Early in the morning of December 5, 1917, the small French transport ship Mont Blanc, with a displacement of 3121 tons, arrived from New York, docked on the roadstead of the Canadian port of Halifax. The next day, early in the morning, he was to enter the bay and wait for further instructions from the port authorities. There was nothing remarkable about the transport ship; it did not differ in anything outstanding from hundreds of similar ships that plowed the waters of the Atlantic during those war years, except for one - their secret cargo. On its deck and in the holds were powerful explosives: 2300 tons of picric acid, 35 tons of benzene for armored cars and tanks, 200 tons of TNT, 10 tons of powder cotton. Thus, "Mont Blanc" was a gigantic grenade weighing more than three thousand tons, but only the port authorities and the ship's crew knew about it. The sailors were warned in advancethat smoking and any kind of fire is prohibited on the ship. They even had matches, lighters and other smoking accessories taken from them. This dangerous combustible and explosive mixture, intended for military purposes, was to go to the French port of Bordeaux. The cargo was waiting there to be used in battles against Germany.
It was too risky to cross the Atlantic alone at that time. German warships sailed in its waters, submarines hunted for transports. And so convoys formed in Halifax. "Mont Blanc" was to join such a convoy of ships in order to cross the Atlantic with them and with the guards from gunboats.
The morning of December 6, 1917, when Mont Blanc finally received permission to enter the port, promised wonderful sunny weather for the inhabitants of Halifax. In this early, quiet hour, it was difficult to imagine that somewhere in Europe a war was raging, and very close, in the North Atlantic, Kaiser's submarines were prowling.
The Norwegian cargo steamer Imo was also among the many ships that were in the Halifax roadstead. At about ten o'clock in the morning, he weighed anchor and headed across the Narrows Strait into the open ocean. At the same time, through the same strait from the opposite side - to Halifax - "Mont Blanc" was also leaving. Having received permission to enter the port, the captain of the ship Le Medek asked the local pilot Francis Mackay to start his duties. Entering the narrowed fairway was not an easy matter: minefields were located on one side, and nets stretched on the other, blocking the path of enemy submarines. In addition, heavily laden ships were also approaching. Extreme caution was required. The pilot knew what kind of cargo was on the deck and in the holds of the Mont Blanc, he was experienced enough and confidently guided the ship along the narrow fairway,adhering to the permitted speed of four knots.
There was enough space in the strait to allow both ships to safely disperse, visibility was perfect, and there were no other ships in the channel. International rules for the prevention of collisions between ships (adopted as early as 1889) require that "in narrow aisles every steam vessel should keep to the side of the fairway or main passage, which is on the right side of the ship." Three quarters of a mile is a long distance. There is always time to think, orient yourself, make the necessary maneuver. But it turned out that both captains did not show due caution and did not slow down the speed of their ships.
"Imo" and "Mont Blanc" met before the turn of the strait. The fatal consequences of a perfect mistake were not long in coming. The nose of "Imo", like an ax of a fabulous giant, pierced the right side of the "Mont Blanc", and the stem turned its side three meters deep. From the broken barrels, benzene ran down the deck, and from there onto the twin deck where the picric acid was stacked. At this time, the "Imo" machine had been working in reverse for almost a whole minute, which extinguished the ship's inertia. His nose slid out of the hole with a terrible grinding, and a sheaf of sparks from the friction ignited the spilled benzene. And then the flame spread to neighboring barrels.
In such conditions, the struggle against the raging flames, the struggle to save the ship made no sense and could only lead to more victims. The captain could not even flood the ship, since all his kingstones, which had not been used for many years, rusted. It took time to open them, but it just wasn't there. And then Le Medek ordered to direct the ship to the exit from the strait and launch the boats. He hoped that, having developed full speed, "Mont Blanc" would scoop up a lot and go to the bottom. The main thing is to take him away from the city. The time was counted for seconds …
The ship, on which the fire was raging with might and main, was noticed on warships and on moored steamers. The residents of nearby houses also saw it. Attracted by such an unusual sight, at the same time terrible and exciting, they began to gather on the embankment. Soon, the people on the shore were surprised to see that the Mont Blanc's crew began hastily to launch the lifeboats. Several people, without even waiting for the boats, threw themselves from the steamer into the water and swam to the shore.
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The abandoned steamer did not scoop up sea water and did not sink to the bottom, as the captain and pilot expected. Although the course was dormant, the internal current began to pull it to the piers of Richmond, where convoy ships stood under loading.
From the cruiser "Highflyer", on which they knew nothing about the cargo of "Mont Blanc", they sent a boat with sailors to it. The cruiser commander judged correctly: it was necessary to throw a cable over the burning transport ship and bring it out of the port into the open sea. Meanwhile, blazing like a torch, the Mont Blanc was already docking to the wooden pier. Thick smoke from it stretched in a wide strip towards the cloudless sky, the ominous silence that came on was broken only by the dull rumble and hiss of fire.
Nevertheless, they managed to throw the cable from the cruiser, and the cruiser began to divert the flaming Mont Blanc to the ocean. Arrived at the scene and fire ships, but all their attempts to extinguish the flame were unsuccessful. It took only a few minutes to avoid disaster. Suddenly, a 100-meter tongue of fire shot up over the Mont Blanc, and a moment later a monstrous explosion shook the air. In an instant, the transporter shattered into small hot pieces.
For a few minutes, the entire port and the ships at the dock were drowned in pitch darkness. For several minutes, Halifax was enveloped in black smoke, through which hot pieces of metal, fragments of bricks, pieces of rocks from the seabed fell on the city. When it cleared a little, everyone saw that a boiling funnel had formed in the place of the flaming Mont Blanc.
The explosion is still remembered in Canada. Some modern experts believe that before the advent of the atomic bomb, this was the largest explosion. It was so strong that the bottom of North Arm Bay was exposed for several seconds. The remains of the transporter were then found several kilometers from the explosion site. Part of the Mont Blanc's anchor, which weighed half a ton, was thrown across the bay by the explosion and fell two miles from the explosion. The four-inch cannon was found a mile beyond Dartmouth a few months later.
All warehouses, port facilities, factories and houses located on the shore were swept off the face of the earth by the shock wave. Richmond, the northern part of the city, was particularly hard hit. Here, a Protestant shelter, a sugar factory, a textile factory, and three schools were completely destroyed. Fortunately, there were no children in them then. A railway bridge collapsed into the water. Telegraph poles broke like matches, and fires started everywhere. Shrouded in smoke, half destroyed, Halifax was a picture of Dante's hell. In total, 1,600 houses were completely destroyed and 1,500 were badly damaged.
A giant wave, more than five meters high, threw huge ships ashore. Among them was "Imo", disfigured beyond recognition. Standing in the harbor, the cruiser "Niobe" (with a displacement of 11,000 tons) was thrown ashore like an empty bottle. Almost half of the 150 moored vessels perished.
According to official data, the death toll reached two thousand, over two thousand were missing, about ten thousand were injured of varying severity. 25,000 people were left homeless and homeless.
For a long time, the remains of many wrecked ships, hundreds of human corpses and dead animals floated in the dirty port water. For a long time later, the people of Halifax had to heal the wounds inflicted by the terrible explosion. Many states came to the aid of the destroyed city, collected donations, sent warm blankets, tents, food. Later, a trial took place, which found the captain of "Mont Blanc" and his pilot guilty of the crash. True, the French government did not agree with this verdict, and a re-hearing was scheduled. Once again, Le Medec was the culprit. Although, according to some experts, the British Admiralty should have justly been blamed, which gave the order to enter the Mont Blanc filled with explosives into a narrow bay near the city. After all, he could calmly wait for his turn and join the convoy already on the roads.
From the book: "HUNDRED GREAT DISASTERS". N. A. Ionina, M. N. Kubeev