Background:

On the morning of December 6th 1917, the city of Halifax was rocked by the biggest explosion known to man before the development of nuclear weapons. World War I was still ongoing in Europe and Canada was embroiled in the issues of supporting the Allied forces in the war. The port of Halifax became a main hub for transportation of all types of resources to Europe. Among these included soldiers, relief supplies, and ammunition. Halifax will be literally flattened by its own popularity as a great port city.

The Event:

At the morning of the event, people went about their normal lives. Children went to school and adults went to their jobs. While all this happened, The Norwegian vessel carrying relief supplies S.S. Imo was transiting out a strait that led from the Halifax harbor the ocean. The S.S. Imo was late after experiencing delays while loading so it was going above the speed limit of the strait. Meanwhile, The S.S. Monte-Blanc was sailing into the “Narrows” and into harbor carrying high explosives and flammable liquids like TNT, Cordite, and Benzol. Due to relaxed regulations around the “Narrows due to the fear of German U-Boats roaming the area, ships were allowed more free movement in and out of the harbor to avoid being sunk. As the S.S. Imo dodged all the wayward ships, she went off course and soon was on a collision course with the S.S. Monte-Blanc. After a series of miscommunication with the two ships, they collided. The barrels of Benzol on board the Monte-Blanc tipped over and spilled. As the Imo disengaged from the collision, the sparks caused from the metal to metal grazing ignited the Benzol on the Monte-Blanc. The fiery liquid washed down the decks of the ship on fire. The fire eventually spread to the cordite and TNT which ignited. At 9:00, the Monte-Blanc exploded and destroyed Halifax.

The cloud that was created by the fire of the explosion.

The Destruction:

During the explosion on the S.S. Monte-Blanc, the area surrounding the ship was a fireball with temperatures rising to a blistering 5,000 degrees Celsius. Every building within a 2 kilometers of the explosion was flattened. As various stoves and lamps in people’s houses were knocked over, even more fires started. The explosion displaced all the water in the area so the seafloor was dry for a moment. The ensuing tsunami started from the displaced water wiped out a seaside First Nations village nearby. 1,600 were killed instantly with around 9,000 injured. Some were instantly decapitated and thrown by the force of the explosion or were trapped by the fires that spread around the city.

Halifax flattened after the explosion.

A comparison of what Halifax looked like before.

The Relief Effort:

Some ships that were nearby after the explosion went to help Halifax with treating the wounded. The government set up the Halifax Relief Commission which directed relief effort of Halifax.

The S.S. Imo after the explosion was thrown and grounded at this location.

Self Created News Program of Halifax Explosion (TBA):

Below is a video that Luciano, Spencer, Matthew. D, and I created. It was to be set in a news program format. The filming of Luciano and I was mediocre but Matthew made our background very well which bolstered the project well.

Reflection:

Writing about this subject was fairly easy as it was all really just facts. The main challenge was the video because we had to act like news casters and that was slightly difficult because I am always awkward at these things. I hope that my next projects will have the quality of Matthew’s editing.

Soldiers in World War I were normal people too. They had their own love lives and wanted to get a proper job in their home country. They previous job occupation could have been a painter or poet. All we know is that they are at war and we should understand what they thought during these hard times. For this project, the teachers have assigned us to write a diary entry based on the experiences of a dead soldier of World War I. The diary was to try to emulate how the soldier wrote, this meant including his voice and other things.

My first steps was to find a soldier to write in. The soldier profile I found included some of his diary entries so I was able find most of what he did. The soldier’s name was Bernard James Glynn. A second lieutenant in the Canadian Royal Flying Corps, he flew planes with the 34th squadron. He was born in 1897 and dies in 1917.

As I began writing, I also read through his diary entries found out some details that made this soldier interesting to write on. I included how he had a girlfriend in London and treated her very well and also how he was religious tried to find time to go to masses. He writing style was short and at times, incomplete sentences like he was listing things he did throughout the day write after doing it instead of writing about it at the end of the day. He also likes to look at the churches and cathedrals of Europe of which he finds very beautiful.

I learned somethings about an officers life in World War I. Glynn, who flew reconnaissance for years he was alive, had a creaky consistent social life. I suppose his status as an officer gave him perks in getting leave and going out with other officers. He was constantly meeting new people in the army as he moved around and regarded almost all of them with a very positive outlook. Another thing was the general entertainment back then was talking with people over a luncheon or tea. Movies was also very popular as Glynn say a lot of them with his newfound friends. Also, I learned that there was still time for the soldiers to go to churches.

Overall, this project gave me a lot of insight on the life of a soldier, especially of the pilots. It seems that their social activities kept them being overexposed to the horrors of war and that their lives seemed a little easier than the frontline soldiers even though most were killed within three weeks. What I mainly took away from this project was the soldiers of any side sometimes had a peaceful background where there were family and loved ones that cared for them. The soldiers also found ways to entertain themselves and find others to support one another.

The things I feel I need to work on in this assignment is the interpretation of Glynn’s text. I feel there is a deeper context from what I could discern for now. I could have also found a paper background to write the diary entry on but everything was watermarked, I will search harder next time. Below is the diary entry that I wrote to emulate Glynn. Hope you enjoy!

World War I was a conflict spanning the years 1914 to 1918. The conflict wounded or killed 38 million people. New weapons of war were created to make either side exhaust the amount of men they had. This is the definition of total war, a war on a global scale that utilized all infrastructure of all involved countries for production that benefited the war. Many say that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the cause of the war. Many historians like G. Herschfeld, J. Remak, and R.J. Evans have different ideas on how the war started. I decided to study G. Herschfeld’s view of how this horrible conflict started.

The destruction of World War I.

G. Herschfeld’s theory of how World War I started revolves around the idea of how a fear of loss of prestige from the various kings and a complex chain of military alliances only created for military protection from other nations, winded up Europe to the point where any small incident could have triggered the start World War One.

A map of the Central and Allied powers.

The filming project happened at the most random time. I worked with classmates Luciano and Spencer on this and on that day, Spencer just happened to be in his Halloween costume and Luciano is a funny man. This all manifested to the idea of a viking cooking show that explained G. Herschfeld’s explanation for World War I. The cooking show idea came up when I thought of doing a recipe and Spencer chimed in on how we could do a cooking show.

The creating this project really opened my eyes to different ways of presenting an idea. Instead of doing a very mainstream slideshow, the teachers forced us to use more creative methods of presenting. The content of the project gave me a more concise view of World War I started. Instead of the assassination of the Archduke being the cause, it was actually a spark that caused a chain of events to unravel into a world war.

The assassination of the Archduke.

This was a new thing to me but I am definitely doing my projects in more creative ways like this in comparison to before.

      For my one person project, I really I’d not know what I was in for. I was granted a lot of freedom and I did not know what to do with it. I ended up with doing what everybody did and showed my project through Explain Everything. As I did this project, I slowly stumbled through making the necessary props by myself. The final product was definitely not up to par rest of the class but I am determined to make the best presentations in the future.

      The Laurier Era was a time of gearing up and a time to shine for Canada as a whole. I decided to study what Canada did to help Britain prepare for the war. With World War One incoming, Britain was gearing up for war and requesting help from its colonies and closest allies for help. Laurier, then prime minister of Canada, decided that he would help Britain Laurier his decision will also have to come with a solution on how to keep the English Canadians and the Canadiens happy. Here is my presentation on the matter.