Today we arrived in this beautiful city called Halifax. We rented a car so we can show Wendy Peggy’s Cove and Lunenburg and the Memorial for the Swiss Air Plane that went down Sept of 1998. It’s a somber kind of day. But first I couldn’t help think about a disaster that happened back in 1917 in the harbor we traveled in this morning. History once again.
An explosion occurred in the harbor of Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 6th of December 1917, killing more than 2000 persons and injuring another 10,000. The explosion leveled a large part of the city and left at least 20,000 people homeless. It was the largest man-made explosion in history to that date, not surpassed until an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima 3 decades later. The cause of the explosion was the collision of a Belgian ship, the Imo, carrying relief supplies to Belgium, and a French ship, the Mont Blanc, carrying 2600 tons of high explosives bound for France. This city has been thru hell and back. Boston learned of this disaster by telegraph and quickly dispatched a relief train with food and water and medical supplies, with Nurses and Doctors. Nova Scotia sends down a Christmas tree each year to Boston for thanking them and that is why a Christmas tree has been lit each year since 1941 in honoring Halifax and since 1971 a tree has been donated to Boston it has been given to the people of Boston by the people of Novia Scotia in thanks for their assistance after the 1917 Halifax Explosion. Did I just make since?
Peggy"s cove above and a memorial to the Fisherman that are lost at sea below.
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