I like your channel. Do you have an educational background in history? It seems like you might.

"Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbour making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye boys."

If anyone wants a glimpse at what the Halifax explosion looked like, just take a look at the videos of the recent Beirut explosion of 2020. The blasts were very similar in size. Halifax was about 2.9 kilotons, and the Beirut blast was 2.7 kilotons.

I got teary-eyed when I heard Halifax still sends Christmas trees to Boston. That's wonderful.

Canada's Heritage Minute does a nice telling of Coleman saving the train.

Vincent Coleman was truly one of the best of humanity. What an exemplary soul. I hope he's doing well in his next life.

I was listening to this while drinking a brandy. Mr. Coleman...a toast and much respect. You knew you would not survive and went back anyway. There were hundreds more people that lived because of you.

I've sailed as Engineer on 3 ammo ships. 2 of them old steam ships. Having a good idea what I was getting into, I figured that if there was an explosion it would be so fast it wouldn't matter. No where to run, no where to hide.

In grade school, I has Sisters of Charity of Halifax as teachers. Several of my teachers were postulants or novices at the time of the explosion. The motherhouse happened to be on the reverse slope of one of the hills, so they were spared. The stories they told though of combing through the wreckage afterwards looking for survivors and deceased souls was spellbinding. They were some strong women, they made my education in grade school a wonderful experience.

The railway worker is a selfless badass “gg boys”

For the 28 years following the disaster, Halifax was the yardstick that other explosions were held up against. When the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Time Magazine stated it as being seven times the power of Halifax

Here is an interesting fact, the SS Imo was originally operated by the White Star Line and was originally named SS Runic.

Coming from a family of merchant navy,I always found interest in ships especially historical ones.And I find your videos a great history lesson. Keep them coming sir.

And thirty years later someone decided we need a bigger bomb.

Patrick Vincent Coleman - respect always

Vince Coleman was actually one of the only people in Halifax that had prior knowledge of the Mount Blanc's cargo... My local library had a book entitled "The City that Disappeared" that was written in 1962 and was my introduction to this tragedy..I dont remember the author, however.

Thanks for making this! I’m from Halifax and am fascinated by this. I live in a house on the Dartmouth waterfront. It makes me wonder what was here before!

I got a celebrity cruise line ad half way through this! XD

have lived in Halifax since the 80's and this is the best video I've seen that clearly explains how it went down. Well done.

The Longest Johns song on this, Fire and Flames is really good

My great grandmother was in Halifax as a teenager for this. She would tell stories about it before she passed. And my uncle donated one of the tree's to Boston in the late 90's. It was a huge tree. He still has part of the stump

Never forget that day rest in peace for all who died

Enjoyed all your videos so far, especially looking forward to some more ocean liner videos.

Apparently the Olympic was in Halifax just a few days before this disaster. If she was still there she almost certainly would have been lost. I know she already had the nickname "Old Reliable", but I feel that "Lucky Lady" would also apply. Narrowly escaping Halifax, gets hit with a torpedo that turned out to be a dud (which if it wasn't it would probably have sunk her), and ramming/getting rammed by multiple other vessels and still came out of each one relatively unharmed. There was just something special about that ship I swear, I wouldn't be surprised if she would have sunk the iceberg instead if she were in Titanic's position. Just a real shame that her sisters were perhaps the unluckiest in history.

Lovely video! I'm writing my senior history thesis on this topic, so it's great to see some more interest in it

I had never heard about this awful disaster! I'm glad i clicked on it

Great research & terrifically done.

There was never before or after an explosion of this magnitude until the dropping of an atom bomb.

Just found your channel and I love your videos!

Good narrative. Picked up some new tidbits I was unaware of and the graphic explains nicely how this came about.

Thanks for your time and hard work. Until today I never heard of this, thanks.....

This is the first video I’ve watched of yours, and that was super good!

Hi there. Just recently subbed. Love your videos so much ...

Excellent video.

Because of all the windows shattering and people watching the burning ship through said windows, the Halifax explosion was also the largest mass-blinding in Canadian history, about 850 people were permanently blinded that day, their lives changed forever. The explosion was a big reason for the formation of the Canadian Nation Institute for the Blind, the CNIB. A terrible tragedy in every sense of the word that I hope will never be repeated.

I love your channel. I would love a video about the so-called Japanese hell prison ships of World War II.

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So you’re the captain of a ship carrying explosives and you refuse to move off course then after the fire breaks out realise the danger you call for an abandon ship, my god the audacity.

It's interesting that 2 of the worst maritime disasters in Canada (the Halifax disaster & the sinking of the Empress of Ireland) were caused by Norwegian ships colliding into them

the Christmas 🎄 tree arrived in Boston people beautiful way to say thanks for helping rebuilding Halifax specially in North of Halifax

Here are several books about the explosion: Explosion in Halifax Harbour 1917 by Dan Soucoup. The Halifax Explosion by Ken Cuthbertson. The Great Halifax Explosion by John U Bacon. The Town that Died by Michael J Bird. Shattered City by Janet Kitz.

Well done bro! That is all

Very interesting 👏

My god who would have thought we would see something like this again this year

6:26 the Mad lad way to go off

1500 dead with 9,000 wounded doesn't sound too bad until you remember that's a sizeable chunk of the entire city at the time. Imagine the death toll if this happened in WW2, or in modern day Halifax.

Great video this is one event I heard a lot about growing up. I know lot's of my family on my dad's side didn't make it either.

Fasinating. I had no idea.

Imagine if RMS Olympic had been in the port when the explosion happened

One Short Blast means, I am altering course to Starboard. Two Short Blasts means I an altering course to Port. Three Short Blasts means , my engines are going astern.

Thanks.

My mother is from a small town in Nova Scotia not far from Halifax, although she was born in 1935, this disaster greatly affected her family, and then intern my family. Back then big families were quite common as infant mortality rates were quite high. In one home they were 15 children, all would’ve been my great aunt and uncles, all of them, including both their parents were killed instantly the moment the explosion happened as their home was right on the waterfront. It was just a horrible flu that kept the entire family home that day, when normally they would have been at school, and the parents would have been at work, quite far away from the explosion and probably would have survived. It’s a very very dark day in my family‘s history that we lost 17 family members in a matter of seconds. Although I naturally never met any of them, with family comes love, and even watching this has me in tears, just imagining the terror that they went through at the moment of the explosion. Our only solace is knowing they died probably instantly, as a matter of fact were told that they were probably vaporized by the heat wave that was hotter than the surface of the sun. It obliterated the entire city, had it not been for the kindness and charity of the people of Boston, Halifax would’ve never recovered, at least not to the degree that it did, and I am forever grateful to them. It was one of the worst war time disasters in history, yet for so many reasons, so few people even know about it, with Hollywood re-creating disasters all the time, why have they not yet made a moody to honour the memories of the people that perished, like my family? They have made a few cheesy made for TV movies, but never something that is worthy of truly telling their story and letting the world know about it so that they are never forgotten. I just wish to God someone like James Cameron, a Canadian, would come and make a movie to honour the biggest pre-atomic explosion in human history! All of this happened long before I was born, it’s still hurts me anyways, 17 members of my family gone in seconds, how would you feel?

If the rule was to stay right, why didn't the Imo turn to stern and get back on the correct side after passing the tug boat? Why maintain course in the wrong lane? Especially after another ship had already sounded they would stay course on the correct side? I dont get it. The first ship that caused the IMO to move into the wrong lane, and the IMO's failure to correct asap seems to be the cause of this accident. But why not correct your position at the first opportunity?

My grandfather planted the roses at the park where the canon landed

Wish you could make more videos on trains and railroading, the only railroad specific video is the one on canadian pacific, would you do more like those?

How have I never heard about this?

I live in Halifax! This video was so well done!!

my grandfather was an infant in Boston in the winter of 1917, and the family trade was ship-welding, so I imagine his own father's work in Boston Harbor was majorly affected by this explosion. Apparently, my great-grandfather was as taciturn as his son was gregarious, so my grandfather had only remote speculations to offer on how this event personally affected our family. Reflection is a privilege not all can access

I was thinking that the explosion would only destruct other ships and the buildings in the side of the canal 😶

"No man hath greater love than this: than to give up his life for the sake of his friends" - J of N

_Let me sing you a song boys of fire and flame_ _of a french ammo ship, the Montblanc was her name_ _how brave nova scotia was never the same_ _on the morning when Halifax burned_

NEW SUB

There was a similar incident in WW2, where a US Navy ammo ship Just randomly decided its a good time to explode, in a hub Port with houndrets of armed warships docked

God Bless Vincent Coleman for his selfless, courageous act knowing he wouldn't survive if (when) Mont Blanc exploded.

ThanksBoston

Halifax ,nova Scotia is where 19 month old Sidney Leslie Goodwin who died in the sinking of the titanic is buried

0:30 "terrorized by germanese (!) U-boats" LOL

I'm just now realizing that it's the 105th anniversary of this tragedy 😳

I have a very interesting question, in the tv movie Shattered City the Halifax Explosion, there was a scene of what I suppose was a German spy trying to open the sea cocks so the munitions won't explode into the Innocent people of Halifax. I don't know if this scene ever happened but I was kind of curious recently as I saw some people putting fireworks in the icy water and yet they would explode. So my question is if the Imo were to sink before the explosions ignited would it stop the ammunition from exploding?

My family lost many family members in this explosion. We lost William Arthur Lovett and his son William Arthur Lovett and son's spouse Bertha Josephine Lovett and son's daughter Edna Frances Lovett only 3 years old, Alfred Lovett and his son Charles Lovett, and Ada E Lovett... The Lovett family lost many wonderful people... If you know anyone who is related to my family please comment or message me. We are looking for relatives. Thank you. Rest in peace my family.

so the tug is the culprit - i will guess that the captain of tug boat was never called for his actions

This ship was essentially a nuclear weapon in terms of explosive power.

7:06 Are you serious the core of the Explosion is 5000°f. The kinda sounds freaking hot.

Can you do one on the black Tom explosion in Jersey city New Jersey

Doesnt a giant death toll and explosion give a Christmas vive?

at 1:36 I kept having to replay because I kept hearing "emo" and each time since you've said the name I have, guilty as charged, had a moment of "haha thats funny" before I remember that a lot of people lost their lives. :(

Also many hundreds were blinded by flying glass.

This happened on my birthday December 6

What a quinsidence the imo was once a white star liner name SS runic i think

Why was that first inbound ship in the out bound lane ? The Imo captain had his ship in the right position , he should have stayed in the out bound lane .

Fun fact Olympic a few days early before the explosion

Why have flight controller opening ? You are into ships.

I live only a few minutes walk from ground zero.

Ho Ho happy holliday? This is one of those weird ones for sure. Now we have Beirut, which is the new second place behind Hallifax for largest noon nuclear explosion. Which I think was the Texas fertilizer ship explosion.

Thousands of “civilian” ships. The majority were army supply ships like tankers, and troop transports. Many others sunk were armed navy vessels. Very few civilian ships were suck and when they were suck most of the time they were trying to smuggle ammunition or something for the war effort. Which makes them no longer civilian vessels.

Germans- Did we just sink that ship?

My great grandpa was killed by the explosion

4:04

Potential ³.

to add at that time of history, the rules of the road, written down as they are and answerable to a court of law, the people who follow them still have egos regarding who should be in there positions, (red, right, returning) I would think all these rules and laws of the sea, were seen as suggestions, this is from my humble career on 4 different railways from the 70's and I have had relations who worked from the 50's, I have also worked with guys who worked with people in the railroad from the turn of the century, they said the job has been much the same until the 80's, in Canada anyway as we were a crown company

Why such a Loud intro?!

The IMO was wrong. The other ship did have the right of way and the IMO should be blamed

all of this could have been avoided if one of them were to just make way. well the smaller ships should

1917 The Halifax Explosion 1989 Tugs Munision

Not a long enough video...I don't mean to be rude, I know that you try to keep your videos short and to the point, but it would've been nice to see a detailed explanation on many points.

I like your videos, topics and also narration... but I feel this video was way, WAY too short and did not cover enough. So many questions remain, so many stories are not told. Considering how big the event was, it deserved more. Don't get me wrong, the video is great... but it should have covered more.

Yikes. Present day Halifax looks even worse than it did right after the explosion.

The first nuke I guess

BIG BADABOOM !

Ah yes, if you take a modern map and make it look like old paper it becomes a 1917 map!