Tales, what an horrific accident. Thank heaven that unlike our papers today, they had no splash of photos.....the descriptions are terrible enough.
Reading the article I couldn't help but think back to a terrible explosion in my own hometown that took place in December of 1917. Two war time ships, one a fully loaded munitions ship, collided in the harbor. As a 9 year old living 150 mi. away on an island, my mother still remembered feeling the vibration in her home and pictures and plates on the wall rattling and falling. The death toll was high, the number of injured staggering, the city devastated. The following day 16 inches of snow fell in a blizzard.
We can only read and imagine the pain, horror and loss and count ourselves lucky to have never experienced any such tragedy in our lifetimes.
Were it not for these found/saved/archived newspapers so much of our local (and in cases like yours, family) history would never be recovered to be passed on to future generations ........ such a loss would be a tragedy in itself.
If you have ever heard of (or seen) the huge Christmas tree that is erected in Boston each year........it is a perpetual gift from Nova Scotians to Boston and the entire state for their swift and generous aid immediately following the Halifax Explosion. Each year a family has the proud distinction of having a tree cut from their land and making it's way south of the border, along with the thanks of the people of Nova Scotia........anoth er way of keeping the knowledge and memory alive.
