| Accident type | : Explosion |
| Vessels involved | : SS Mont-Blanc and SS Imo |
| Date | : December 6, 1917 |
| Casualties | : 2,000 died and 6,000 injured |
VESSEL INFO:
| Name | : SS Mont-Blanc |
| Built in | : 1899 |
| Flag | : France |
| Type | : General Cargo |
| Tonnage | : 3121 gross tons |
| Length | : 98 m (320 ft) |
| Beam | : 13.7 m (44.8 ft) |
| Depth | : 4.7 m (15.3 ft) |
The SS Mont-Blanc was a freighter built in Middlesbrough, England in 1899. On December 6, 1917, in Nova Scotia’s busy Halifax Harbor, the SS Mont-Blanc, a French ship was loaded with a full cargo of highly volatile explosives. As she made her way through the Narrows towards Bedford Basin, she was involved in a collision with the Norwegian ship, SS Imo.
After the collision, fire broke out on the SS Mont-Blanc, which soon ran aground on the Halifax waterfront, where a crowd had gathered to watch the burning ship. About 20 minutes after the collision, the fire ignited the 2,925 tons of explosives the SS Mont-Blanc was transporting and sparked a massive blast.
The blast killed scores of people instantly and devastated the surrounding area, toppling buildings, setting entire blocks ablaze and triggering a tsunami.
More than 2,000 people died as a result of what became known as the Halifax Explosion—the largest man-made blast until the first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan in 1945– while more than 6,000 others were injured and some 9,000 people were left homeless.
Source: Wikipedia
