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THE US MILITARY dropped the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in its arsenal on an Islamic State stronghold in Afghanistan yesterday .
Nicknamed the ‘Mother of All Bombs‘ (but officially called the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb), the 30-foot-long munition reportedly killed 36 ISIS fighters and crushed a network of caves, tunnels and bunkers dug into a remote mountainside.
The strike was akin to setting off about 11 tonnes of TNT — a school bus’ weight worth of explosives.
However, the attack pales in comparison to an accidental explosion that rocked a coastal town nearly three decades before the first atomic bomb.
On the morning of 6 December 1917, a ship detonated in the harbour of Halifax, Nova Scotia, unleashing a blast equivalent to about 3,000 tonnes of TNT.
The resulting shockwave instantly killed more than 1,000 people, threw a cargo ship like a bath toy and created a 50-foot-tall tidal wave.
This is the incredible and horrifying story of the Halifax Explosion: the largest human-made, non-nuclear blast in history.
By December 1917, World War I had been raging for three years. Halifax, located on Canada’s east coast, served as an important port for shipping troops and supplies to Europe.
On 6 December, a Norwegian cargo ship, the SS Imo, was departing Halifax on its way to New York. The ship was en route from the Netherlands to ferry supplies back to a war-ravaged Belgium.
Source: NASA
At the same time, the SS Mont Blanc was bound to return to France carrying a host of highly explosive materials: 2,367 tonnes of picric acid, 62 tonnes of guncotton, 250 tonnes of TNT and 246 tonnes of benzol in barrels below decks.
Source: NASA
To exit the Bedford Basin, where the ships were docked, they had to pass through a slim channel. The Imo — behind schedule and on the wrong side of the channel — refused to give way and crashed into the Mont Blanc.
Although the collision occurred at low speed, the benzol spilled and sparks ignited the entire stockpile of fuel. The Mont Blanc exploded with the force of 2,989 tonnes of TNT — about 270 times more powerful than a ‘Mother of All Bombs’ blast.
Source: NASA
The shock wave from the blast covered 325 acres of ground and levelled the neighborhood of Richmond.
The temperature of the explosion exceeded 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit (about 5,000 degrees Celsius), vapourising water around the Mont Blanc — and pushing a 52-foot-tall tidal wave three blocks into town.
Source: NASA
The force of the explosion lifted the Imo out of the water and threw it onto the shore. The Mont Blanc was ripped apart and completely destroyed. Almost no part of the ship survived the explosion.
Only two parts of the Mont Blanc have ever been located: a 1,140-lb piece of its anchor, found buried more than two miles away, and a barrel from one of the ship’s guns, which flew 2.35 miles from the blast site.
Source: NASA
Much of Halifax was levelled, with 12,000 buildings destroyed or made uninhabitable, leaving a huge portion of the city’s population without shelter from the frigid December weather.
Source: NASA
Almost every window in the city shattered — some reportedly 50 miles away. Even the buildings left standing were severely damaged.
Source: NASA
About 1,600 people died instantly in the blast, and 350 later succumbed to injuries. An estimated 9,000 people were injured in the accident, making 22% of the city’s population a casualty.
Source: NASA
Losses would have been even worse had a railway dispatcher, Vincent Coleman, not halted a train carrying 300 people towards the train station directly in front of the burning ship.
Source: Maritime Museum of the Atlantic
Coleman’s final action was sending a telegraph warning up the tracks: “Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbor making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye boys.”
Source: Maritime Museum of the Atlantic
The force of the Halifax explosion was so large that it remained the largest human-made explosion ever until the United States developed atomic weaponry in 1945.
- Dave Mosher, Business Insider (Sean Kane wrote a previous version of this post)
How have I never heard about this? What a story!! That telegraph man was very pragmatic wasn’t he? FairPlay.
@Deborah Behan: Quite a few of these accidental explosions have happened down the years – due to the somewhat US-centric nature of Wikipedia, I remember reading an “on this day” article about the Texas City Disaster of 1947 (ship containing 2,100 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded), which I had also never heard of – almost as powerful as the Halifax one mentioned here.
Wow, never knew about this. Sounds horrific
Coleman was even more of an hero than is reported here. He actually was leaving with his boss having heard the news of the presently exploding ammo ship and turned back into his office, 750 yards from the epicenter of the blast, to send his warning telegram not only to one train but to all the trains and stations along the Intercolonial network. His wife and children at home were injured badly in the blast, he was killed, and his destroyed watch which along with his telegraph key and warped pen were donated by his widow to a museum, bears testimony to the terrible forces that must have borne down on him. His sacrifice saved hundreds of lives and alerted the world to what had happened.
Never heard of it, must have been kept quite during the war for moral purposes.
Was in Halifax a few years ago and they tell this story on the harbour tour. They also tell it in Boston at the Christmas tree lighting ceremony. The people of Nova Scotia send a Christmas tree to Boston every year as a symbol of gratitude as the first external help to arrive in Halifax were the fishermen from Boston.
Suppose it just depends on your level of interest in history, remember reading about it years ago.
@Andy Sinclair:I remember reading about this incident too – I’m glad the Journal decided to highlight it, and that they included the story about the railway dispatcher.
The three lines under the first picture are blowing my mind, no pun intended.
Mankind and his folly will destroy our home Mother Earth.
@James Doyle: We’re only tenants. We’ll be evicted before long.
Brilliant comment Jimmy…. brilliant….
Big and all as it was, a similar accidental explosion on a ship started the Spanish American war in 1909. There is a fantastic free naval museum in Madrid which outlines the event complete with a scale model of the ship and cutaway diagrams. Worth visiting Madrid for a weekend on its own to see.
@Ian Moloney: Not really on the same scale, at that period many of the Navies had the same issue due to changing to new powder mixtures, the Royal Navy had a Battleship blow up in harbour as well around the same period, and even by WW2 the Japanese had a Battleship blow up in port as well.
I have completely forgotten about the Afghanistan bomb.
There’s a very good movie called Shattered City (The Halifax Explosion) well worth watching.
Ok so, if the MOAB =11000 tonnes of TNT and the Halifax bomb=3000 tonnes of TNT, how is Halifax bigger?
@Bel O Connor: The MOAB is 11 tons not 11,000 tons.
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