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Authors: Jonathan Eyers
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clock for several days. When volunteers from the Red Cross and St Johnâs Ambulance arrived to treatthe less seriously injured, they helped take some of the burden off the shoulders of Halifaxâs exhausted doctors and nurses.
That night, to compound a situation that would have been almost unimaginable that morning, a blizzard descended on Halifax. Almost 16 inches (40cm) of snow blanketed the city, which extinguished all the fires, but which seriously hampered the rescue efforts. Whilst some rescuers continued to work through the blizzard, 6,000 people had been left homeless by the explosion, and another 25,000 lacked adequate housing â this constituted roughly half of everyone who lived in Halifax. The homeless looked for somewhere sheltered to spend the night (some huddled inside a damaged train) as those whose houses remained standing used whatever they could (from carpets to paper) to seal their broken windows against the weather.
Temperatures plunged overnight. Many of those trapped who might otherwise have survived had they been found in time succumbed to hypothermia. The next morning, however, a soldier trekking through the snow to search ruined houses found the unlikeliest of survivors. Only 23 months old, Anne Welsh had lost her mother and brother when the force of the explosion destroyed their home. The blast threw Anne under the stove, where she landed in the container of ash beneath it. Still warm, the ashes kept her alive through the freezing night. She was later nicknamed Ashpan Annie, and her survival became one of few good news stories that made it out of Halifax over the coming days.
A new Halifax
Despite major developments in Europe â most notably mid-revolutionary Russia signing an armistice with Germany and withdrawing from the war â events in Halifax became a major news story around the world. From as far away as China and New Zealand, relief agencies sent aid. Even in Germany the story was reported with shock and sympathy.
That contrasted with how Halifaxâs main local newspaper reported it, stoking nationalist tensions by promoting the theory that the explosion had been a secret German attack deliberately designed to target a civilian population. Public outrage and paranoia led to most people of German descent in the city being arrested and imprisoned. The police even arrested the helmsman of the
Imo
on suspicion of being involved, even though he was Norwegian. However, the over-zealousness of the police probably helped sate the public appetite for revenge, and by being imprisoned (and all ultimately released without charge) Germans in Halifax were at least protected from vigilante mobs.
The rebuilding of Halifax brought much needed regeneration to a city that had lost its industrial heart.
Aime Le Medec, the
Mont Blanc
âs captain, and Francis Mackey, the harbour pilot in charge of the ship at the time of the collision, both strenuously denied any responsibility, and maintained there had been nothing they could have done to prevent the explosion once the
Imo
had struck the
Mont Blanc
. Both of them were charged with manslaughter, but charges were quickly dropped. In 1919 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that both the
Mont
Blanc
and the
Imo
were equally responsible for the mistakes that led to the explosion.
The Halifax Relief Commission, formed immediately after the disaster, saw the disaster as an opportunity to improve and modernise what had been an ageing city struggling to keep up with the times. In poorer parts of Richmond, for example, there was a lot of densely packed and overcrowded housing, and some of the roads werenât even paved. The rebuilding of Halifax brought much needed regeneration to a city that had lost its industrial heart â and many of those who worked there â in the explosion. Housing, hospitals and harbour regulations all improved after the disaster. Modern plumbing and access to electricity was brought to all parts of the
That night, to compound a situation that would have been almost unimaginable that morning, a blizzard descended on Halifax. Almost 16 inches (40cm) of snow blanketed the city, which extinguished all the fires, but which seriously hampered the rescue efforts. Whilst some rescuers continued to work through the blizzard, 6,000 people had been left homeless by the explosion, and another 25,000 lacked adequate housing â this constituted roughly half of everyone who lived in Halifax. The homeless looked for somewhere sheltered to spend the night (some huddled inside a damaged train) as those whose houses remained standing used whatever they could (from carpets to paper) to seal their broken windows against the weather.
Temperatures plunged overnight. Many of those trapped who might otherwise have survived had they been found in time succumbed to hypothermia. The next morning, however, a soldier trekking through the snow to search ruined houses found the unlikeliest of survivors. Only 23 months old, Anne Welsh had lost her mother and brother when the force of the explosion destroyed their home. The blast threw Anne under the stove, where she landed in the container of ash beneath it. Still warm, the ashes kept her alive through the freezing night. She was later nicknamed Ashpan Annie, and her survival became one of few good news stories that made it out of Halifax over the coming days.
A new Halifax
Despite major developments in Europe â most notably mid-revolutionary Russia signing an armistice with Germany and withdrawing from the war â events in Halifax became a major news story around the world. From as far away as China and New Zealand, relief agencies sent aid. Even in Germany the story was reported with shock and sympathy.
That contrasted with how Halifaxâs main local newspaper reported it, stoking nationalist tensions by promoting the theory that the explosion had been a secret German attack deliberately designed to target a civilian population. Public outrage and paranoia led to most people of German descent in the city being arrested and imprisoned. The police even arrested the helmsman of the
Imo
on suspicion of being involved, even though he was Norwegian. However, the over-zealousness of the police probably helped sate the public appetite for revenge, and by being imprisoned (and all ultimately released without charge) Germans in Halifax were at least protected from vigilante mobs.
The rebuilding of Halifax brought much needed regeneration to a city that had lost its industrial heart.
Aime Le Medec, the
Mont Blanc
âs captain, and Francis Mackey, the harbour pilot in charge of the ship at the time of the collision, both strenuously denied any responsibility, and maintained there had been nothing they could have done to prevent the explosion once the
Imo
had struck the
Mont Blanc
. Both of them were charged with manslaughter, but charges were quickly dropped. In 1919 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that both the
Mont
Blanc
and the
Imo
were equally responsible for the mistakes that led to the explosion.
The Halifax Relief Commission, formed immediately after the disaster, saw the disaster as an opportunity to improve and modernise what had been an ageing city struggling to keep up with the times. In poorer parts of Richmond, for example, there was a lot of densely packed and overcrowded housing, and some of the roads werenât even paved. The rebuilding of Halifax brought much needed regeneration to a city that had lost its industrial heart â and many of those who worked there â in the explosion. Housing, hospitals and harbour regulations all improved after the disaster. Modern plumbing and access to electricity was brought to all parts of the
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