What came to be known as the Halifax Explosion happened on the morning of 6 December 1917. SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship, was fully loaded with war-time explosives: namely, TNT and picric acid, benzol, as well as guncotton. The initial plan for the watercraft was to carry the dangerous cargo from New York via Halifax to Bordeaux, France. While leaving after the scheduled stop at the Canadian port, the vessel made a slow speed collision with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo. Despite the slow speed, a series of deadly events were sent in motion.
Several mistakes caused the collision. First of all, the Norwegian ship was moving above the speed allowed in the port to make up for time lost loading cargo. She was unable to do so as another thing went wrong – it encountered the American steamer SS Clara which was moving in the wrong side of the harbor, traveling at the same side towards Imo. Harbors and ports have a lot of rules, including speed limits and traffic directions, just like roads, otherwise it’s chaos and increased risk. However, when even the seemingly smallest of these rules are broken, even just a little bit, major disasters may occur. After agreeing the direction in which the two ships pass, the Norwegian watercraft had to maneuver at excessive speed once again, passing tugboat Stella Maris further away from the western shore.
It was around this time that the captain of Mont-Blanc noticed that Imo was about 0.75 miles away and appeared to be on a collision course. Despite the French ship indicating right of way by blowing the ship’s signal whistle, the Norwegian vessel continued its course, giving two blasts meaning that it would not yield. Attempting to avoid the collision, the Mont-Blanc began maneuvering, but was unable to get out of Imo’s way. Despite final attempts of both crews, the ships crashed into each other.
Mont-Blanc’s barrel with benzol broke open and poured over the deck and, eventually, the hold. Soon after, Imo disengaged, creating sparks inside Mont-Blanc’s hull from grinding metal. The resulting fire became uncontrollable and in 20 minutes Mont-Blanc exploded with the energy equivalent of roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT.
In "Kiloton killer", System Failure Case Study for NASA, Steve Lilley analyzed the explosion.
Blast pressure leveled every structure within a mile and blew wreckage for tens of miles. Approximately 2,000 people were killed and over 9,000 injured. The unprecedented recovery effort that followed was the genesis of modern disaster relief programs.
In 1920 a book entitled 'Catastrophe and Social Change, Based Upon a Sociological Study of the Halifax Disaster' by Samuel Henry Prince was published
The role of catastrophe appears to be both direct and indirect. Functioning directly, it prepares the ground-work for social change by weakening social immobility; precipitating fluidity of custom; forcing environal favorability for change. Indirectly, it sets in motion factors determining the nature of the social change, such as the release of spirit and morale; the play of imitation; the stimulus of leaders and lookers-on; the socialization of institutions.
The author studied the far-reaching echoes of the explosion, which, given the setting, had made a lasting impact. Tragedies like this not only destroy lives and property – they shatter societies.
