Peace and Security
Illustration
Stories
When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! (v. 3)
There wasn’t peace and security in the world on the day when the temperature in Halifax, Nova Scotia matched the surface of the sun. Yet at the time The Great War was being waged thousands of miles across the sea, so the people of that Canadian town had every reason to expect peace and security.
But when the apocalypse struck for many people, there was no escape – except for a lucky few who were thrown clear of the fire and brimstone, and landed safely a couple kilometers away.
The Halifax explosion, which took place on December 6, 1917, while certainly remembered in Canada, is largely forgotten in much of the world. The First World War had turned the sleepy harbor town into a major hub for shipping troops, munitions, as well as relief supplies to Europe during the Great War.
That morning a Norwegian ship, the Imo, was chugging out of the harbor bearing a load of relief supplies on behalf of the Commission for Relief in Belgium. This particular charity was chaired by Herbert Hoover. It was loaded with full sacks of flour for people in Belgium and Northern France, areas ravaged by the Germans during the war. Hoover’s work on behalf of the Commission would ultimately lead to his election as President of the United States after the war.
However, at the same moment, and heading in the opposite direction, the Mont-Blanc, a French steamship, was chugging along loaded with 250 tons of TNT along with even larger amounts of other explosive material. The cargo was secret. The night before the captain of the Mont-Blanc had asked for an escort to help protect the volatile cargo, but none was given.
Both ships began to send warning signals, and when neither got out of the way, both took evasive action.
To no avail. Around 8:45 AM the two ships collided. Barrels of fuel spilled on the on the Mont-Blanc and caught fire.
At 9:04 the ship exploded.
It was the largest explosion, equivalent to nearly 3 kilotons of TNT, of human origin up till that time, and remained the most powerful explosion of its kind until the two atomic bombs were exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Temperatures of 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit, comparable to the surface of the sun, reigned as the ship blew apart. 2,000 people died, and another 9,000 were injured. The ship’s cannons were flung three and a half miles away. A cloud of steam twelve hundred feet high rose above the conflagration. Ships that rushed to the scene to put out the fire before the explosion occurred lost most of their crews. Everything within a radius of a mile and a half was destroyed. The noise of the explosion was heard 130 miles away.
Relief efforts were hampered by the fact that many hospital workers and hospitals, designed to care for the wounded from Europe who were brought to this town, were destroyed.
The pressure from the explosion exposed the floor of the straight, and the water’s return caused a tsunami that wiped out the entire population of the first nation known as the Mi’kmac. Tens of thousands were left homeless and destitute. In the wake of this destruction, heroic relief efforts were soon underway. Many distinguished themselves by their selfless heroism.
In the midst of these harrowing stories of death and destruction there were also the odd tales of a couple sailors who were flung through the air a mile or more, but because they landed uphill away from the scenes of disaster, they survived. Two Canadian animators, Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby, were visiting the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax and read about one of these stories. They were intrigued and ultimately the result of their interest was a seven-minute animated film, “The Flying Sailor,” that was released in in 2022 and nominated for an Oscar in 2023.
None of us knows when some totally unexpected disaster, whether natural or from human causes, might descend upon on. Yet often these things occur when people are experiencing peace and security, and do not suspect that destruction is looming.
There wasn’t peace and security in the world on the day when the temperature in Halifax, Nova Scotia matched the surface of the sun. Yet at the time The Great War was being waged thousands of miles across the sea, so the people of that Canadian town had every reason to expect peace and security.
But when the apocalypse struck for many people, there was no escape – except for a lucky few who were thrown clear of the fire and brimstone, and landed safely a couple kilometers away.
The Halifax explosion, which took place on December 6, 1917, while certainly remembered in Canada, is largely forgotten in much of the world. The First World War had turned the sleepy harbor town into a major hub for shipping troops, munitions, as well as relief supplies to Europe during the Great War.
That morning a Norwegian ship, the Imo, was chugging out of the harbor bearing a load of relief supplies on behalf of the Commission for Relief in Belgium. This particular charity was chaired by Herbert Hoover. It was loaded with full sacks of flour for people in Belgium and Northern France, areas ravaged by the Germans during the war. Hoover’s work on behalf of the Commission would ultimately lead to his election as President of the United States after the war.
However, at the same moment, and heading in the opposite direction, the Mont-Blanc, a French steamship, was chugging along loaded with 250 tons of TNT along with even larger amounts of other explosive material. The cargo was secret. The night before the captain of the Mont-Blanc had asked for an escort to help protect the volatile cargo, but none was given.
Both ships began to send warning signals, and when neither got out of the way, both took evasive action.
To no avail. Around 8:45 AM the two ships collided. Barrels of fuel spilled on the on the Mont-Blanc and caught fire.
At 9:04 the ship exploded.
It was the largest explosion, equivalent to nearly 3 kilotons of TNT, of human origin up till that time, and remained the most powerful explosion of its kind until the two atomic bombs were exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Temperatures of 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit, comparable to the surface of the sun, reigned as the ship blew apart. 2,000 people died, and another 9,000 were injured. The ship’s cannons were flung three and a half miles away. A cloud of steam twelve hundred feet high rose above the conflagration. Ships that rushed to the scene to put out the fire before the explosion occurred lost most of their crews. Everything within a radius of a mile and a half was destroyed. The noise of the explosion was heard 130 miles away.
Relief efforts were hampered by the fact that many hospital workers and hospitals, designed to care for the wounded from Europe who were brought to this town, were destroyed.
The pressure from the explosion exposed the floor of the straight, and the water’s return caused a tsunami that wiped out the entire population of the first nation known as the Mi’kmac. Tens of thousands were left homeless and destitute. In the wake of this destruction, heroic relief efforts were soon underway. Many distinguished themselves by their selfless heroism.
In the midst of these harrowing stories of death and destruction there were also the odd tales of a couple sailors who were flung through the air a mile or more, but because they landed uphill away from the scenes of disaster, they survived. Two Canadian animators, Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby, were visiting the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax and read about one of these stories. They were intrigued and ultimately the result of their interest was a seven-minute animated film, “The Flying Sailor,” that was released in in 2022 and nominated for an Oscar in 2023.
None of us knows when some totally unexpected disaster, whether natural or from human causes, might descend upon on. Yet often these things occur when people are experiencing peace and security, and do not suspect that destruction is looming.
