WEBVTT - The Halifax Explosion 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:03.760 Welcome to Stuff you missed in History class from how 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:13.720 Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.840 I'm Debilian Choker Boarding and I'm fair. And every year 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:20.880 on December seven, Americans remember the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:25.000 in which was an attack that killed thousands and launched 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.200 the US into World War Two. But what many Americans 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:30.720 might not know is that our neighbor to the north, Canada, 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:34.760 commemorates a sad historical moment of its own just one 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:39.360 day before, and that's the Halifax explosion. And the Halifax explosion, 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:42.919 which took place on December six, nine seventeen, has been 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:46.400 called one of the worst disasters in Canada's history, one 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:50.520 of the largest man made non nuclear explosions in history ever, 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:54.800 and the largest man made explosion prior to Hiroshima. So 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.720 it's not going to be our most uplifting episode ever, 0:00:57.760 --> 0:00:59.720 as you can tell, but it is one of our 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.760 most requested and I would say especially in the past year, 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:06.120 I've noticed a huge uptick in request for this topic, 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:10.320 and um certainly as we've approached the anniversary date of 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:14.120 December six as well. But the story of this disaster 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:17.560 starts with two ships which weren't even supposed to be 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:20.800 in Halifax at the same time in the first place, 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:23.800 trying to pass each other in the harbor. And so 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:26.720 we're going to tell you about what happened, what caused 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:30.200 the explosion, of course, the toll that it took on Halifax, 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:33.679 and the rescue effort that followed too, and then, of course, 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.920 because this is World War One, some suspicions kind of 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:42.000 an alternate history that people have thought up um and 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:44.959 assumed had to be the cause of a disaster of 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:47.840 this magnitude. But first we're gonna set the stage a 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:50.160 little bit to help people understand a little bit about 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:54.800 Halifax at this time during World War One. Some basic background. 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:58.480 Halifax was established as a fortified settlement by the British 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:01.320 in seventeen forty nine and had become the capital of 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.280 Nova Scotia by nineteen hundred. It had served as a 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:07.440 garrison city to the British Empire armies, but after British 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:10.040 forces left in nineteen oh six, it needed kind of 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:13.560 a new purpose, so the city's port facilities grew and 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:17.919 new factories were developed, turning Halifax into Nova Scotia's commercial center. 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:24.079 Portly makeover so because of its port facilities, Halifax became 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:27.560 a key player in the Allied war effort during World 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.440 War One, even though it was obviously pretty far removed 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.720 from the main battlefields in the war. But when the 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:38.240 war started in nineteen fourteen, Canada had gotten involved, had 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:42.360 pledged its support to Great Britain to resist German aggression, 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:46.400 and so the country's factory started to produce munitions and 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:49.520 other supplies as a way of all their supporting the war, 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:53.200 and since it was Canada's Since Halifax was Canada's main 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:57.240 port on the East Coast, it handled tons of shipping 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.360 during the war, like thousands of Allied cargo ships that 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:04.040 would go through its harbor before heading on over to Europe. 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:09.520 Everything from soldiers to munitions to food would pass through 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:12.760 halifax It's harbor, and because of its stance in the 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:14.840 war and the type of cargo that was passing through 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:18.240 the port, they did have to take some precautions. According 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:21.400 to a History magazine article by Andrew hynd And, nightly 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.280 blackout was an effect, for example, to protect the port 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:28.120 from German submarines. There was also an anti submarine boom, 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:30.840 or a kind of net that was also spread across 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:33.520 the entrance of the harbor from dusk to dawn to 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.360 restrict access to the harbor during the night, and that's 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:40.120 going to be pretty crucial to the story. So the 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:44.880 night of December five, nineteen seventeen, when our story begins, 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.960 there were two ships that were unwillingly stuck on either 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:51.520 side of this anti submarine boom, the one stuck on 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:53.960 the outside, one stuck on the inside. One was a 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:57.240 French freighter called the mont Blanc, and there was also 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:01.839 a Norwegian freighter called them And the fact that these 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:04.600 two ships were even there at the same time was 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:07.400 kind of a coincidence, wasn't it. It was the Emo, 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:10.840 under the command of Captain Hawk and Frome was supposed 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:12.520 to be on its way to New York to pick 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:15.240 up a cargo of food for the Belgian people. He 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:17.839 had wanted to sail that afternoon. The captain did, but 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.159 according to an article by Jesse Bradley and Military History, 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:24.360 the coal he'd ordered for three pm delivery didn't show 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.760 up until five thirty, when the harbor exit was already 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:30.680 blocked off. On the other hand, the mont block which 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:34.600 was commanded by Captain a may Limedic, was supposed to 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.320 arrive on the following day, December six, but it showed 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:39.960 up late in the afternoon of December five instead, which 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:42.279 was too late to make it into the harbor. But 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:44.520 they went ahead and they picked up a pilot named 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:48.440 Francis Mackie Halifax. Just to explain the pilot thing, it 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:51.320 was a compulsory port, which meant that a pilot had 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:53.159 to be in charge of any ship that was entring 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:56.920 or leaving the harbor. And so they picked up this pilot, 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.360 and they had undergone an inspection by a Canadian naval 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:01.839 officer so that they would be good to go into 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.039 the harbor first thing into in the morning get on 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:08.120 with business. So there's another important thing to note about 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:11.960 the mont Blanc. Though the ship's cargo might have made 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:15.080 some of the crew pretty nervous, seeing how they were 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:18.839 on the wrong side the the unprotected side of that 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:23.919 submarine boom. They had two thousand three tons of picric 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:27.920 acid in the holds, two tons of t n T 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:31.719 and ten tons of gun cotton between the main and 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:34.640 spar decks. And then just just to add to things, 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.479 because that doesn't sound like enough, thirty five tons of 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:41.560 volatile Benzene and drums on the upper deck, and this 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:45.960 combined of course made them basically a huge floating explosive. 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.360 And according to that History magazine article, to Plana mentioned, 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:53.200 having those drums of Bensall on the ship's deck was 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.400 against regulations in the first place, So the ship was 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:01.039 defying regulations by having those kind of explosives on deck, 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:04.640 but also by not flying a red flag to signal 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.320 that they had munitions on board. There's a reason why 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:09.120 they didn't do it. It was because they were on 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:12.640 the wrong side of that submarine net and the captain 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:16.760 didn't want to let every German ship in the area 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.600 or any potential Germans in the area know that he 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:22.159 was carrying all these munitions and was out there in 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.800 the open um for attack. Yeah, he thought it could 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:27.760 turn them into a target. So the two ships are 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:30.000 stuck where they are for the night, on either end 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:32.719 of the harbor. Just to explain the harbor a little bit, 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:35.000 because it can be kind of confusing if you can't 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:39.080 see a picture of it. It's this long inlet. There's 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.080 Bedford Basin where the EMO was for the night, and 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:44.240 that's kind of at the top, and then there was 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.560 Halifax Harbor, which opens up into the Atlantic, and that's 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.320 kind of at the bottom, and that's where the mont 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:54.080 Blanc was. Connecting these two anchorage areas is what's called 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.920 the Narrows, and that's a passage that's about a mile 0:06:57.040 --> 0:07:00.800 long and only about half a mile y. So you 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.280 really need to follow the rules while traveling. And I'm 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:05.560 imagining it kind of like an hour glass. Is that correct? 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:07.800 I haven't actually seen the map. I mean I guess 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.080 that you could sort of related like an hour glass 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:12.280 with one side that's clearly a lot smaller than the 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.160 other generally, but a narrow part in between, a narrow 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:16.960 part in between them. Yeah, that's the key part to 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:19.200 remember here is it's kind of like two areas where 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:21.119 you could anchor your ship and then a long, narrow 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:23.440 part in between that you need to travel to get 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:27.680 a pilot to navigate. And so the captain of the Emo, 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:30.480 he was not at all happy about the situation about 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:32.720 being stuck for the night. He was really anxious to 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:35.760 get going, but his pilot, William Hayes, had agreed to 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:37.640 spend the night on board so that they could get 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:40.000 going first thing in the morning. The guys on the 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:42.480 monk kind of had the same idea. A little after 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:46.080 seven thirty am, they raised their anchor and they started 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:49.640 traveling northward towards the Narrows and an inbound lane, traveling 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:52.440 at a speed of about four knots. And then a 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:55.400 little after eight am, the EMO entered the north end 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.680 of the Narrows, heading southward at about seven knots, even 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:00.600 though you weren't supposed to go fast sster than five 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:04.440 knots in the harbor, So they're speeding along, I guess 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:07.560 trying to make up for lost time, And I mean 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:09.440 the captain of the EMO was just in a real hurry. 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:12.480 Some sources suggests that the ship didn't even have official 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:14.720 permission to depart when it took off. They were just 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.480 going to get going. But the ships were still a 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:21.640 mile apart at this point when their first entering the channel, 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.560 traveling toward each other, and while it was barreling down 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:30.280 the narrows, though, the EMO ran into some unexpected traffic changes. 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:33.080 There was an American freighter that wanted to pass the 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:36.600 Email on the wrong side, but the ship signaled to 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:38.480 each other. They worked out how they were going to 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:43.000 approach this and they were able to make the pass safely. However, 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:46.720 this pass put the EMO in the wrong lane and 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:50.560 on a collision course therefore with the mont Block. So Mackie, 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:53.280 who was the pilot of the mont Blanc, saw the 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.320 email change course and at first he wasn't too worried, 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:58.760 you know, they had enough time to to correct it 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:01.800 to be safe, and he founded one siren signal to 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:05.320 indicate that his ship would stay to the starboard side, 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:09.280 but the EMO answered with two sirens to say that 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:11.800 it was going to steer to port, which would cause 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:15.440 the ships to collide. So kind of mixed signals here 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:18.800 and no agreement about how to proceed, and after that 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:21.600 it was really just mass confusion. They signaled to each 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:24.720 other again, but they couldn't work it out. Mackie tried 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:28.400 to stop the engine, but of course slowing down and 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.679 certainly stopping a big ship like that isn't very easy. 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.600 And then finally Mackie tried to pull the ship to 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:38.839 the left to just give the EMO room to pass by, 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:40.679 but it was too late at that point. A little 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:44.040 after eight thirty am, the EMO slammed into the mont 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:47.920 Blanc and opened up a wedge of about three meters deep. 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:52.160 Containers of benzine and picric acid smashed upon impact, and 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.800 then as the ships drifted apart, sparks from that grinding 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.840 steel of the ships started a fire. So Captain Limedeck 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:02.480 saw the riding on the wall immediately and ordered his 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.720 crew to abandon ship. They all jumped into lifeboats and 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:07.960 road just as fast as they could over to the 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:10.520 shore and took cover in the nearby woods. But they 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:13.560 were basically the only ones who knew how dangerous the 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.080 contents of the ship were. So of course, because the 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.880 ship was not flying that tell tale red flag, a 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:21.960 lot of people who weren't part of the crew didn't 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:25.440 realize how severe the situation was, that it didn't just 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:28.680 involve the two ships involved in the men on board. 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:31.760 So hundreds of people had stopped what they were doing, 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:35.000 and we're just gawking at this ship on fire with 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:38.400 a huge column of smoke above it, And the docks 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:42.199 started to fill up with spectators, and trams started to 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:46.360 slow down and allow passengers to check out the situation. 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:49.760 Rubber Neck a little bit, and people were gathered even 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:52.600 at the windows of their homes and office buildings and 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:56.240 um watching from far off factory roofs to just see 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:00.240 what disaster was occurring down in the harbor. The fire 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.360 department was alerted and so they sent people over, and 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:06.520 a lot of small boats were approaching the Mont Blanc 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.720 trying to fight the fire as the boat as the ship, 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:12.640 i should say, was drifting across the channel and eventually 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:16.559 stopped at Pier six. And this all just reminds me 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.120 of what goes on kind of you know, have you 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.840 ever been one of those tornado warning situations where people 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:23.199 all of a sudden want to like run out of 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:25.160 their houses or stand at the windows and look at 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:28.120 what's about to happen. You just feel like it's so bad, 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:31.200 like don't watch, just take cover. It's like one of 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:33.319 those moments. But a few people did have an idea 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:36.040 of what was going on and they took action. For example, 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:38.960 a trained dispatcher at Richmond Station who had been warned 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:41.640 by a sailor state at his post to stop a 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:44.480 passenger train from coming into the area. He sent a 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:48.720 telegraph that said, quote stop trains, ammunition ship on fire 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:53.560 making for Pier six, goodbye. So all of this was 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.600 going down, all of this gawking and trying to get 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.199 a look at at the disaster the wreck and try 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:01.520 and help, and try to help too, of course, when 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:05.800 at nine oh six am the mont Blanc blew up 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:09.560 and the ship was shattered into bits. The blast sent 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:12.920 smoke and debrise somewhere from three to five miles into 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.160 the sky, and of course soon enough all of those 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:19.360 ship fragments came raining down on the north end of 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:23.680 the city, hitting people, hitting buildings. The ship's gun, for example, 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:26.760 landed five point five kilometers away, and it said that 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:30.240 the shock from the explosion was felt as far as 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:35.000 three kilometers away. The harbor bed was split and laid bare, 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:38.200 and the rocks from it were also thrown around. And 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:40.600 when the sea rushed back to fill in that hole 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:43.960 in the harbor bed, it's sent a huge tidal wave inland, 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.800 which affected people who were standing there on the piers watching. 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:49.840 I think that's the most striking image for me to 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:52.880 try to imagine, to the harbor bed just cleared of water, 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:57.600 this empty pit and then wosh filling back in. Other 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:00.320 ships in the harbor were destroyed or severely d imaged. 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:02.840 Of course. The Emo, for example, was blown ashore and 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:06.200 its captain, the pilot Haze, and five crewmen were all killed. 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:09.640 A split second after that explosion, there was also this 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:13.880 huge air concussion, a kind of shock wave that instantly 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:17.840 destroyed everything in its path. Buildings and bridges collapsed, vehicles 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:22.000 were thrown around, roads were cracked, tree snapped. Even buildings 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.440 that withstood that wave lost their windows, and some of 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:28.120 those buildings still fell when that wreckage that we mentioned 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:30.720 came raining down face sky. Yeah, and that wave also 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:34.160 killed hundreds of people instantly when they were hit by 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:36.640 the shock wave, and many more were trapped in the 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:40.400 ruins of buildings and became victims of the third onslot, 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.960 which were fires that sprang up everywhere as results of 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:47.800 damaged gas manes and overturned wood stoves and kindling in homes. 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:51.679 We talked about that effect of earthquakes and things like 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:55.199 that a little bit in our fire episodes San Francisco Fire. 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:59.839 But basically, this entire district of Halifax called Richmond and 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:04.120 some areas beyond that were completely decimated in just a 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.640 matter of minutes. About two thousand people were dead, nine 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:11.760 thousand more were injured and needed medical treatment, and about 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.920 two thousand buildings were really badly damage, which meant that 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:19.920 approximately fifteen thousand people were now homeless, and that's really 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:23.200 a low estimate because it only counts those people who 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.680 were found. Yeah, the death tolls considered by a lot 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.560 of people to be too low. Among the dead were 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:31.680 the city's fire chief and the deputy fire chief who 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:34.560 had gotten to Pier six right before the explosion. Two 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.040 hundred children and the staff of the city's orphanage, about 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:41.920 one hundred students at Richmond School, sixty nine employees of 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:46.080 the Canadian Government Railway, including the heroic Vince Coleman that 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:50.600 we mentioned who sent that telegraph out, and many many others. However, 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:53.720 though it kind of defies logic, because they were so 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:57.680 close to the situation to start with, Captain Limaedeck and Mackie, 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:00.600 who had taken shelter in the woods they survived. Who 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:02.320 would figure that the guys who had been on the 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:05.920 ship with the explosives, who jumped overboard and swam to 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:10.080 the woods would make it. It's really surprising, but the 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:14.280 rescue effort started almost immediately to to deal with this 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:17.760 um this explosion and the after effects. About thirty minutes 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:21.360 after the explosion is when things started to happen. People 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.320 began to dig out the dead and look for survivors. 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:28.160 But remember this is December and it is Nova Scotia, 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:31.440 so their works soon got a lot tougher because a 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.200 blizzard started later in the day and it was like 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:37.640 the worst blizzard in the last twenty perfect timing, right, 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:40.160 So that was of course bad news for all those 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:42.800 people who were now homeless, who didn't have any shelter, 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:47.640 and there was also concern about another potential explosion. All 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:50.600 of those fires that had started and spread since the 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.880 first explosion were still a very major threat because they 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:57.960 were quickly heading for the powder magazine at the Wellington 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:02.080 Military Barracks. The caused quite a bit of panic. People, 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:05.040 even the injured ones, started heading for higher ground and 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:07.640 they were encouraged to by authority, so they were being 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:11.080 sent up. But soldiers were able to flood the munitions 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:13.240 dump and keep the fire away from it, so there 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:15.800 wasn't a second explosion after all, so it wasn't quite 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:18.320 as bad as they thought it could be, and that 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:20.320 was a really good thing too, because there were already 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:23.000 so many people who were really badly in need of doctors, 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:26.240 medical supplies, and just places to care for the injured. 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:29.320 Doctors nurses and supplies started to come in from other 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:32.440 Nova Scotia towns that day, and by the next day 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:35.560 help was coming in from other Canadian provinces too, and 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:39.320 the international response here was really significant as well. By 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:42.040 two thirty that day, the U. S. Navy ships the 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:44.920 Tacoma and the von Stoeben, on their way back from Europe, 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.200 came into the harbor and met up with the U. S. 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:49.640 S Colony and the U S. Coast Guard Cutter Moral. 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:52.880 They offered up soldiers and marines to help patrol the area, 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.760 and they turned the old Colony into a hospital ship 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.680 with U. S. Navy docks running it along with some 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:02.120 Canadian nurses, and over the next few days trains full 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:05.560 of surgeons, doctors and nurses and more medical supplies came 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.960 in from New England again, though facilities were packed so 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:11.480 during this time doctors were forced to treat people and 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:15.440 pretty much every room of any available hospital, including the kitchens, 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:20.440 the corridors, and the closets. Some treated people on trains 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:24.040 or in homes, in doctor's offices, or even drug stores, 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:27.320 making do with what they could. The injuries, too, were 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:29.440 really horrific, not the kind of thing that you would 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:32.000 want to be treating on a train or in somebody's home. 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:34.800 And um, one of the reasons why the injuries were 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:37.239 so bad was because of all of that glass and 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:40.600 the debris that had been flying around and hitting people. 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:43.440 And will spare you some of the truly gory details, 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.520 but eye injuries are often said to have been the 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:49.160 most prevalent. And I mean, if you if you think 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:51.720 about what we mentioned earlier, all those people running up 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:54.359 to their windows to see the ship on fire and 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:57.480 watching and and then getting faced with that explosion and 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:00.600 h A lot of people ultimately needed to have one 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:05.200 or both eyes removed. But besides medical care, there were 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:08.000 other types of relief that were needed. By the afternoon 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:11.600 of the explosion, the Halifax Relief Committee, which was a 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:15.520 volunteer organization, was organized to help find ways to shelter 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.520 the homeless, and identify the dead and the injured, and 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:22.960 construct some sort of temporary housing for people to live 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:25.280 through this blizzard. I mean, how bad would it be 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:29.040 to survive the explosion and then freeze? Kidding? They also 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:32.479 started to manage the donations that came in from around 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.520 the world. Millions of dollars came in from several countries, 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.560 including Britain, of course, and as far away as Australia. 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:42.000 The US also started to send in supplies like food, clothing, 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:45.800 and building materials including glass and the people who could 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:48.080 install it. In the meantime, though, a lot of the 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:51.320 homeless had to stay intense and that brutal cold weather. 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:57.400 So on December thirteenth, nineteen seventeen, the ret commissioners started 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.480 to investigate the explosion and the court. In to the 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:04.399 military history article that we mentioned earlier, the chairman of 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:08.320 this commission, Judge Arthur Drysdale, was really anti French and 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:10.639 he felt that the pilot and the captain of the 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:14.840 mont Blanc were quote wholly responsible and um it did 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:17.040 seem like they were going to be held responsible for 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:20.400 at least a small aspect of it. Initially, Captain Limeduck 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:24.720 and Francis Mackie were arrested and charged with manslaughter for 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:28.159 causing the death of William Hayes, who was the pilot 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.000 of the EMO as we as we mentioned earlier, and 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.199 the charges were eventually dropped and it was ruled that 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:37.479 both the EMO and the mont Blanc were at fault. 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:41.720 That didn't stop people from having other theories about what 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:44.280 really happened. Oh yeah, we've always got some other theories, 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:49.240 don't so. Some people for some time actually believed that 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:52.320 Germany was behind the explosion. After all, it was during 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:55.040 the war, and if you hadn't witnessed the explosion yourself, 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:57.160 that you can imagine that might be the first thing 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:59.919 that comes to your mind. Some people thought it was 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.240 a zeppelin attack or a bombardment from a battle fleet. 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:06.720 Still others later on thought that sabotage was behind this. 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:10.119 These people think that the emo's captain and co pilot 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.119 were both murdered by a crew member just before the explosion, 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:16.320 allowing a German spy to come on board and orchestrate 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:18.919 the accident, but witnesses have said that they saw the 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:22.440 captain giving all the commands. Later though, during an inquiry, 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:25.600 some harbor officers said that they had received calls inquiring 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.520 about the movements of the ships, and rumors started again 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:33.080 around when Dr Samuel Prince, who authored a study about 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:37.120 the explosion a sociological study, said that it could be sabotage. 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:40.040 There's been no definitive proof of this, though. These are 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:43.560 just ideas that people had around this time, especially Yeah, 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:49.199 so moving away from conspiracy theory and to rehabilitation and 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:54.320 the reconstruction of Halifax. It obviously took years to rehabilitate 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:56.760 the city and to identify the dead and to help 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:00.480 survivors find their families. And if you visit the website 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:03.000 of the Nova Scotia Archives, they have a whole section 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:08.200 on the Halifax explosion. Actually, since people started recommending this topic, 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:11.040 I've sometimes pointed them to that resoarch because it is 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:15.119 so great, and we follow the Nova Scotia Archives on Twitter. 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:18.880 They're really really nice about any research questions you might have, 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:20.919 so yeah, it's a it's a great place to go 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:24.159 to learn more about the disaster and to see how 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:27.760 Halifax was rebuilt. They have photos of the explosions aftermath 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:29.920 and a film clip that's kind of like a silent 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:34.400 movie that so disturbing too, because it is silent. Yes, 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:36.760 it's a very eerie And there's also a list of 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:39.080 those who died. And what I found to be really 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:42.240 interesting was the first hand accounts from some of the survivors. 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:44.359 So we have part of an example here of a 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:47.119 personal narrative given by a doctor M. J. Burris to 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:51.360 the director of the Halifax disaster Record office at nine o'clock. 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:55.080