In 1917, Halifax was one of the busiest ports in the world, a key launch point for Allied convoys heading to Europe during the First World War. On the morning of December 6th, two ships met in the narrow channel leading into the harbor: the French munitions ship SS Mont-Blanc, packed with picric acid, TNT, and guncotton, was entering just as the Norwegian relief ship SS Imo was heading out. Miscommunication, and a chain of small navigational mistakes pushed both vessels onto a collision course.

At 8:45 a.m., they struck, barely. But the impact toppled barrels of benzol on Mont-Blanc’s deck, and the chemical caught fire almost immediately. The crew abandoned ship and tried to warn people onshore, but few could understand what they were shouting. As the burning vessel drifted toward the waterfront and the working-class neighborhood of Richmond, curious crowds gathered to watch.

At 9:04 a.m., Mont-Blanc exploded. The blast remains one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded: a shockwave moving faster than 1,000 meters per second, temperatures near 5,000°C, and a pressure wave that flattened 1.6 square miles of the city. About 1,600 people died instantly, thousands were injured, and roughly 12,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed. A tsunami followed, wiping out shoreline communities, including the Mi’kmaq settlement of Turtle Grove, while fires erupted across the devastated city. If you’re interested, you can read more about the disaster here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-volume-49-the?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios