Domestic Disasters of World War 1 (Part 3 of 4) The Halifax Explosion: 6 DEC.1917 How Much Can Be Blamed of the War, the Enemy or Human Error ? IMAGE - Preventable destruction. View of Halifax after disaster, looking south, 6 December 1917 This panorama photograph depicts the incredible devastation of the harbour area after the explosion. The force of the blast shattered windows, removed roofs and twisted metal. Scroll through the panorama for a partial view of the extensive damage near the harbour. (source:Library and Archives Canadar:Phototaken by W.G. MacLaughlan) The Preventable Halifax Explosion And Lessons Learned One of the most dramatic examples of the perils of poor hazard communication (HAZCOM) concerns an episode that took place in Canada during World War I. The harbor of Halifax, Nova Scotia, served as a gathering point for Royal Canadian Navy and other ships scheduled to convoy to Europe during the war. On December 5, 1917, the French ammunition ship SS Mont-Blanc was moving large quantities of munitions to Bordeaux, France. At about 4 p.m. it was waiting to enter the harbor for a planned anchorage in Bedford Basin. Mont-Blanc’s cargo included five metric tons (mt) of benzol (a crude form of gasoline), 56 mt of gun cotton, 2,090 mt of picric acid (an explosive), and 2,115 mt of trinitrotoluene (TNT). The SS Imo, a Norwegian ship that had been chartered to the Belgian Relief Committee, was in the harbor, ready to proceed to New York to pick up relief materials for Belgium. Both ships were forced to wait until the next morning while the submarine nets at the mouth of the harbor were secured at night. The following morning, December 6, 1917, local pilots were assigned to each ship to ensure a safe passage through the harbor. By 7:30 a.m. the submarine nets were opened, allowing ship traffic to begin. However, the pilot assigned to the Mont-Blanc spoke English, and the crew spoke only French. The Imo left dock at 8:10 a.m. and was proceeding in the right channel, but another ship was blocking its path, so it went into the left channel to pass. The Imo blew its whistle two times to tell the Mont-Blanc of its predicament, and an order to change course was given to the Mont-Blanc crew by the pilot that, unfortunately, was not understood by the crew. The Mont-Blanc was proceeding forward via the left channel at the same time, and both ships refused to yield. Finally, the Mont-Blanc decided to pass the Imo in the center. The Imo then stopped altogether, but the backward action of its propellers brought the Imo to the center of the channel as well, turning its bow straight in the direction of the Mont-Blanc. Both ships collided in the Narrows of Halifax Harbor around 8:45 a.m. The Imo’s bow ripped a hole at least 10 feet into the hull of the Mont-Blanc. In response, the Imo attempted to reverse direction. Sparks from the metal-on-metal collision ignited vapors from the benzol, setting the Mont-Blanc on fire. The crew quickly abandoned ship. Fleeing in two rowboats, the French-speaking crew reached safety on the Dartmouth shore as the burning ship continued to drift toward the Richmond Pier on the opposite, Halifax shore. Because of the language differences, the crew was unable to warn Dartmouth residents of the impending disaster. Hundreds watched the burning ship from the shoreline and windows. The ultimate explosion, sparking one of the worst maritime disasters in history, occurred at 9:04:35 a.m. (Figure 1). In fact, the explosion of the Mont-Blanc still ranks as one of the largest nonnuclear, man-made explosions, equivalent to a 2.5- to 3-kiloton nuclear detonation. The Mont-Blanc was instantly fragmented. Much of it vaporized into a giant fireball that rose over a mile into the air. Its anchor landed two miles away. Shards of glass and other debris and the spreading fire killed almost 2,000 and injured 9,000 in Halifax and Dartmouth. A 15-foot wave shot out from the explosion, wrecking ships and flattening anything left standing. Many survivors said it appeared as though the Narrows separating Halifax and Dartmouth had opened to reveal the harbor floor. The explosion leveled over 1 square mile of Halifax. Windows were shattered as far as Truro, Nova Scotia, 62 miles away, and it was reported that the blast could be heard even in Prince Edward Island, more than 180 miles away. The following day a blizzard that left 16 inches of snow hit the city, crippling recovery efforts. A judicial inquiry found the Mont-Blanc’s captain and pilot and the Royal Canadian Navy officer in charge of harbor movements to blame for navigational errors that led to the explosion, although nobody was convicted. The Supreme Court of Canada determined in 1919 that Mont-Blanc and Imo were equally to blame for errors that caused the collision and explosion: The Imo ignited the initial fire, was traveling faster than was customary in the Narrows, and was out of its correct lane; the Mont-Blanc was a floating arsenal but was not flying the red pennant that was the internationally recognized symbol for having explosives on board. Official inquiries would later identify an inadequate supply of harbor pilots, language problems, and ignoring harbor safety guidelines as additional contributing factors to the explosion.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 19:50:45 +0000