The Halifax explosion : Canada's worst disaster

Summary: On December 6, 1917, the French munitions ship Mont Blanc and the Norwegian war-relief vessel Imo collided in the harbour at Halifax, Nova Scotia. That accident sparked a fire and an apocalyptic explosion that was the largest man-made blast prior to the 1945 dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Together with the killer tsunami that followed, the explosion devastated the entire city in the wink of an eye and instantly killed more than two thousand people. While much has been written about the disaster, there is still more to the story, including the investigation of the key figures involved, the histories of the ships that collided and the confluence of circumstances that brought these two vessels together to touch off one of the most tragic man-made disasters of the twentieth century. A fresh, revealing account that finally answers questions that have lingered for a century: Was the explosion a disaster triggered by simple human error? Was it caused by the negligence of the ships' pilots or captains? Was it the result of shortcomings in harbour practices and protocols? Or was the blast - as many people at the time insisted - the result of sabotage carried out by wartime German agents? The gripping story of Canada's worst disaster - a haunting tale of survival, incredible courage and, ultimately, the triumph of the human spirit. Veteran journalist Ken Cuthbertson is the author of The Biography of John Gunther and A Complex Fate: William L. Shirer and the American Century. Ken Cuthbertson lives in Kingston, Ontario.

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