The Halifax Explosion  was a maritime disaster in Halifax early in the morning of December 6th, 1917. It was caused by two large freighter ships, the Mont Blanc and the SS IMO, crashing into each other in the passageway of the Halifax harbour. The devastation caused by this could not have been foreseen by anybody. 

In 1917, Halifax was a promising city with huge population growth, new ideas, military demands, and business due to the First World War. Being the eastern border of Canada, Halifax had a harbour for freighter ships being operated by civilians, the Royal Navy, and the Royal Canadian Navy. Large freighter ships carrying supplies for the war effort, imports, and much more navigated this harbour on a daily basis. The rule used for operating these ships on the water is similar to how cars drive in the road, always staying in the right side. On the morning of December 6th, a freighter called the SS IMO was preparing to leave the Halifax harbour. At the same time, a freighter called the Mont Blanc was preparing to enter the harbour. Dockworkers loaded the French vessel Mont Blanc with its doomsday cargo of picric acid, TNT, guncotton and benzol. It was all headed for the war in France, but Mont Blanc couldn’t cross the U-boat-ridden Atlantic alone. As the two ships began to navigate the harbour, they were directly in each other’s way. Both ships exchanged the sounds of their horns, both denying to change path. It wasn’t until moments before collision that both ships turned out of each other’s way in the same direction. This caused the two freighters to collide and creating the biggest manmade explosion to date.

The explosion caused a large tsunami, and an immense amount of damage. The entire community of Richmond was obliterated, and not many buildings continued to stand. In fact, every building within an 800 meter radius was completely destroyed. 

Zakaria, Michael S, Jayden, and I were assigned to create a news report based on the Halifax explosion. We decided our news report would take place on hour after the initial explosion, and we reported on the damage caused, emergency responders, and much more. We filmed our entire project in front of a green screen inside of Zakarias house, and added all the background in afterwards. We wrote our script after reading about the explosion from CBC. Here is our video.

*insert video*