Speaker 1: Hey, it is Saturday, which means it is time once
Speaker 1: again for us to share one of our past episodes
Speaker 1: from our podcast archive. And this is one of our
Speaker 1: most requested episodes that we already have. It's on the
Speaker 1: Halifax explosion. We are coming up on the hundredth anniversary
Speaker 1: of this event, which will take place on December six.
Speaker 1: Previous hosts of the show, Sarah and Bablina, tell this story.
Speaker 1: One note that comes up from time to time when
Speaker 1: we talk about this piece of history. Every year, the
Speaker 1: city of Halifax sends the city of Boston a Christmas
Speaker 1: tree as thanks for the assistance at the city rendered
Speaker 1: in the aftermath of the explosion. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: fanfare on both sides of the tree's journey, with its
Speaker 1: lighting in Boston taking place as part of a huge
Speaker 1: holiday celebration at Boston Common, and there's a bit of
Speaker 1: controversy about it too. There is a whole lot of
Speaker 1: marketing and publicity and fanfare involved for Halifax, which makes
Speaker 1: it a pretty expensive gift on Halifax's part. So with
Speaker 1: that in mind, here we go Welcome to Stuff You
Speaker 1: Missed in History Class from stuff works dot com. Hello,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast I'm Debilian chalkerate boarding and
Speaker 1: I and every year on December seven, Americans remember the
Speaker 1: bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in which was an attack
Speaker 1: that killed thousands and launched the U. S into World
Speaker 1: War Two. But what many Americans might not know is
Speaker 1: that our neighbor to the north, Canada, commemorates a sad
Speaker 1: historical moment of its own just one day before, and
Speaker 1: that's the Halifax explosion. And the Halifax explosion, which took
Speaker 1: place on December six, nine seventeen, has been called one
Speaker 1: of the worst disasters in Canada's history, one of the
Speaker 1: largest man made non nuclear explosions in history ever, and
Speaker 1: the largest man made explosion I or two Hiroshima. So
Speaker 1: it's not going to be our most uplifting episode ever,
Speaker 1: as you can tell, but it is one of our
Speaker 1: most requested and I would say especially in the past year,
Speaker 1: I've noticed a huge uptick in request for this topic,
Speaker 1: and um certainly as we've approached the anniversary date of
Speaker 1: December six as well. But the story of this disaster
Speaker 1: starts with two ships which weren't even supposed to be
Speaker 1: in Halifax at the same time in the first place,
Speaker 1: trying to pass each other in the harbor. And so
Speaker 1: we're going to tell you about what happened, what caused
Speaker 1: the explosion, of course, the toll that it took on Halifax,
Speaker 1: and the rescue effort that followed too, and then, of course,
Speaker 1: because this is World War One, some suspicions kind of
Speaker 1: an alternate history that people have thought up um and
Speaker 1: assumed had to be the cause of a disaster of
Speaker 1: this magnitude. But first we're going to set the stage
Speaker 1: a little bit to help people understand a little bit
Speaker 1: about Halifax at this time during World War One. Some
Speaker 1: basic background. Halifax was established as a fortified settlement by
Speaker 1: the British in seventeen forty nine, and it had become
Speaker 1: the capital of Nova Scotia by nineteen hundred. It had
Speaker 1: served as a garrison city to the British Empire armies,
Speaker 1: but after British forces left in nineteen oh six, it
Speaker 1: needed kind of a new purpose, so the city's port
Speaker 1: facilities grew and new factories were developed, turning Halifax into
Speaker 1: Nova Scotia's commercial center. Portly makeover. Almost so because of
Speaker 1: its port facilities, Halifax became a key player in the
Speaker 1: Allied war effort during World War One, even though it
Speaker 1: was obviously pretty far removed from the main battlefields in
Speaker 1: the war. But when the war started in nineteen fourteen,
Speaker 1: Canada had gotten involved, had pledged its support to Great
Speaker 1: Britain to resist German aggression, and so the country's factory
Speaker 1: started to produce munitions and other supplies as a way
Speaker 1: of also supporting the war, and since it was Canada's
Speaker 1: Since Halifax was Canada's may in port on the East Coast,
Speaker 1: it handled tons of shipping during the war, like thousands
Speaker 1: of Allied cargo ships that would go through its harbor
Speaker 1: before heading on over to Europe. Everything from soldiers to
Speaker 1: munitions to food would pass through Halifax's harbor, and because
Speaker 1: of its stance in the war and the type of
Speaker 1: cargo that was passing through the port, they did have
Speaker 1: to take some precautions. According to a History magazine article
Speaker 1: by Andrew hynd And, nightly blackout was in effect, for example,
Speaker 1: to protect the port from German submarines. There was also
Speaker 1: an anti submarine boom, or a kind of net that
Speaker 1: was also spread across the entrance of the harbor from
Speaker 1: dusk to dawn to restrict access to the harbor. During
Speaker 1: the night, and that's going to be pretty crucial to
Speaker 1: the story. So the night of December five, nineteen seventeen,
Speaker 1: when our story begins, there were two ships that were
Speaker 1: unwillingly stuck on either side of this anti submarine boom,
Speaker 1: so one stuck on the outside, one stuck on the inside.
Speaker 1: One was a French freighter called the mont Blanc, and
Speaker 1: there was also a Norwegian freighter called the Emo. And
Speaker 1: the fact that these two ships were even there at
Speaker 1: the same time was kind of a coincidence, wasn't it.
Speaker 1: It was the Emo, under the command of Captain Hawk
Speaker 1: and Frome was supposed to be on its way to
Speaker 1: New York to pick up a cargo of food for
Speaker 1: the Belgian people. He had wanted to sail that afternoon.
Speaker 1: The captain did, but according to an article by Jesse
Speaker 1: Bradley and Military History, the coal he had ordered for
Speaker 1: three pm delivery didn't show up until five thirty, when
Speaker 1: the harbor exit was already blocked off. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: the mont Blanc, which was commanded by Captain a may Limedic,
Speaker 1: was supposed to arrive on the following day, December six,
Speaker 1: but it showed up late in the afternoon of December
Speaker 1: five instead, which was too late to make it into
Speaker 1: the harbor, but they went ahead and they picked up
Speaker 1: a pilot named Francis Mackie, Halifax. Just to explain the
Speaker 1: pilot thing, it was a compulsory port, which meant that
Speaker 1: a pilot had to be in charge of any ship
Speaker 1: that was entry and are leaving the harbor. And so
Speaker 1: they picked up this pilot, and they had undergone an
Speaker 1: inspection by Canadian naval officer so that they would be
Speaker 1: good to go into the harbor first thing into in
Speaker 1: the morning get on with business. So there's another important
Speaker 1: thing to note about the mont Blanc, though the ship's
Speaker 1: cargo might have made some of the crew pretty nervous,
Speaker 1: seeing how they were on the wrong side the the
Speaker 1: unprotected side of that submarine boom. They had two thousand
Speaker 1: three tons of picric acid in the holds, two tons
Speaker 1: of t n T and ten tons of gun cotton
Speaker 1: between the main and spar decks. And then just just
Speaker 1: add to things, because that doesn't sound like enough, thirty
Speaker 1: five tons of volatile benzine and drums on the upper deck.
Speaker 1: And this combined, of course, made them basically a huge
Speaker 1: floating explosive, and according to that History magazine article, to
Speaker 1: Blana mentioned having those drums of bensall on the ship's
Speaker 1: deck against regulations in the first place. So the ship
Speaker 1: was defying regulations by having those kinds of explosives on deck,
Speaker 1: but also by not flying a red flag to signal
Speaker 1: that they had munitions on board. There's a reason why
Speaker 1: they didn't do it. It was because they were on
Speaker 1: the wrong side of that submarine net, and the captain
Speaker 1: didn't want to let every German ship in the area
Speaker 1: or any potential Germans in the area know that he
Speaker 1: was carrying all these munitions and was out there in
Speaker 1: the open um for attack. He thought it could turn
Speaker 1: them into a target. So the two ships are stuck
Speaker 1: where they are for the night, on either end of
Speaker 1: the harbor. Just to explain the harbor a little bit,
Speaker 1: because it can be kind of confusing if you can't
Speaker 1: see a picture of it. It's this long inlet. There's
Speaker 1: Bedford Basin where the EMO was for the night, and
Speaker 1: that's kind of at the top, and then there was
Speaker 1: Halifax Harbor which opens up into the Atlantic, and that's
Speaker 1: kind of at the bottom, and that's where the mont
Speaker 1: Blanc was connecting these two anchorage area is is what's
Speaker 1: called the Narrows, and that's a passage that's about a
Speaker 1: mile long and only about half a mile wide, so
Speaker 1: you really need to follow the rules while traveling it.
Speaker 1: I'm imagining it kind of like an hour glass. Is
Speaker 1: that correct? I haven't actually seen the map. I mean
Speaker 1: I guess that you could sort of related like an
Speaker 1: hour glass with one side that's clearly a lot smaller
Speaker 1: than the other generally, but a narrow part in between,
Speaker 1: a narrow part in between them. Yeah, that's the key
Speaker 1: part to remember here is it's kind of like two
Speaker 1: areas where you could anchor your ship and then a long,
Speaker 1: narrow part in between that you need to travel to
Speaker 1: get a pilot to navigate. And so the captain of
Speaker 1: the Emo, he was not at all happy about the
Speaker 1: situation about being stuck for the night. He was really
Speaker 1: anxious to get going, but his pilot, William Hayes, had
Speaker 1: agreed to spend the night on board so that they
Speaker 1: could get going first thing in the morning. The guys
Speaker 1: on the moll Blank kind of had the same idea.
Speaker 1: A little after seven thirty am, they raised their anchor
Speaker 1: and they started traveling northward towards the Narrows and an
Speaker 1: inbound lane traveling at a speed of about four knots.
Speaker 1: And then a little after eight am, the EMO entered
Speaker 1: the north end of the Narrows, heading southward at about
Speaker 1: seven knots, even though you weren't supposed to go faster
Speaker 1: than five knots in the harbor. So they're speeding along,
Speaker 1: I guess trying to make up for lost time, and
Speaker 1: I mean the captain of the EMO was just in
Speaker 1: a real hurry. Some sources suggest that the ship didn't
Speaker 1: even have official permission to depart when it took off.
Speaker 1: They were just going to get going, but the ships
Speaker 1: were still a mile apart at this point when they're
Speaker 1: first entering the channel, traveling toward each other, and while
Speaker 1: it was barreling down the narrows, though, the EMO ran
Speaker 1: into some unexpected traffic changes. There was an American freighter
Speaker 1: that wanted to pass the EMO on the wrong side,
Speaker 1: but the ship signaled to each other. They worked out
Speaker 1: how they were going to approach this and they were
Speaker 1: able to make the pass safely. However, this past put
Speaker 1: the EMO in the wrong lane and on a collision course. Therefore,
Speaker 1: with the mont Block. So Mackie, who was the pilot
Speaker 1: of the mont Blanc, saw all the email change course,
Speaker 1: and at first he wasn't too worried, you know, they
Speaker 1: had enough time to to correct it to be safe,
Speaker 1: and he founded one siren signal to indicate that his
Speaker 1: ship would stay to the starboard side, but the EMO
Speaker 1: answered with two sirens to say that it was going
Speaker 1: to steer to port, which would cause the ships to collide.
Speaker 1: So kind of mixed signals here and no agreement about
Speaker 1: how to proceed, and after that it was really just
Speaker 1: mass confusion. They signaled to each other again, but they
Speaker 1: couldn't work it out. Mackie tried to stop the engine,
Speaker 1: but of course slowing down and certainly stopping a big
Speaker 1: ship like that isn't very easy. And then finally Mackie
Speaker 1: tried to pull the ship to the left to just
Speaker 1: give the EMO room to pass by, but it was
Speaker 1: too late at that point. A little after eight thirty am,
Speaker 1: the EMO slammed into the mont Blanc and opened up
Speaker 1: a wedge of about three meters deep. Containers of benzine
Speaker 1: and picric acid smashed upon impact, and then as the
Speaker 1: ship drifted apart, sparks from that grinding steel of the
Speaker 1: ships started a fire, so Captain Limadeck saw the riding
Speaker 1: on the wall immediately and ordered his crew to abandon ship.
Speaker 1: They all jumped into lifeboats and road just as fast
Speaker 1: as they could over to the shore and took cover
Speaker 1: in the nearby woods. But they were basically the only
Speaker 1: ones who knew how dangerous the contents of the ship were.
Speaker 1: So of course, because the ship was not flying that
Speaker 1: telltale red flag, a lot of people who weren't part
Speaker 1: of the crew didn't realize how severe the situation was,
Speaker 1: that it didn't just involve the two ships involved in
Speaker 1: the men on board. So hundreds of people had stopped
Speaker 1: what they were doing, and we're just gawking at this
Speaker 1: ship on fire with a huge column of smoke above it,
Speaker 1: And the docks started to fill up with spectators, and
Speaker 1: trams started to slow down and allow passengers to check
Speaker 1: out the situation rubber Neck a little bit, and people
Speaker 1: were gathered even at the windows of their homes and
Speaker 1: office buildings and um watching from far off factory roofs
Speaker 1: to just see what disaster was occurring down in the harbor.
Speaker 1: The fire department was alerted and so they sent people
Speaker 1: over and a lot of small boats were approaching the
Speaker 1: mont Blanc trying to fight the fire as the boat,
Speaker 1: as the ship i should say, was drifting across the
Speaker 1: channel and eventually stopped at Pier six. And this all
Speaker 1: just reminds me of what goes on kind of you know,
Speaker 1: have you ever been one of those tornado warning situations
Speaker 1: where people all of a sudden want to like run
Speaker 1: out of their houses or stand at the windows and
Speaker 1: look at what's about to happen, and you just feel
Speaker 1: like it's so bad, like don't watch, just take cover.
Speaker 1: It's like one of those moments. But a few people
Speaker 1: did have an idea of what was going on, and
Speaker 1: they took action. For example, a train dispatcher at Richmond
Speaker 1: Station who had been warned by a sailor stayed at
Speaker 1: his post to stop a passenger train from coming into
Speaker 1: the area. He sent a telegraph that said, quote stop trains, munition,
Speaker 1: ship on fire making for Pier six, goodbye. So all
Speaker 1: of this was going down, all of this gawking and
Speaker 1: trying to get a look at at the disaster, the wreck,
Speaker 1: and trying to help and trying to help too. Of course,
Speaker 1: when at nine oh six am, the mont Blanc blew
Speaker 1: up and the ship was shattered into bits. The blasts scent,
Speaker 1: smoke and debrise somewhere from three to five miles into
Speaker 1: the sky, and of course, soon enough all of those
Speaker 1: ship fragments came raining down on the north end of
Speaker 1: the city, hitting people, hitting buildings. The ship's gun, for example,
Speaker 1: landed five point five kilometers away, and it said that
Speaker 1: the shock from the explosion was felt as far as
Speaker 1: three kilometers away. The harbor bed was split and laid bare,
Speaker 1: and the rocks from it were also thrown around. And
Speaker 1: when the sea rushed back to fill in that hole
Speaker 1: in the harbor bed, it's sent a huge tidal wave
Speaker 1: of inland, which affected people who were st ending there
Speaker 1: on the piers watching. I think that's the most striking
Speaker 1: image for me to try to imagine, to the harbor
Speaker 1: bed just cleared of water, this empty pit and then
Speaker 1: was filling back in. Other ships in the harbor were
Speaker 1: destroyed or severely damaged. Of course, the Imo, for example,
Speaker 1: was blown ashore and its captain, the pilot Haze, and
Speaker 1: five crewmen were all killed. A split second after that explosion,
Speaker 1: there was also this huge air concussion, a kind of
Speaker 1: shock wave that instantly destroyed everything in its path. Buildings
Speaker 1: and bridges collapsed, vehicles were thrown around, roads were cracked,
Speaker 1: tree snapped. Even buildings that withstood that wave lost their windows,
Speaker 1: and some of those buildings still fell when that wreckage
Speaker 1: that we mentioned came raining down from the sky. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that wave also killed hundreds of people instantly when
Speaker 1: they were hit by the shock wave, and many more
Speaker 1: were trapped in the ruins of buildings and became victims
Speaker 1: of the third on slot, which were fires that sprang
Speaker 1: up everywhere as results of damaged gas manes and overturned
Speaker 1: wood OBEs and kindling in homes. We talked about that
Speaker 1: effect of earthquakes and things like that a little bit
Speaker 1: in our fire episode of San Francisco Fire. But basically,
Speaker 1: this entire district of Halifax called Richmond and some areas
Speaker 1: beyond that were completely decimated in just a matter of minutes.
Speaker 1: About two thousand people were dead, nine thousand more were
Speaker 1: injured and needed medical treatment, and about two thousand buildings
Speaker 1: were really badly damaged, which meant that approximately fifteen thousand
Speaker 1: people were now homeless. And that's really a low estimate.
Speaker 1: Because it only counts those people who were found. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the death tolls considered by a lot of people to
Speaker 1: be too low. Among the dead were the city's fire
Speaker 1: chief and the deputy fire chief who had gotten to
Speaker 1: Pier six right before the explosion. Two hundred children and
Speaker 1: the staff of the city's orphanage, about one hundred students
Speaker 1: at Richmond School, sixty nine employees of the Canadian Government Railway,
Speaker 1: including the heroic Vince Coleman that we mentioned and who
Speaker 1: sent that telegraph out, and many many others. However, though
Speaker 1: it kind of defies logic, because they were so close
Speaker 1: to the situation to start with, Captain Limedeck and Mackie,
Speaker 1: who had taken shelter in the woods they survived. Who
Speaker 1: would figure that the guys who had been on the
Speaker 1: ship with the explosives, who jumped overboard and swam to
Speaker 1: the woods would make it. It's really surprising, but the
Speaker 1: rescue efforts started almost immediately to to deal with this
Speaker 1: um this explosion and the after effects. About thirty minutes
Speaker 1: after the explosion is when things started to happen. People
Speaker 1: began to dig out the dead and look for survivors.
Speaker 1: But remember this is December and it is Nova Scotia,
Speaker 1: so their works soon got a lot tougher because a
Speaker 1: blizzard started later in the day and I think it
Speaker 1: was like with the worst blizzard in the last twenty
Speaker 1: perfect timing right. So that was of course bad news
Speaker 1: for all those people who were now homeless, who didn't
Speaker 1: have any shelter, and there was also concern about another
Speaker 1: potential explosion. All of those fires that had started and
Speaker 1: spread since the first explosion were still a very major
Speaker 1: threat because they were quickly heading for the powder magazine
Speaker 1: at the Wellington Military barracks. This caused quite a bit
Speaker 1: of panic. People, even the injured ones, started heading for
Speaker 1: higher ground and they were encouraged to by authority, so
Speaker 1: they were being sent up. But soldiers were able to
Speaker 1: flood the munitions dump and keep the fire away from it,
Speaker 1: so there wasn't a second explosion after all, so it
Speaker 1: wasn't quite as bad as they thought it could be.
Speaker 1: And that was a really good thing too, because there
Speaker 1: were already so many people who were really badly in
Speaker 1: need of doctors, medical supplies, and just places to care
Speaker 1: for the injured. Doctors, nurses and supplies started to come
Speaker 1: in from other Nova Scotia towns that day, and by
Speaker 1: the next day help was coming in from other Canadian
Speaker 1: provinces too, and the international response here was really significant
Speaker 1: as well. By two thirty that day, the U. S.
Speaker 1: Navy ships the Tacoma and the Von Steuben, on their
Speaker 1: way back from Europe, came into the harbor and met
Speaker 1: up with the U. S. S Colony and the U S.
Speaker 1: Coast Guard Cutter Moral. They offered up soldiers and marines
Speaker 1: to help patrol the area, and they turned the old
Speaker 1: Colony into a hospital ship with the U. S. Navy
Speaker 1: Docks running it along with some Canadian nurses, and over
Speaker 1: the next few days trains full of surgeons, doctors and
Speaker 1: nurses and more medical supplies came in from New England again,
Speaker 1: though facilities were packed so during this time doctors were
Speaker 1: forced to treat people in pretty much every room of
Speaker 1: any available hospital, including the kitchens, the corridors, and the closets.
Speaker 1: Some treated people on trains or in homes, in doctor's
Speaker 1: offices or even drug stores, making do with what they could.
Speaker 1: The injuries, too, were really horrific, not the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that you would want to be treating on a
Speaker 1: train or in somebody's home and um. One of the
Speaker 1: reasons why the injuries were so bad was because of
Speaker 1: all of that glass and the debris that had been
Speaker 1: flying around and hitting people. And will spare you some
Speaker 1: of the truly gory details, but eye injuries are often
Speaker 1: said to have been the most prevalent. And I mean,
Speaker 1: if you if you think about what we mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: all those people running up to their windows to see
Speaker 1: the ship on fire and watching and and then getting
Speaker 1: faced with that explosion, and a lot of people ultimately
Speaker 1: needed to have one or both eyes removed. But besides
Speaker 1: medical care, there were other types of relief that were needed.
Speaker 1: By the afternoon of the explosion, the Halifax Relief Committee,
Speaker 1: which was a volunteer organization, was organized to help find
Speaker 1: ways to shelter the homeless and identify the dead and
Speaker 1: the injured, and construct some sort of temporary housing for
Speaker 1: people to live through this blizzard. I mean, how bad
Speaker 1: would it be to survive the explosion and then freeze? Kidding?
Speaker 1: They also started to manage the donations that came in
Speaker 1: from around the world. Millions of dollars came in from
Speaker 1: several countries, including Britain of course, and as far away
Speaker 1: as Australia. The US also started to send in supplies
Speaker 1: like food, clothing, and building materials including glass and the
Speaker 1: people who could install it. In the meantime, though, a
Speaker 1: lot of the homeless had to stay intense in that
Speaker 1: brutal cold weather. So on December thirteenth, nineteen seventeen, the
Speaker 1: RAT Commissioners started to investigate the explosion, and according to
Speaker 1: the military history article that we mentioned earlier, the chairman
Speaker 1: of this commission, Judge Arthur Drysdale, was really anti French
Speaker 1: and he felt that the pilot and the captain of
Speaker 1: the mont Blanc were quote wholly responsible and um it
Speaker 1: did seem like they were going to be held responsible
Speaker 1: for at least a small aspect of it. Initially, Captain
Speaker 1: Limeduck and Francis Mackie were arrested and charged with manslaughter
Speaker 1: for causing the death of William Hayes, who was the
Speaker 1: pilot of the EMO as we as we mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: and the charges were eventually dropped and it was ruled
Speaker 1: that both the EMO and the mont Blanc were at fault.
Speaker 1: That didn't stop people from having other theories about what
Speaker 1: really happened. Oh yeah, we've always got some other theories don't,
Speaker 1: so some people for some time actually believed that Germany
Speaker 1: was behind the explosion. After all, it was during the war,
Speaker 1: and if you hadn't witnessed the explosion yourself, that you
Speaker 1: can imagine that might be the first thing that comes
Speaker 1: to your mind. Some people thought it was a zeppelin
Speaker 1: attack or a bombardment from a battle fleet. Still others
Speaker 1: later on thought that sabotage was behind this. These people
Speaker 1: think that the emo's captain and co pilot were both
Speaker 1: murdered by a crew member just before the explosion, allowing
Speaker 1: a German spy to come on board and orchestrate the accident,
Speaker 1: but witnesses have said that they saw the captain giving
Speaker 1: all the commands. Later though, during an inquiry, some harbor
Speaker 1: officers said that they had received calls inquiring about the
Speaker 1: movements of the ships, and rumors started again around when
Speaker 1: Dr Samuel Prince, who authored a study about the explosion,
Speaker 1: a sociological study, said that it could be sabotage. There's
Speaker 1: been no definitive proof of this though. These are just
Speaker 1: ideas that people had around this time, especially Yeah, So,
Speaker 1: moving away from conspiracy theory and to rehabilitation and the
Speaker 1: reconstruction of Halifax. It obviously took years to rehabilitate the
Speaker 1: city and to identify the dead and to help survivors
Speaker 1: find their families. And if you visit the website of
Speaker 1: the Nova Scotia Archives, they have a whole section on
Speaker 1: the Halifax explosion. Actually, since people started recommending this topic,
Speaker 1: I've sometimes pointed them to that resource because it is
Speaker 1: so great, And we follow the Nova Scotia Archives on Twitter.
Speaker 1: They're really really nice about any research questions you might have,
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's a it's a great place to go
Speaker 1: to learn more about the disaster and to see how
Speaker 1: Halifax was rebuilt. They have photos of the explosions aftermath
Speaker 1: and a film clip that's kind of like a silent
Speaker 1: movie that that's so disturbing too, because this it is silent. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's a very eerie And there's also a list of
Speaker 1: those who died. And what I found to be really
Speaker 1: interesting was the first hand accounts from some of the survivors.
Speaker 1: So we have part of an example here of a
Speaker 1: personal narrative given by a doctor M. J. Burris to
Speaker 1: the director of the Halifax Disaster Record Office at nine
Speaker 1: o'clock was just getting up shaving felt the house shake
Speaker 1: and felt that something terrible had happened. Thought that there
Speaker 1: was a bombardment of some kind. The explosion was low,
Speaker 1: not so loud as the noonday gun, and he thought
Speaker 1: that it was a shell from a submarine. His little
Speaker 1: daughter downstairs screamed. A second explosion was louder, but still
Speaker 1: there was no breaking of glass. He was sure now
Speaker 1: that it was a bombardment. Ran downstairs, caught up his
Speaker 1: little girl and called to his wife and the maid
Speaker 1: to come to the cellar. Put the little girl in
Speaker 1: the cellar, then ran back for his wife, who would
Speaker 1: not come, met her at the door and pushed her
Speaker 1: down the cellar stairs, following her. They were all in
Speaker 1: the cellar when the quote big explosion came. Everything smashed.
Speaker 1: After waiting for some time for more, Dr B came
Speaker 1: upstairs when into office a man was there with his
Speaker 1: face cut on a doctor B to dress it. Soon
Speaker 1: many people were there to be quote fixed up. Only
Speaker 1: small hurts came first, as Dr B lives near the
Speaker 1: ferry and people were not so badly injured in that
Speaker 1: part of Dartmouth. Later people from the north end came
Speaker 1: and we're much worse hurt one child had a skull fractured,
Speaker 1: broken like an eggshell. The brain substance was oozing down
Speaker 1: over the side of his face. He lived about three weeks,
Speaker 1: so that definitely puts um puts the explosion into perspective. Um.
Speaker 1: But I do like having a resource like that and
Speaker 1: having having archives where you can look up all sorts
Speaker 1: of letters and pictures and get a better sense because
Speaker 1: I mean, so often we talk about things in kind
Speaker 1: of a big scale, but when you have letters, when
Speaker 1: you have quotes, it makes it so much more personal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it makes it real. So I definitely recommend checking that out.
Speaker 1: And sorry if we have had another down or up
Speaker 1: episode for you here, but I think it's an important
Speaker 1: story and you guys wanted to hear it, and you
Speaker 1: guys wanted to hear it, and um so I'm glad
Speaker 1: that we got to cover this one. Finally, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining us for this Saturday Classic. Since
Speaker 1: this is out of the archive, if you heard an
Speaker 1: email address or a Facebook U r L or something
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