Halifax was more than a necessity in shouldering some of the repairs and refits that could not be coped with" at home. Any interference with this output in the middle of war would be a tremendous setback.
So the captain sent a couple of his boats to see what could be done. If the fire could not be extinguished perhaps the vessel might be brought io rest by dropping her anchor, or hauled to one side. A minute after the boats from Highflyer got alongside, the Mont Blanc's steel hull burst with a terrific roar, which can be compared only with that of a great naval battle concentrated within moments.
The explosive effect was as if British, French, American and German artillery had suddenly combine ed in an endeavour to wipe out the whole of Halifax. Those brave men from the Highflyer vanished like dust before a rushing, mighty wind. The Nova Scotian earth rocked as if shaken by an earthquake. The water on which the vessels at anchor wer peacefully tethered to quays suddenly transformed into a great tidal wave.
Wharves and streets were swept by great waves, hurling men from their work into the boiling waters. Great buildings crumbled. Citizens were killed as.if by a sudden blight. And all because one moderate-sized ship had collided -with another.
The Mont Blanc was blasted into steer splinters, which flew in showers over the city everywhere. The Imo had been cast ashore by the explosive force, every one being killed, including the pilot.
Most of the vessels in' harbour were either wrecked or seriously damaged, the majority of their crews being killed. Every building within a radius of two miles was either razed to the ground or lacked a roof. Not a pane of glass within four miles survived. Even at two and a half miles a solid, concrete-built factory was demolished. Part of the Mont Blanc's anchor travelled this distance through the air. Other buildings were damaged five miles away from the scene of the explosion.
A fire-engine travelling at full speed when the burning Mont Blanc threatened to drift alongside the wharf was twisted by the explosion as if it were a bit of wire and all the firemen except one killed.
At sixty miles the shock was bad enough to ring church bells. The inhabitants of Newfoundland, 160 miles away, felt the concussion. The loss of a dry-dock, of a hospital and much of the dockyard was a severe blow to naval efficiency in North America.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.