_Views of the Halifax Catastrophe_ Showing Effects of Explosion _December Sixth ❧ 1917_ H. H. MARSHALL Ltd., Publishers’ Agents Sole Distributers Halifax, Canada PUBLISHED BY ROYAL PRINT & LITHO Limited HALIFAX, Canada _The Halifax Catastrophe_ ¶ Forty Views—showing extent of damage in Canada’s historic city as the result of terrific explosion on Thursday, December 6th, 1917, which killed 1500 men, women and children; injured 3000 and rendered 6000 homeless; causing property damage of nearly $50,000,000 Issued by ROYAL PRINT & LITHO LTD. HALIFAX, CANADA Copyrighted 1917 INTRODUCTION Thursday, December sixth, 1917, will be ever memorable as the date of the great disaster which, with catastrophic suddenness, burst upon the beautiful and old historic city of Halifax, causing widespread destruction, death and desolation, the magnitude of which finds no parallel in our history. The fateful morning dawned both fine and fair, and the normal activities of the busy city were set in motion for the day. No one dreamed that in the magnificent harbor of Halifax the opening scene in a terrible drama of tragedy was already staged. Proceeding up the harbor, and making for Bedford Basin, was the French steamer “Mont Blanc,” carrying a deck cargo of benzine and an under cargo of some three thousand tons of nitro-glycerine, and the world’s most powerful explosive, “T. N. T.” Leaving the upper harbor and steaming at slow speed was the Norwegian steamer “Imo,” with a cargo of relief for the war sufferers of Belgium. Slowly the two vessels approached each other; nearer and nearer they drew, reaching the Narrows between the harbor and Bedford Basin, at which point they should have passed. Then happened the inexplicable—save for the fatal phrase “Someone had blundered”! The Norwegian vessel collided with the “Mont Blanc,” and almost immediately her deck cargo of benzine caught fire and a few minutes later, at five minutes past nine to be exact, the three thousand tons of high explosives aboard exploded with a dull reverberating roar and a crash that defies description. In a second of time it was as though a fierce tornado had swept the City. The whole North End, practically two square miles of territory, became a burning ruin. A considerable section of the water front was completely shattered, and all over the city, public buildings and private dwellings were wrecked, and not a window remained anywhere intact.