The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism

Several years ago, Ben and I visited Halifax, where we learned about the Great Halifax Explosion of 1917. The explosion, which was the largest man-made explosion of any kind until Hiroshima, was caused by a small collision between two ships in the Halifax harbor, one of which happened to be a munitions ship that doubled as a floating bomb. In any case, I knew nothing of it before this visit, and hadn't given it much, if any, consideration in the ensuing year - until the University of Michigan alumni magazine reviewed John U. Bacon's The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism and I decided I needed to learn the details.

Essentially, they are this: World War I was the quintessential desperate time calling for desperate measures. As such, an old, slow tub of a ship was commissioned to carry desperately needed ammunition, explosives, and fuel to the front. It was loaded to to the gills with the full knowledge of the crew that one little spark is all it took to send them all skyward and to the bottom of the sea - simultaneously. The little spark was supplied by the fender-bender Mont Blanc suffered as she entered Halifax harbor; when she did explode, she took with her the better part of the city, and several thousand souls.

Bacon naturally expounds on all of the details, from the loading of the ship in Mont Blanc to Halifax's history of antagonism with the U.S. (in all fairness, Representatives from New England were arguing for the annexation of Canada on the House floor as late as 1911) to the background of the individuals touched by the tragedy. Bacon also delves into the aftermath, from the advances in pediatric medicine that came out of the explosion to the relationship between Boston and Halifax.

The Great Halifax Explosion is a truly excellent work of non-fiction. Like the best narrative non-fiction, it reads almost like a novel; while any reader should appreciate Bacon's research and writing, this book is especially fine reading for those with an interest in the more forgotten elements of World War I.