Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion and the Road to Recovery

Until I visited Halifax, this was a little known tragedy. It was probably Canada's biggest disaster. A French munition ship taking ammunition from New York to France is sent to Halifax to link up with an outbound convoy. As she enters the inner harbor, a Norwegian relief ship rams her and starts a fire. The ship blows, leveling half of the city. The size of this explosion was great. I saw a large piece of the ship thrown 3 miles distance. To compound the disaster, on the next day the city is savaged by a fierce blizzard. Kitz set up the exhibit in the Maritime Museum about December 6, 1917. She has both a personal and professional interest in this tragedy. She writes from experience. In her book, she details both the tragedy itself, and the relief efforts. She spends more time on the relief than on the disaster itself. This is a good and interesting read.

Virtually unknown in the United States, the Halifax explosion of 1917 was the largest man-made explosion prior to the atomic age. Devestating Atlantic Canada's largest city, the human impact is well traced in Kitz's book.