Status Updates From The Great Halifax Explosion...

Two American naval officers, Captain Stanford E. Moses of the USS Von Steuben, which had taken minor damage when the steamship Northwind drifted into it, and Captain Howard Symington of the USS Tacoma, which had felt the concussion 52 miles off Halifax and returned to port, asked, “Is there anything we can do?”

Rescuers, whether professionals or amateurs, appeared by the thousands all over town, an instant army of mercy reporting for duty—unofficial and unorganized but utterly committed to providing aid to anyone who needed it. It was these spontaneous acts of generosity, courage, and selflessness that did more to reassure victims than any formal communication could have achieved.

When the cloud released its contents, it created what witnesses described as “dark rain.” But anyone caught underneath the fallout could tell you it wasn’t water coming down but a thick, black precipitation of hot oil and soot, like liquid tar, mixed with heavy, scalding shrapnel that cut, burned, and blackened everything in its path.

Mont-Blanc disintegrated, leaving only two recognizable parts: the anchor shank, which weighed half a ton and was found 4 miles away in the woods of the Northwest Arm; and an iron deck cannon, intended to protect the ship from U-boats, which landed 3 miles away in Little Albro Lake behind Dartmouth, with its barrel drooping like a warm candle.

The great-grandson of Canada’s greatest privateer, Joseph Barss Jr., who had captured, burned, or sunk dozens of American ships in the War of 1812, Ernest had inherited more than a little anti-American sentiment. But in 1917 that was true of most Canadians, who resented the Americans’ persistent threats to annex their land from the time the United States was born to as recently as 1911.

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jfc this book is terribly sad

which. probably should have been predictable, since it's about an explosion that killed a fifth of a city and injured about half of them -- but GOSH IT IS VERY SAD

"If this was the work of God" (said the reverend) "I'll tear off his clerical collar."

"You know that neither Ethel or I are of a collapsing nature, so, hard as it was, we had to cover the body and leave it." damn girl okay

grisly.

"... the bootleggers and prostitutes who arrived from all over Canada to support the troops, in their way."

we all must do our best in these trying times

its cool to consume a history book where when he says what street their one you can imagine it

Seriously how am I only halfway through? It’s not bad, just… incredibly detailed.

I’m impressed he’s managed to stretch this incident out for so long tbh

So far a very good read.

Very interesting part of history I’ve never known. Well written with great detail (although occasionally the details are excessive). Although only 30% into it, I’ve already recommended it to friends

The background of the angst between Canada and the USA is well done. In fact I like that so much background has been added to the book. It gives more context to the disaster.

Truly a great history book. The history of Halifax, Canada, and United States. Well bits up to the Great War.

Finally, it exploded…

I’m thoroughly enjoying this telling of this Canadian tragedy. I previously read ‘The Town That Died’ years back as well as other history books on Nova Scotia. I love how John U. Bacon is framing the story leading up to the event with much thought and detail of history, places and people.

Hey

This is so well done I've been on the verge of tears for most of what I've read so far. I mean the topic in general has, obviously, always broken my heart but reading about it like this is just somehow making it worse? I dont know. This is a well written book on a truly tragic topic.

This book tends to show a libertarian bias from time to time.

I'm reading this with my hands covering my eyes.

We've just arrived at the explosion. There are too many children! And just people in general. It's hard to keep up with everyone.

There's major info-overload at the beginning of the book and it's difficult to tell the important bits from the "fun facts."

Bacon is laying the groundwork with some history on the city but there's a lot and I don't know how much of it is relevant and not all of it is interesting. I did learn a surprising amount of information about the Titanic. I thought I had tapped that fount.

I’m not sure what’s going to happen in the rest of the book, because the explosion has already happened. There was a lot of really interesting history about Canadian/ US relations, and about WWI, so I found that really interesting!

Interesting Canadian and WWI history.