Centennary anniversary of Halifax Explosion

[sdifox]

Today is the one hundred year anniversary of the Halifax Explosion. It was equilavent to 2.9 kiloton of TNT, largest explosion in the pre atomic bomb era.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion

Canadian Minute describing action of Patrick Vincent Colman, a railway diapatcher, who stayed at his post and stopped trains from pulling in to Halifax, saving those aboard from the disaster.

 

[deustroop]

The city of Halifax has delivered a Christmas tree to the city of Boston every year since, in gratitude for the assistance Bostonians gave to the survivors ( about 11k killed and injured).

 

[sdifox]

The city of Halifax has delivered a Christmas tree to the city of Boston every year since, in gratitude for the assistance Bostonians gave to the survivors ( about 11k killed or injured).

This is so important that NS government setup policies and procedures for the tree selection.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Thanks for the history lesson, I was unaware of this incident.

 

[dainthomas]

Crazy that no one was ever held responsible for it. And reading the article, if a 1 kt collision was enough to knock over the barrels of benzole, how would they have survived the north Atlantic in December?

 

[Iron Woode]

here is some footage of the aftermath:

 

[Darwin333]

Holy crap! I've never heard of that, very interesting read.

"Mont-Blanc's forward 90 mm gun, its barrel melted away, landed approximately 5.6 kilometres (3.5 mi) north of the explosion site near Albro Lake in Dartmouth, and the shank of her anchor, weighing half a ton, landed 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) south at Armdale.[58]"

 

[deustroop]

Is this where the phrase "there she blows" comes from ?

 

[Captante]

Watched a documentary about this recently ... crazy stuff.

 

[Red Squirrel]

When I visited Halifax I learned about this incident from museum visits and so on as well as a guided tour that talked about it. Pretty crazy stuff.

 

[Victorian Gray]

All kinds of interactive info here at the CBC

http://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/halifaxexplosion/

 

[lxskllr]

I hear about it every year about this time, and seem to forget every year, so it sounds new again. I'll have to do some in depth reading later on. That might make it stick.