The Shattered City

"The Shattered City – The ship collision that created the largest pre-atomic blast" narrates the horror of the Halifax Explosion. On December 6, 1917, the French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc, loaded with high explosives for WWI, collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo in Halifax Harbour. The resulting blast leveled 2.5 square kilometers of the city, killed 2,000 people, and blinded thousands more as they watched the fire from their windows. Historian Nathan Harbor details the heroic sacrifice of Vince Coleman, the train dispatcher who stayed behind to send a warning telegram that stopped an incoming passenger train, saving hundreds of lives before the blast killed him. "The Shattered City" is a gripping minute-by-minute account of a preventable tragedy. It explores the fragility of life and the incredible resilience of a community that rebuilt itself from ash and ice in the middle of a blizzard.