The Great Halifax Explosion A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism

John U. Bacon

eBook - 2017

NATIONAL BESTSELLERThe "riveting" (National Post) tick-tock account of the largest manmade explosion in history prior to the atomic bomb, and the equally astonishing tales of survival and heroism that emerged from the ashes"Enthralling. ... Gripping. ... A captivating and emotionally investing journey." —Pittsburgh Post-GazetteAfter steaming out of New York City on December 1, 1917, laden with a staggering three thousand tons of TNT and other explosives, the munitions ship Mont-Blanc fought its way up the Atlantic coast, through waters prowled by enemy U-boats. As it approached the lively port city of Halifax, Mont-Blanc's deadly cargo erupted with the force of 2.9 kilotons of TNT—the most powerful explosion eve...r visited on a human population, save for HIroshima and Nagasaki. Mont-Blanc was vaporized in one fifteenth of a second; a shockwave leveled the surrounding city. Next came a... more