Halifax Explosion Quotes

“It doesn't matter now that they lived and died, but rather did they make a difference?”
― D. Dauphinee, Highlanders Without Kilts

“Fires dotted the Dartmouth shores, and heaps of rubble stood where only thirty minutes ago there had been comfortable homes.”
― Joan Payzant, Who's a Scaredy-Cat!

“Of the sixty-six members of the Jackson family who were in the Richmond area the morning of December 6th, 1917, forty-six were killed. Of the surviving twenty, the majority were seriously injured. This was the largest loss of life suffered by one family group in the Halifax Explosion.

The family of Joseph and Mary Hinch sustained the largest loss of life for a single family unit. Mary (Jackson) Hinch was severely injured and buried under debris for twenty-four hours. Her husband and all ten of their children were killed.”
― James Mahar, Too Many to Mourn

“In addition to the fireball, concussion, the deadly shower of shrapnel, the battering-ram of air and the eruptive damage of the low pressure system, there was another death-dealing phenomena- a wall of water. The explosion of the Mont Blanc affected the water as well as the air. The concussion split the bottom and sides of the ship, violently pushing the water of the harbour away from the blast centre.”
― James Mahar and Rowena Mahar, TOO MANY TO MOURN - One Family's Tragedy in the Halifax Explosion

“Fewer than eight seconds after the blast more than a thousand were dead. In the next days a thousand more would die. By far the largest percentage of those who died were children.”
― James Mahar, Too Many to Mourn

“It had taken less than ten seconds to destroy a city and the lives of thousands. For the survivors it had been a hundred lifetimes.”
― James Mahar, Too Many to Mourn

“The blue tattoos came from all that flying glass. The shards and splinters would cut deeply into the skin and let the black rain seep in. That rain would then mingle with the exposed blood and open flesh and mark the skin forever- making a permanent tattoo. A blue tattoo.”
― Steven Laffoley, The Blue Tattoo