Catastrophe

Catastrophe weaves together compelling stories and potent lessons learned from the calamitous Halifax explosion--the worst non-natural disaster in North America before 9/11.

On December 6, 1917, the Canadian city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was shattered when volatile cargo on the SS Mont-Blanc freighter exploded in the bustling wartime harbour. More than sixteen hundred people were killed and nine thousand injured. Across 325 acres, homes, schools, factories, and churches were obliterated.

Written from a scholarly perspective but in a journalistic style accessible to the general reader, this book explores how the explosion influenced later emergency planning and disaster theory. Supported with firsthand and archival accounts, the account examines the disaster from all angles. It deals with the role of women, shows how the medical response was put together, documents the Canadian response, and reveals the problems and benefits of the American response. It provides for the first time an explanation of what really happened based on the unpublished records of the harbourmaster, who tried in vain to stop the Mont-Blanc from entering harbour.

This book will be of particular interest to disaster researchers and emergency planners along with journalists, and scholars of history, Maritime studies, and Canadian studies.

On December 6, 1917, the Canadian city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was shattered when a volatile cargo exploded in the bustling wartime harbour. Over 1,600 people were killed and 9,000 injured. At the time, it was the worst man-made disaster in history. This book weaves together the compelling stories and potent lessons learned from this catastrophe.
T. Joseph Scanlon was an accomplished Canadian journalist who became renowned internationally as a disaster researcher and scholar. He served as president of the International Research Committee and was awarded the Charles Fritz award for a lifetime contribution to the sociology of disaster. He died in May 2015.
Roger Sarty, history professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, was in previous careers senior historian at the Department of National Defence and deputy director at the Canadian War Museum. His other books on the Canadian Army in the Maritimes include Saint John Fortifications (2003, with Doug Knight) and Guardian of the Gulf: Sydney Cape Breton and the Atlantic Wars (2012, with Brian Tennyson).