Shattered city : the Halifax explosion and the road to recovery.

In December 1917 Halifax was alive with excitement. The streets were filled with troops, and the city, far removed from the bitter fighting in Europe, was reaping all the advantages of war. On the morning of December 6, however, the bloodshed came to Halifax with a vengeance when a French munitions ship and a Belgian relief vessel collided in the harbor. The munitions vessel drifted into the North End and exploded, killing more than sixteen hundred people instantly, wounding more than nine thousand others, and damaging or destroying approximately twelve thousand buildings. The complete devastation covered an area of 325 acres, and hardly a window in the city was left intact. The statistics are astounding enough, but the testimonies from survivors are even more astonishing. What followed the explosion was a remarkable feat in restoration. Thousands of Haligonians and Maritimers - and hundreds of individuals from places as far flung as Boston, Massachusetts, and London, England - banded together in a massive relief effort. Meanwhile, rumours of German sabotage abounded, even though a lengthy inquiry, a court case, and two appeals determined that the catastrophe had been a result of human error. To this day, in fact, there are those who insist that German spies were responsible for the incident