Disasters Across Canada: Bravery in the Face of Danger and Destruction

I tried to write this review for many months after reading the book but, somehow, the words always manage to escape my grasp. After all, how do you express emotions brought to the surface after reading tale after tale of manmade and natural disasters? How do you express feelings dredged up over lives lost to tragedy? Finally, I realized I had no choice but to face the unpleasantness and focus instead on the positive. Disasters Across Canada is not an easy book to read, although it certainly qualifies as informative and well written. Montague combines historic detail with emotional impact. More than once, my heart caught in my throat as I read the fates of the people involved. Consider the following excerpt regarding Margaret Bloomsfield, a passenger aboard the paddle steamer Montréal, which burned and sank in 1857: "That day, she saved herself by leaping from the burning ship, then clinging to a rope until she was rescued. All the while, she clutched one child in her arms and another in her mouth, the latter so fiercely that she lost two teeth." Montague makes no mention of the Titanic (with its close ties to Nova Scotia during and after the sinking) and refers to the Halifax Explosion only in the appendix, but I suppose those events have already seen more than their fair share of coverage over the years. I also would have liked a reference to the 1970s oil spill caused by the sinking of Arrow off Nova Scotia. But then, Disasters is a relatively slim volume at 127 pages (but easily affordable at $9.95 Canadian) and covers a variety of events from across the country and over several generations. Disasters is also about the human factor: the toll on lives and the unforeseen heroes who often grow out of tragic events. Montague has given us a fitting memorial, one that mourns and celebrates with equal clarity and conviction.