Thursday Thirteen - 235 - 13 Facts-are-Stranger-Than-Fiction Things About the Halifax Explosion as Told by Guest Author Jennie Marsland

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For this week's Thursday Thirteen,











I'm handing the mic over to my fellow Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada author Jennie Marsland.

Welcome, Jennie!






Julia, it’s great to be here today.

As a fellow history buff, you know I love chatting about the real event that serves as a backdrop for the love story in Shattered, my latest release, set in 1917 in our hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Great War era fascinates me, because of the scale of the conflict and the dizzying pace of change that went with it – which is also a novelist’s dream.

Between 1914 and 1918, the Victorian way of life was swept away by new technologies, morals and manners. Women got the vote and entered the work world in droves. Cars, electricity and telephones became commonplace. The generation that fought in the Great War experienced the Great Depression and sent their sons to World War 2. They grew up with horses and buggies and lived to see men walk on the moon. I can’t help but admire them.

So, I’ve written a story about two people struggling to find their place in the face of all this change – and ultimately, disaster.

I’ll give you the cover blurb of Shattered for details:

Liam Cochrane no longer belongs. He lost his youth and his brother on the battlefields of Europe. Now he’s home in Halifax, Nova Scotia, trying to dull his pain with liquor and the occasional willing woman. He’s become a stranger in the North End neighbourhood where he grew up.

Alice O’Neill has never belonged. Able to read music, but not words, she dreams of teaching piano – and of Liam, who has held her heart for years and never known. But Liam has shadowy ties in England that he’s revealed to no one, and in that fall of 1917, Halifax is on a collision course with fate. On December 6, a horrific accident of war will devastate the city’s North End. What will be left for Liam and Alice when their world is shattered?

That ‘accident of war’ was the Halifax Explosion of 1917, an event that changed the face of the city forever. For Thursday Thirteen, here are the facts of what occurred on the fine morning of December 6, as Halifax geared up for another busy wartime day.












1 -In Halifax in the fall of 1917, you could get a dinner of roast chicken with steamed potatoes and creamed carrots, followed by a choice of desserts – apple pie, custard, tapioca and other sweets – for 25 cents. A new business suit cost $18 to $35.

2 -The reason for Halifax’s existence is its harbour, one of the largest and deepest in the world. As an added bonus, the harbour proper is connected by a narrow channel (The Narrows) to an inner harbour (Bedford Basin) that can’t be seen from the open ocean. This made the city strategically vital as a shipping point for troops and supplies during both World Wars.

3 -14 harbour pilots and 8 apprentices were handling a shipping volume of 17 million tonnes a year at the time of the explosion. Traffic on the Harbour had never been so frantic.

Those working on the water knew an accident was inevitable, but everyone was more concerned about the possibility of enemy attack. In 1917 aerial warfare was in its infancy, and no one could be certain that Germany hadn’t secretly developed planes that could fly across the Atlantic or take off from the decks of ships to bomb North America. Submarine attack was an even more real possibility. The entrance to the Harbour was closed with nets from dusk to dawn, meaning all traffic had to come and go during daylight hours, increasing the congestion.

4 -The Explosion occurred when the French vessel Mont Blanc, loaded with picric acid, TNT, benzol and gun cotton, collided with Imo, a Belgian relief vessel, in The Narrows. Fuel drums on Mont Blanc’s deck caught fire, turning the ship into a floating bomb that drifted into Pier 6 in the city’s North End and detonated, destroying the community of Richmond and killing over 2000.



















5 - The Halifax Explosion is still the largest non-atomic, non-natural explosion in recorded history. It was used as a case study in predicting the effect of the atomic bomb.

6 -A half-ton piece of the anchor from Mont Blanc landed over 2 miles away from where she exploded.

7 -A huge tidal wave followed the blast. Sixty-four workmen at a pier were killed by a boulder believed to have come from the bottom of the Harbour. Ships touched bottom as the wave swept outward to shore.

8 -One sailor was swept off the deck of his ship by the wave, then dumped on the deck again in the backlash. He survived.

9 -Another sailor was blown half a mile from the deck of his ship to Needham Hill. He was picked up later, semi-conscious, wearing one shoe but not a stitch of clothing, battered but with no grave injuries.

10 -300 train cars and 20 locomotives were destroyed at the rail yard and the North Street train station.

11 -Halifax’s first motorized fire truck, the Patricia, responded to the fire on Mont Blanc and was destroyed at the waterfront along with the fire chief’s car. All in both vehicles were killed.

12 -After the Explosion, while everything possible was being done for the human victims, a committee was also formed to rescue injured and homeless animals. Horses, of course, were still very important in 1917, and many were killed or hurt.

13 -The youngest victim of the explosion was six days old.

Blog Advent Tour

It's my very great delight to take part in the Blog Advent Tour 2008, hosted by Kailana at The Written World and Marg at Reading Adventures. I discovered this tour through the blogosphere last year and it became one of the highlights of my holiday season.

I'm a self-confessed Christmas Maniac. I love pretty much everything to do with Christmas. Reading about fellow bloggers' Christmas traditions has been filled with discovery. Here are a few traditions native to my corner of the world.

I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the east coast of Canada. The three provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are known as the Maritime provinces, and we're all known as Maritimers. Historically we've made our living from fishing, logging and mining, so the Maritimes have been a rather economically depressed region for over 100 years. There is barely a resident here who has not known hardship, and this has given rise to one of the most cherished of our Christmas traditions - Christmas Daddies.


Christmas Daddies is a 45-year-old tradition here in the Maritimes. It began when a panhandling boy was chased out of a tavern several times. Two men enjoying their steaks and beer wanted to know what could drive the boy to come in for a third time. They heard about his family's struggles, passed a hat around the tavern and sent the boy home with $15.00.


The two men worked at the local radio and TV stations. The idea for running a telethon to raise money for all the children like the one who'd come to the tavern was born. Christmas Daddies is a variety show which features local talent, which these days is known outside the boundaries of our shores. When I was young, however, the show always featured performers such as the legendary Sadie - shown on the screen in the photo above. She did the Charleston each and every year.


These days Christmas Daddies features performers like country star George Canyon, originally from Pictou county.

These letters sent to Christmas Daddies are a perfect example of the Maritime experience. They're both sent from other areas of Canada - the Maritimes has a long history of people moving to wealthier provinces in order to make a go of things.

"Hi there! Greetings from Markham, ON.

I want to tell you what Christmas Daddies is all about. I came from Sydney and growing up was pretty rough, we are not all blessed with having all the nice things life has to offer but the one thing we had in common was Christmas and if you were good Santa came and for one day we were like all the other kids.

Then I turned 8 yrs old and I knew we were in trouble there was no money for food, lights, heat, clothes and I knew it was a matter of time there would be no money for Christmas.

But Santa started coming a little early, boxes of toys and food showed up there was someone out there that knew that we needed a Christmas. Now these days I make sure that my siblings and their kids have a good Christmas, for all kids deserve Christmas. I took the day off just for Christmas Daddies and it makes me grateful for all I have, thank God for wonderful people like you that care so much to make children so happy.

God bless.
A. S."

"Dear Christmas Daddies:

It was to my surprise, when I turned on my television set and was surfing through the channels and found you. (We had just received the Eastern Channels last week). I live in Langley, B.C.

I sang 'O Holy Night', in 1982. An astonishing 24 years ago!

The reason I sang then was to 'pay it forward', for the time that people helped out my Mom and our family when I was around one year of age (1965). My Mom often told us the story of the Christmas when the fire department came to our house with toys and a turkey to help us out. I recall my Mom expressing how humbled and grateful she was (with a tear in her eye), every time she told us this story.

I said that one day, I wanted to do something to help other people out, just like we were helped out. Well, I started with the Christmas Daddies.

Now, I am a Registered Nurse and am helping more people than I ever dreamed. God Bless you all for continuing the show, it really does make an impact on others lives .... I know, I was one of them.

Merry Christmas

D. W."















Another wonderful tradition which is dear to Nova Scotian hearts is the Christmas tree we send to Boston each year.

This is our way to thank the City of Boston for coming to the aid of Halifax after the Halifax Explosion in early December of 1917.


Halifax is a naval port and those First World War years saw a lot of traffic through Halifax Harbour, including unmarked munition ships like the Mont-Blanc. It collided with the Imo, a Norwegian relief ship.

After burning for 20 minutes, its volatile cargo exploded.


The force of the blast has not been surpassed as an accidental man-made explosion. Estimated as roughly the same as 3 kilotons of TNT, this compares to the 13-kiloton blast at Hiroshima. Everything in the path of the blast was obliterated. This photo shows the pre-explosion Halifax waterfront in 1917.


The harbour rose up in a tsunami to ravage the city, and to burden the survivors with even more misery, a blizzard fell that night, freezing anyone trapped in rubble who'd managed to initially survive the explosion. Around 2000 lives were lost and 9000 people were injured, some of whom survive today (who were children on that fateful day.)


This Halifax hydrostone housing development was supplied by Massachusetts relief efforts. "A relief train left from Boston at 10:00 PM on the day of the explosion. Relentlessly chugging through wintry terrain, it was delayed by heavy snowfall but reached Halifax just over 30 hours later at 3:00 AM on December 8, unloading much needed food, water, medical supplies, and some aid workers to relieve the Nova Scotia medical staff, many of whom had worked without rest since the morning of the explosion." (Wikipedia)


Here is the neighborhood today: Halifax's Hydrostone Market.

"This is the 37th year that Nova Scotia has donated a towering evergreen to serve as Boston's official Christmas tree. This year's 46-foot white spruce came from the property of Craig and Marina Cook, who live in Clementsvale, just outside Digby.

'We feel honored to have a tree chosen from our property to be sent to Boson this year,' Craig Cook said in a statement released by the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources. 'It's a privilege for us to be able to say thank you for the help they provided during the Halifax explosion.' " - The Boston Globe















My husband and I want to wish everyone a wonderful, joyous Christmas. Take time to savour this very special time of year.