Explosion Memorial Bells were built in 1985, relocating memorial carillon bells from a nearby church to a large concrete sculpture on Fort Needham Hill, facing the "ground zero" area of the explosion. A Memorial Book listing the names of all the known victims is displayed at the Halifax North Memorial Library and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which has a large permanent exhibit about the Halifax Explosion. Keith Ross Leckie wrote a miniseries entitled Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion (2003), which took the title but has no relationship to Janet Kitz's non-fiction book Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion and the Road to Recovery (1990). The response to the explosion from Boston and the appreciation in Halifax cemented ongoing warm Boston–Halifax relations.

Quick Facts

• The North End of Halifax has several memorials to the victims of the explosion.
• Keith Ross Leckie wrote a miniseries entitled Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion (2003), which took the title but has no relationship to Janet Kitz's non-fiction book Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion and the Road to Recovery (1990).
• Rescue trains began arriving the day of the explosion from across Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, while other trains from central Canada and the Northeastern United States were impeded by blizzards.
• A Memorial Book listing the names of all the known victims is displayed at the Halifax North Memorial Library and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which has a large permanent exhibit about the Halifax Explosion.
• Dartmouth lies on the east shore of Halifax Harbour, and Halifax is on the west shore.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Halifax Explosion". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.