WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: The Halifax Explosion 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:05.000 Hey, it is Saturday, which means it is time once 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:07.400 again for us to share one of our past episodes 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:10.120 from our podcast archive. And this is one of our 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:13.640 most requested episodes that we already have. It's on the 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:17.680 Halifax explosion. We are coming up on the hundredth anniversary 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.040 of this event, which will take place on December six. 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:25.160 Previous hosts of the show, Sarah and Bablina, tell this story. 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:27.960 One note that comes up from time to time when 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:31.319 we talk about this piece of history. Every year, the 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:34.480 city of Halifax sends the city of Boston a Christmas 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:37.239 tree as thanks for the assistance at the city rendered 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:40.279 in the aftermath of the explosion. There's a lot of 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:43.760 fanfare on both sides of the tree's journey, with its 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:46.320 lighting in Boston taking place as part of a huge 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:49.360 holiday celebration at Boston Common, and there's a bit of 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.320 controversy about it too. There is a whole lot of 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:56.760 marketing and publicity and fanfare involved for Halifax, which makes 0:00:56.760 --> 0:01:00.840 it a pretty expensive gift on Halifax's part. So with 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:08.880 that in mind, here we go Welcome to Stuff You 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:19.400 Missed in History Class from stuff works dot com. Hello, 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:21.959 and welcome to the podcast I'm Debilian chalkerate boarding and 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:25.880 I and every year on December seven, Americans remember the 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:30.160 bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in which was an attack 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:32.760 that killed thousands and launched the U. S into World 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:35.840 War Two. But what many Americans might not know is 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:39.160 that our neighbor to the north, Canada, commemorates a sad 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.600 historical moment of its own just one day before, and 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:46.640 that's the Halifax explosion. And the Halifax explosion, which took 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:50.240 place on December six, nine seventeen, has been called one 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.520 of the worst disasters in Canada's history, one of the 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:58.000 largest man made non nuclear explosions in history ever, and 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.680 the largest man made explosion I or two Hiroshima. So 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:04.560 it's not going to be our most uplifting episode ever, 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:06.600 as you can tell, but it is one of our 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:09.639 most requested and I would say especially in the past year, 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:12.960 I've noticed a huge uptick in request for this topic, 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:17.120 and um certainly as we've approached the anniversary date of 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:21.000 December six as well. But the story of this disaster 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:24.440 starts with two ships which weren't even supposed to be 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:27.680 in Halifax at the same time in the first place, 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:30.680 trying to pass each other in the harbor. And so 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:33.600 we're going to tell you about what happened, what caused 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.080 the explosion, of course, the toll that it took on Halifax, 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:40.560 and the rescue effort that followed too, and then, of course, 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:44.760 because this is World War One, some suspicions kind of 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:48.880 an alternate history that people have thought up um and 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:51.840 assumed had to be the cause of a disaster of 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.600 this magnitude. But first we're going to set the stage 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:56.720 a little bit to help people understand a little bit 0:02:56.720 --> 0:03:00.640 about Halifax at this time during World War One. Some 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:04.840 basic background. Halifax was established as a fortified settlement by 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:07.480 the British in seventeen forty nine, and it had become 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:10.639 the capital of Nova Scotia by nineteen hundred. It had 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.400 served as a garrison city to the British Empire armies, 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.080 but after British forces left in nineteen oh six, it 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.280 needed kind of a new purpose, so the city's port 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:23.280 facilities grew and new factories were developed, turning Halifax into 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:28.400 Nova Scotia's commercial center. Portly makeover. Almost so because of 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:32.680 its port facilities, Halifax became a key player in the 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:35.640 Allied war effort during World War One, even though it 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:39.280 was obviously pretty far removed from the main battlefields in 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:42.760 the war. But when the war started in nineteen fourteen, 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:46.920 Canada had gotten involved, had pledged its support to Great 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:51.360 Britain to resist German aggression, and so the country's factory 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.520 started to produce munitions and other supplies as a way 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:58.080 of also supporting the war, and since it was Canada's 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:01.680 Since Halifax was Canada's may in port on the East Coast, 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.600 it handled tons of shipping during the war, like thousands 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:08.680 of Allied cargo ships that would go through its harbor 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:13.160 before heading on over to Europe. Everything from soldiers to 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:18.760 munitions to food would pass through Halifax's harbor, and because 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:20.479 of its stance in the war and the type of 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:23.080 cargo that was passing through the port, they did have 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:26.479 to take some precautions. According to a History magazine article 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:30.320 by Andrew hynd And, nightly blackout was in effect, for example, 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:33.440 to protect the port from German submarines. There was also 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:36.320 an anti submarine boom, or a kind of net that 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:39.160 was also spread across the entrance of the harbor from 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:42.440 dusk to dawn to restrict access to the harbor. During 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:44.680 the night, and that's going to be pretty crucial to 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:50.120 the story. So the night of December five, nineteen seventeen, 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:53.480 when our story begins, there were two ships that were 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:57.719 unwillingly stuck on either side of this anti submarine boom, 0:04:57.760 --> 0:04:59.960 so one stuck on the outside, one stuck on the inside. 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.359 One was a French freighter called the mont Blanc, and 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:07.200 there was also a Norwegian freighter called the Emo. And 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.560 the fact that these two ships were even there at 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:13.359 the same time was kind of a coincidence, wasn't it. 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:16.200 It was the Emo, under the command of Captain Hawk 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:18.520 and Frome was supposed to be on its way to 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:20.560 New York to pick up a cargo of food for 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:23.760 the Belgian people. He had wanted to sail that afternoon. 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:26.520 The captain did, but according to an article by Jesse 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:29.640 Bradley and Military History, the coal he had ordered for 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:33.080 three pm delivery didn't show up until five thirty, when 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:36.640 the harbor exit was already blocked off. On the other hand, 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:40.320 the mont Blanc, which was commanded by Captain a may Limedic, 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:43.640 was supposed to arrive on the following day, December six, 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:45.760 but it showed up late in the afternoon of December 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.120 five instead, which was too late to make it into 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:50.560 the harbor, but they went ahead and they picked up 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:54.400 a pilot named Francis Mackie, Halifax. Just to explain the 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:57.400 pilot thing, it was a compulsory port, which meant that 0:05:57.600 --> 0:05:59.320 a pilot had to be in charge of any ship 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.560 that was entry and are leaving the harbor. And so 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:04.640 they picked up this pilot, and they had undergone an 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.560 inspection by Canadian naval officer so that they would be 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.159 good to go into the harbor first thing into in 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.680 the morning get on with business. So there's another important 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:17.000 thing to note about the mont Blanc, though the ship's 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.720 cargo might have made some of the crew pretty nervous, 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:24.119 seeing how they were on the wrong side the the 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:28.200 unprotected side of that submarine boom. They had two thousand 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:34.120 three tons of picric acid in the holds, two tons 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:37.520 of t n T and ten tons of gun cotton 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:40.680 between the main and spar decks. And then just just 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:43.560 add to things, because that doesn't sound like enough, thirty 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:47.479 five tons of volatile benzine and drums on the upper deck. 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:51.080 And this combined, of course, made them basically a huge 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:55.440 floating explosive, and according to that History magazine article, to 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:59.400 Blana mentioned having those drums of bensall on the ship's 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:03.000 deck against regulations in the first place. So the ship 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:07.920 was defying regulations by having those kinds of explosives on deck, 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:11.520 but also by not flying a red flag to signal 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.160 that they had munitions on board. There's a reason why 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:15.960 they didn't do it. It was because they were on 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:19.520 the wrong side of that submarine net, and the captain 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.600 didn't want to let every German ship in the area 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.480 or any potential Germans in the area know that he 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.000 was carrying all these munitions and was out there in 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:31.840 the open um for attack. He thought it could turn 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:35.040 them into a target. So the two ships are stuck 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:36.960 where they are for the night, on either end of 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.600 the harbor. Just to explain the harbor a little bit, 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:41.880 because it can be kind of confusing if you can't 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.920 see a picture of it. It's this long inlet. There's 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:48.920 Bedford Basin where the EMO was for the night, and 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.120 that's kind of at the top, and then there was 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:54.440 Halifax Harbor which opens up into the Atlantic, and that's 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.160 kind of at the bottom, and that's where the mont 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:00.720 Blanc was connecting these two anchorage area is is what's 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.520 called the Narrows, and that's a passage that's about a 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:07.400 mile long and only about half a mile wide, so 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:09.800 you really need to follow the rules while traveling it. 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:11.960 I'm imagining it kind of like an hour glass. Is 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:14.360 that correct? I haven't actually seen the map. I mean 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:16.440 I guess that you could sort of related like an 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:18.880 hour glass with one side that's clearly a lot smaller 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:21.520 than the other generally, but a narrow part in between, 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:23.520 a narrow part in between them. Yeah, that's the key 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:25.480 part to remember here is it's kind of like two 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:27.600 areas where you could anchor your ship and then a long, 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.000 narrow part in between that you need to travel to 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:34.080 get a pilot to navigate. And so the captain of 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:36.520 the Emo, he was not at all happy about the 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:39.040 situation about being stuck for the night. He was really 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:42.240 anxious to get going, but his pilot, William Hayes, had 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:44.079 agreed to spend the night on board so that they 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:46.679 could get going first thing in the morning. The guys 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:48.600 on the moll Blank kind of had the same idea. 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:52.120 A little after seven thirty am, they raised their anchor 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.199 and they started traveling northward towards the Narrows and an 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:58.319 inbound lane traveling at a speed of about four knots. 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:01.560 And then a little after eight am, the EMO entered 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:04.440 the north end of the Narrows, heading southward at about 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.000 seven knots, even though you weren't supposed to go faster 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.840 than five knots in the harbor. So they're speeding along, 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:13.760 I guess trying to make up for lost time, and 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:15.640 I mean the captain of the EMO was just in 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.480 a real hurry. Some sources suggest that the ship didn't 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:21.120 even have official permission to depart when it took off. 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.400 They were just going to get going, but the ships 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:26.200 were still a mile apart at this point when they're 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:30.440 first entering the channel, traveling toward each other, and while 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.600 it was barreling down the narrows, though, the EMO ran 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:38.640 into some unexpected traffic changes. There was an American freighter 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.240 that wanted to pass the EMO on the wrong side, 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.720 but the ship signaled to each other. They worked out 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:46.480 how they were going to approach this and they were 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:51.240 able to make the pass safely. However, this past put 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:55.160 the EMO in the wrong lane and on a collision course. Therefore, 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:58.520 with the mont Block. So Mackie, who was the pilot 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:01.480 of the mont Blanc, saw all the email change course, 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:03.520 and at first he wasn't too worried, you know, they 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:06.360 had enough time to to correct it to be safe, 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:09.640 and he founded one siren signal to indicate that his 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:13.120 ship would stay to the starboard side, but the EMO 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:16.600 answered with two sirens to say that it was going 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:20.200 to steer to port, which would cause the ships to collide. 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:23.480 So kind of mixed signals here and no agreement about 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.360 how to proceed, and after that it was really just 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.720 mass confusion. They signaled to each other again, but they 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:32.720 couldn't work it out. Mackie tried to stop the engine, 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:36.720 but of course slowing down and certainly stopping a big 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:40.120 ship like that isn't very easy. And then finally Mackie 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:42.920 tried to pull the ship to the left to just 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:46.079 give the EMO room to pass by, but it was 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.280 too late at that point. A little after eight thirty am, 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.360 the EMO slammed into the mont Blanc and opened up 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:56.320 a wedge of about three meters deep. Containers of benzine 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:59.640 and picric acid smashed upon impact, and then as the 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:03.360 ship drifted apart, sparks from that grinding steel of the 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:07.800 ships started a fire, so Captain Limadeck saw the riding 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:10.640 on the wall immediately and ordered his crew to abandon ship. 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.720 They all jumped into lifeboats and road just as fast 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:15.760 as they could over to the shore and took cover 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.440 in the nearby woods. But they were basically the only 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.840 ones who knew how dangerous the contents of the ship were. 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:24.640 So of course, because the ship was not flying that 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:28.000 telltale red flag, a lot of people who weren't part 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.640 of the crew didn't realize how severe the situation was, 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:34.640 that it didn't just involve the two ships involved in 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:37.920 the men on board. So hundreds of people had stopped 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.440 what they were doing, and we're just gawking at this 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:44.040 ship on fire with a huge column of smoke above it, 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:47.680 And the docks started to fill up with spectators, and 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:52.120 trams started to slow down and allow passengers to check 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.720 out the situation rubber Neck a little bit, and people 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.040 were gathered even at the windows of their homes and 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:02.320 office buildings and um watching from far off factory roofs 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:06.280 to just see what disaster was occurring down in the harbor. 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:09.640 The fire department was alerted and so they sent people 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:12.800 over and a lot of small boats were approaching the 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:15.520 mont Blanc trying to fight the fire as the boat, 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:18.280 as the ship i should say, was drifting across the 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:22.040 channel and eventually stopped at Pier six. And this all 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:25.760 just reminds me of what goes on kind of you know, 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.239 have you ever been one of those tornado warning situations 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:29.840 where people all of a sudden want to like run 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:31.679 out of their houses or stand at the windows and 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:33.559 look at what's about to happen, and you just feel 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:36.760 like it's so bad, like don't watch, just take cover. 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:39.400 It's like one of those moments. But a few people 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:41.240 did have an idea of what was going on, and 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.320 they took action. For example, a train dispatcher at Richmond 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:47.400 Station who had been warned by a sailor stayed at 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:50.040 his post to stop a passenger train from coming into 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:54.719 the area. He sent a telegraph that said, quote stop trains, munition, 0:12:54.760 --> 0:13:06.400 ship on fire making for Pier six, goodbye. So all 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:09.280 of this was going down, all of this gawking and 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.120 trying to get a look at at the disaster, the wreck, 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:14.600 and trying to help and trying to help too. Of course, 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:18.880 when at nine oh six am, the mont Blanc blew 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:23.000 up and the ship was shattered into bits. The blasts scent, 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:26.320 smoke and debrise somewhere from three to five miles into 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.640 the sky, and of course, soon enough all of those 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:32.800 ship fragments came raining down on the north end of 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:37.160 the city, hitting people, hitting buildings. The ship's gun, for example, 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:40.200 landed five point five kilometers away, and it said that 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:43.719 the shock from the explosion was felt as far as 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:48.480 three kilometers away. The harbor bed was split and laid bare, 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:51.679 and the rocks from it were also thrown around. And 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:54.040 when the sea rushed back to fill in that hole 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:56.840 in the harbor bed, it's sent a huge tidal wave 0:13:56.840 --> 0:14:00.400 of inland, which affected people who were st ending there 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:02.600 on the piers watching. I think that's the most striking 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:04.680 image for me to try to imagine, to the harbor 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:08.640 bed just cleared of water, this empty pit and then 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:12.200 was filling back in. Other ships in the harbor were 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.319 destroyed or severely damaged. Of course, the Imo, for example, 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.240 was blown ashore and its captain, the pilot Haze, and 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:22.160 five crewmen were all killed. A split second after that explosion, 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.120 there was also this huge air concussion, a kind of 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:29.560 shock wave that instantly destroyed everything in its path. Buildings 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:33.320 and bridges collapsed, vehicles were thrown around, roads were cracked, 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:38.119 tree snapped. Even buildings that withstood that wave lost their windows, 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:40.920 and some of those buildings still fell when that wreckage 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:43.320 that we mentioned came raining down from the sky. Yeah, 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:46.640 and that wave also killed hundreds of people instantly when 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:49.320 they were hit by the shock wave, and many more 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:52.720 were trapped in the ruins of buildings and became victims 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.760 of the third on slot, which were fires that sprang 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:59.480 up everywhere as results of damaged gas manes and overturned 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:02.720 wood OBEs and kindling in homes. We talked about that 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:05.800 effect of earthquakes and things like that a little bit 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:09.800 in our fire episode of San Francisco Fire. But basically, 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:14.480 this entire district of Halifax called Richmond and some areas 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:18.520 beyond that were completely decimated in just a matter of minutes. 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.920 About two thousand people were dead, nine thousand more were 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:26.320 injured and needed medical treatment, and about two thousand buildings 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:30.280 were really badly damaged, which meant that approximately fifteen thousand 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:34.400 people were now homeless. And that's really a low estimate. 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.600 Because it only counts those people who were found. Yeah, 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:39.640 the death tolls considered by a lot of people to 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:42.960 be too low. Among the dead were the city's fire 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:45.560 chief and the deputy fire chief who had gotten to 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:49.080 Pier six right before the explosion. Two hundred children and 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:52.520 the staff of the city's orphanage, about one hundred students 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:57.040 at Richmond School, sixty nine employees of the Canadian Government Railway, 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.240 including the heroic Vince Coleman that we mentioned and who 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:04.680 sent that telegraph out, and many many others. However, though 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.600 it kind of defies logic, because they were so close 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:11.120 to the situation to start with, Captain Limedeck and Mackie, 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:14.080 who had taken shelter in the woods they survived. Who 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:15.800 would figure that the guys who had been on the 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:19.400 ship with the explosives, who jumped overboard and swam to 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:23.520 the woods would make it. It's really surprising, but the 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:27.720 rescue efforts started almost immediately to to deal with this 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:31.240 um this explosion and the after effects. About thirty minutes 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:34.840 after the explosion is when things started to happen. People 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:37.840 began to dig out the dead and look for survivors. 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:41.600 But remember this is December and it is Nova Scotia, 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:44.920 so their works soon got a lot tougher because a 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:47.440 blizzard started later in the day and I think it 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:49.440 was like with the worst blizzard in the last twenty 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:53.080 perfect timing right. So that was of course bad news 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.560 for all those people who were now homeless, who didn't 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:59.400 have any shelter, and there was also concern about another 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:03.320 potential explosion. All of those fires that had started and 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:06.600 spread since the first explosion were still a very major 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:10.359 threat because they were quickly heading for the powder magazine 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:14.720 at the Wellington Military barracks. This caused quite a bit 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:17.480 of panic. People, even the injured ones, started heading for 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:20.240 higher ground and they were encouraged to by authority, so 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:23.520 they were being sent up. But soldiers were able to 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.280 flood the munitions dump and keep the fire away from it, 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:28.600 so there wasn't a second explosion after all, so it 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:31.320 wasn't quite as bad as they thought it could be. 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:33.320 And that was a really good thing too, because there 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:35.520 were already so many people who were really badly in 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.920 need of doctors, medical supplies, and just places to care 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:42.040 for the injured. Doctors, nurses and supplies started to come 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:45.280 in from other Nova Scotia towns that day, and by 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:47.600 the next day help was coming in from other Canadian 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:51.679 provinces too, and the international response here was really significant 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:54.720 as well. By two thirty that day, the U. S. 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.399 Navy ships the Tacoma and the Von Steuben, on their 0:17:57.400 --> 0:17:59.960 way back from Europe, came into the harbor and met 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:01.960 up with the U. S. S Colony and the U S. 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:05.200 Coast Guard Cutter Moral. They offered up soldiers and marines 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:07.600 to help patrol the area, and they turned the old 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:10.200 Colony into a hospital ship with the U. S. Navy 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:14.000 Docks running it along with some Canadian nurses, and over 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:16.840 the next few days trains full of surgeons, doctors and 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:20.800 nurses and more medical supplies came in from New England again, 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:23.920 though facilities were packed so during this time doctors were 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:26.320 forced to treat people in pretty much every room of 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:31.720 any available hospital, including the kitchens, the corridors, and the closets. 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:35.960 Some treated people on trains or in homes, in doctor's 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:38.920 offices or even drug stores, making do with what they could. 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:42.280 The injuries, too, were really horrific, not the kind of 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:44.000 thing that you would want to be treating on a 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:46.919 train or in somebody's home and um. One of the 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:49.360 reasons why the injuries were so bad was because of 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:52.160 all of that glass and the debris that had been 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:55.199 flying around and hitting people. And will spare you some 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:59.159 of the truly gory details, but eye injuries are often 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:01.840 said to have been the most prevalent. And I mean, 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:03.919 if you if you think about what we mentioned earlier, 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:06.680 all those people running up to their windows to see 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:09.560 the ship on fire and watching and and then getting 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:13.000 faced with that explosion, and a lot of people ultimately 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:17.040 needed to have one or both eyes removed. But besides 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:20.560 medical care, there were other types of relief that were needed. 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:24.560 By the afternoon of the explosion, the Halifax Relief Committee, 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:28.200 which was a volunteer organization, was organized to help find 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.199 ways to shelter the homeless and identify the dead and 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.840 the injured, and construct some sort of temporary housing for 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:38.240 people to live through this blizzard. I mean, how bad 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:41.840 would it be to survive the explosion and then freeze? Kidding? 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:45.200 They also started to manage the donations that came in 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:48.000 from around the world. Millions of dollars came in from 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:51.200 several countries, including Britain of course, and as far away 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:54.520 as Australia. The US also started to send in supplies 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:58.439 like food, clothing, and building materials including glass and the 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:01.199 people who could install it. In the meantime, though, a 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:03.520 lot of the homeless had to stay intense in that 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:15.879 brutal cold weather. So on December thirteenth, nineteen seventeen, the 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:20.719 RAT Commissioners started to investigate the explosion, and according to 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:24.720 the military history article that we mentioned earlier, the chairman 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:28.640 of this commission, Judge Arthur Drysdale, was really anti French 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:30.960 and he felt that the pilot and the captain of 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:35.080 the mont Blanc were quote wholly responsible and um it 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:37.240 did seem like they were going to be held responsible 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.280 for at least a small aspect of it. Initially, Captain 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:44.960 Limeduck and Francis Mackie were arrested and charged with manslaughter 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:48.200 for causing the death of William Hayes, who was the 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:50.880 pilot of the EMO as we as we mentioned earlier, 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.520 and the charges were eventually dropped and it was ruled 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:57.919 that both the EMO and the mont Blanc were at fault. 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:02.199 That didn't stop people from having other theories about what 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:05.040 really happened. Oh yeah, we've always got some other theories don't, 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:10.120 so some people for some time actually believed that Germany 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:13.160 was behind the explosion. After all, it was during the war, 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:16.040 and if you hadn't witnessed the explosion yourself, that you 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:18.240 can imagine that might be the first thing that comes 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:21.120 to your mind. Some people thought it was a zeppelin 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:24.840 attack or a bombardment from a battle fleet. Still others 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:27.960 later on thought that sabotage was behind this. These people 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:31.000 think that the emo's captain and co pilot were both 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:34.280 murdered by a crew member just before the explosion, allowing 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.360 a German spy to come on board and orchestrate the accident, 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:40.080 but witnesses have said that they saw the captain giving 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:43.560 all the commands. Later though, during an inquiry, some harbor 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:46.520 officers said that they had received calls inquiring about the 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:50.840 movements of the ships, and rumors started again around when 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:54.280 Dr Samuel Prince, who authored a study about the explosion, 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:58.160 a sociological study, said that it could be sabotage. There's 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:00.639 been no definitive proof of this though. These are just 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:04.320 ideas that people had around this time, especially Yeah, So, 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:09.760