Two Ships Collided. It Leveled an Entire City.

[!NOTE] Historical File: Two Ships Collided. It Leveled an Entire City. Location: Canada | Era: Archival History | Format: Documentary & Narrative Record

The Untold Story

In 1917, two ships collided in a harbor in Halifax, Canada. What happened next was the largest man-made explosion in history before the atomic bomb.

The French cargo ship Mont-Blanc was secretly loaded with wartime explosives when it collided with the Norwegian ship Imo in the harbor narrows.

Twenty minutes later, the Mont-Blanc detonated.

Halifax, December 6, 1917 • About 2.9 kilotons of explosives • Flattened over 2 square kilometers • Nearly 2,000 killed, 9,000 injured

A train dispatcher named Vincent Coleman realized incoming passenger trains were headed straight for the blast zone. He sent a warning by telegraph anyway, knowing he might not survive.

His warning saved an incoming train full of passengers. Coleman didn’t survive the explosion that started with two ships in a harbor, but his last act did. Follow along for more history worth knowing.

Historical Discussion

💭 Boston sent a relief train with doctors and supplies within hours of hearing about the blast - and Halifax has sent Boston a giant Christmas tree every year since as a thank-you. That tradition is still going, well over a century later.

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