Town clock and Harbor, Halifax, Nova Scotia look to the east.
Town clock and Harbor, Halifax, Nova Scotia look to the east.Text:Town Clock and Harbor, Halifax, N.S.Reverse:This view is of special interest on account of the Historic Old Town Clock, erected many years ago by the Imperial Government.
"At sea, the convoy system had begun to serve the Allied powers well. November's shipping losses were the lowest of the year, with 126 ships being sunk, fifty-six of them British. From the United States, four American battleships joined the British Grand Fleet that December. A massive 'shipbuilding crusade' was under way in the United States, to provide the merchant shipping needed for the war in 1918. There was a disaster for the Allies on December 6, many thousands of miles from the war zones: in the Canadian harbour of Halifax, a French merchant ship, the Mont Blanc, loaded with munitions for Europe, collided with a Belgian vessel and blew up. More than 1,600 people were killed and 9,000 injured: one in five of the city's population."
In Over Here 1914–1918, Mark Sullivan describes the 'Belgian vessel' as a Belgian relief ship, and reports that two square miles of Halifax were destroyed. A train of provisions, supplies, and relief personnel left Boston, Massachusetts the night of the explosion. Delayed by a blizzard, it arrived in Halifax on the 8th. The success of the convoy system thwarted the primary aim of the German policy of unrestricted submarine warfare: to drive Britain out of the war before the United States could build up adequate forces in Europe to prevent the defeat of France.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 387, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
1917-12-06, 1917, December, convoy, Halifax, Halifax explosion, Halifax disaster,
