The Ship That Blew Up a City | The Halifax Explosion

On the morning of December 6, 1917, two ships collided in the narrow waters of Halifax Harbour.

One of them was carrying a devastating secret.

The French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc was loaded with explosives bound for the First World War. After colliding with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo, fire broke out aboard Mont-Blanc. For roughly twenty minutes, the burning ship drifted toward Halifax while crowds gathered along the waterfront to watch.

Then, at 9:05 a.m., it exploded.

The Halifax Explosion became the largest human-made explosion the world had experienced up to that point. The blast devastated large sections of Halifax's North End, shattered windows across the city, triggered fires, and generated a massive wave that struck both sides of the harbour.

Approximately 2,000 people were killed and thousands more were injured.

But the disaster was about far more than the explosion itself.

This episode explores the chain of navigation decisions that brought Mont-Blanc and Imo together, the extraordinary cargo hidden aboard the French ship, why so few people understood the danger while it burned, and how a seemingly ordinary maritime collision became one of the most destructive accidents in history.

We also examine the remarkable story of railway dispatcher Vincent Coleman, who remained at his post long enough to warn an approaching passenger train before the explosion killed him.

Then came another problem.

As rescuers searched collapsed buildings and overwhelmed hospitals filled with casualties, a major snowstorm struck Halifax the following day, complicating an already enormous relief operation.

The disaster ultimately changed far more than the city's skyline. The extraordinary number of eye injuries helped transform eye care in Canada, burn treatment advanced, destroyed neighborhoods were rebuilt, and the tragedy became permanently woven into the history of Halifax.

It is the story of a collision.

A burning ship.

Twenty minutes of warning almost nobody understood.

And the morning one vessel nearly destroyed a city.

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