The Halifax Explosion was a disaster that occurred in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada when on December 6, 1917 the French cargo ship, SS Mont-Blanc, whose hold was filled with explosives bound for the war in Europe, collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo in the Narrows connecting the upper Halifax Harbor with Bedford Basin, resulting in an explosion that killed 2,000 people, injured an estimated 9,000 others, and destroyed the city’s Richmond district whose structures, like most structures within a half mile radius were obliterated.
A tsunami created by the blast wiped out the community of the Mi’kmaq First Nations people who had lived in the area for generations.
There was a close maritime connection between Halifax and Boston, and many former Nova Scotians lived in the Boston area.
My own great grandfather was the captain of a steamship that made the regular run between Halifax and Boston, and his son and his wife, my maternal grandparents, moved to Boston immediately after their wedding so my grandfather could begin his job at the Gillette Safety Razor Company, something that might not have been possible if my grandfather, who had been scheduled to ship out to serve in Europe, hadn’t had his orders changed so that as a member of the medical corps he was assigned to remain in Halifax to tend to those injured during and after the explosion in the harbor. My grandmother was always happy to show the scar on her hand that resulted from protecting her face from the exploding widow of the department store in which she worked at the time.
When word of the explosion and a subsequent blizzard’s having fouled up Canadian railroads reached the city of Boston over the telegraph lines along the rails almost immediately after the blast, the city quickly organized and dispatched a relief train on the night of the explosion to distribute food, water, and medical supplies with many medical personnel on board able to relieve the Nova Scotia medical staff, most of whom had worked without rest since the explosion.
My grandfather never had any use for the Red Cross which, in his relating of his experience with the explosion, did not show up right away, but did eventually, and then bragged about it while the actual initial work was done by the individual volunteer medical personnel.
The following year as a gesture of gratitude, Halifax sent a huge Christmas tree to the city of Boston.
Although there was a great lag time between then and when the tradition was revived, every year the city of Boston gets a tree from Nova Scotia that meets the self-imposed specifications that the tree chosen each year must be a Balsam Fir, a White Spruce, or a Red Spruce, 40 to 50 feet tall, healthy with good color, medium to heavy density, uniform symmetry, and easy to access.
It arrived in late November, and was lit for the season on December 3, and it lights up Boston Common.
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