HALIFAX, 1917 A 2,900-TON CATASTROPHE
The 6 December 1917 started like any other day for Vincent Coleman, a telegraph dispatcher for the Canadian Government Railways, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He left his wife, Frances, and children at home in the morning and walked the few blocks downhill to his workplace at Richmond Station. His job was to control traffic flow in and out of the maritime city, directing the incoming cargoladen trains to their correct wharf. Pier 6 stood only a short distance away, a site that, in a matter of hours, would become the epicentre of the greatest man-made explosion before the 1945 atomic bomb detonations. Coleman had seen his family for the last time, though his legacy would live on.
At the time there was little concern other than the crisp cold of winter and the prospect of snow. The war, while tragic, had brought commerce and bustle to Halifax and neighbouring Dartmouth. Businesses flourished, throngs of people crowded the docks and ships bound for Europe awaited orders in the harbour. To the northwest, the Bedford Basin formed a narrow passage where vessels, guided by harbour pilots at the helm, could enter and exit, protected by two antisubmarine nets made of steel mesh. Gates in the nets
