
The Great Halifax Explosion
A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism
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Narrated by:
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Johnny Heller
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By:
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John U. Bacon
From New York Times best-selling author John U. Bacon, a gripping narrative history of the largest manmade detonation prior to Hiroshima: In 1917, a ship laden with the most explosives ever packed on a vessel sailed out of Brooklyn's harbor for the battlegrounds of World War I; when it stopped in Halifax, Nova Scotia, an extraordinary disaster awaited....
On Monday, December 3, 1917, the French freighter SS Mont-Blanc set sail from Brooklyn carrying the largest cache of explosives ever loaded onto a ship, including 2,300 tons of picric acid, an unstable, poisonous chemical more powerful than TNT. The US had just recently entered World War I, and the ordnance was bound for the battlefields of France to help the Allies break the grueling stalemate that had protracted the fighting for nearly four demoralizing years. The explosives were so dangerous that Captain Aimé Le Medec took unprecedented safety measures, including banning the crew from smoking, lighting matches, or even touching a drop of liquor.
Sailing north, the Mont-Blanc faced deadly danger, enduring a terrifying snowstorm off the coast of Maine and evading stealthy enemy U-boats hunting the waters of the Atlantic. But it was in Nova Scotia that an extraordinary disaster awaited. As the Mont-Blanc waited to dock in Halifax, it was struck by a Norwegian relief ship, the Imo, charging out of port. A small fire on the freighter's deck caused by the impact ignited the explosives below, resulting in a horrific blast that, in 1/15 of a second, leveled 325 acres of Halifax - killing more than 1,000 people and wounding 9,000 more.
In this definitive account, Bacon combines research and eyewitness accounts to re-create the tragedy and its aftermath, including the international effort to rebuild the devastated port city. As he brings to light one of the most dramatic incidents of the 20th century, Bacon explores the long shadow this first "weapon of mass destruction" would cast on the future of nuclear warfare - crucial insights and understanding relevant to us today.
©2017 John U. Bacon (P)2017 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...




















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A tragic but also very hopeful book
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The biggest question I’d always had about the explosion had been to wonder how Mont Blanc got saddled with sole blame at the two initial legal cases. This book offers an explanation that feels very compelling to me.
The narrator does a great job with the text. I recommend this work to all readers.
A Good, Humane, Account of an Inhumane Tragedy
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Fascinating Day in Historu
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A well told horrifying story
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great story
tragedy that brought the US & Canada together
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Incredible
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Touching and Memorable
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Fascinating Piece of History
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Informative and interesting
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Unsung heros unearthed amidst overlooked history
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