 Good real life story telling
This is a good book that keeps your interest telling a true tale. Having visited Halifax a few times, I would have liked better and more comprehensive maps but I really enjoyed the book.
The Greatest Manmade Explosion before Hiroshima..
It is now 102 years since that fateful Thursday morning at 9:05 a.m. on December 6,1917 in Halifax,Nova Scotia; that The "Mont Blanc",loaded with explosives during WWI;collided with the another ship the "Emo",resulting in the unbelievable explosion that wrecked the city ,killing over 2000 people and injuring thousands more.
Laura MacDonald's excellent book of 356 pages gives ,in great detail what led up to this event and more importantly the way in which it affected the people of the city, those who were injured and or died;and also how the survivors dealt with all the things that had to be done;particularly in the days and weeks that followed.The author must have done a great deal of research in producing this book;because she gives us hundreds of personal experiences with names ,actual words spoken and detailed accounts of the experiences the people went through.She covers every walk of life,from the common workers,seamen,police,firefighters,Doctors,Nurses,elected officials ,all the way from the Mayor to the Prime Mminister,mothers,fathers,children,friends from near and far.She also details the people from afar who came to help and sent relief in the form of supplies and money.She particularly gives much detail about the help that flowed in from the United States,especially from the New England States.By the way,the appreciation for that help and concern remains to this day with Nova Scotia sending a 50-foot Christmas Tree to the City of Boston each year.
I have a special interest in this horrible event as my Grandfather died from pneumonia as a result of searching for his daughter,her husband and three children who were killed that day.A photograph on page 146 shows what the seen must have been like for him as he helped search.;who knows;maybe he was actually one of those in the picture.Bad as the explosion was,it was followed by a massive Blizzard,severe enough to even halt rescue trains.This is an excellent book;but I only wish that the reproduction of the photos had been better and that a much better effort had been made of including maps that would allow the reader to better see where the streets and other landmarks talked about actually were.
The book definitely deals with the human side if this event in great detail.Some details about the investigation ,and attempts to place blame,and the inquiries is not covered in as much detail.Other sources would have to be used for that.
As with other such events,the people know what happened,placing blame doesn't always matter all that much.It's over and done,people must pick up the pieces and rebuild their lives ,homes and cities again---and they always do,and they did here.
Any reader who is interested in more information on this horrible disaster should read;
"The Town That Died" by Michael J. Bird
or
"Shattered City" by Janet Kitz.
Then,there is also much more to be found on the "Net",including a list of all the people who were killed.
 Very detailed
This book is very interesting and is extremely detailed. It certainly depicts in vivid detail what occured in Halifax that deadful day.
Fantastic Read and Great Source Documentation
The Curse of the Narrows (MacDonald) is a great read and a wonderful source for further documentation on the Halifax disaster of 1917. I used this book (and others found in MacDonald's notes) as source documentation for my final paper in a Master's level course and was not at all disappointed in her work. At the same time, while I was doing my research, her writing kept drawing me in and I consumed pages like I was reading a novel. Rare to see both qualities present in the same work. Highly recommend this to any disaster research professionals or the mid-level reader who is looking for something outside of the box.
Cruel explosion
This summer my wife and I sailed to Halifax by cruise ship. I knew about this explosion but not in detail until I read this book. It details minute by minute events leading up to this horrific cruel explosion on the citizens of Halifax. It goes on to explain the effects of the tremendous wounds inflicted on the people to the affect of making one wince in your seat. It covers the immense recovery back to a whole city. It covers the investigation of which I agree with the London Privy Council putting the blame of both ships. I felt the Mt Blanc should have used prudence to stop and see what the Imo was going to do, instead of forging ahead because they believed they had the right of way . Also I believe that if one observes on You Tube The PEPCON rocket fuel explosion , you will get a good idea of how the Halifax explosion most likely looked as far as its violent fire , height of flame, massive instant explosion, and shockwave and cloud similar to Halifax picture in the book. Check out all the videos about 5. One of them states that mostly all the injuries of citizens in Henderson was from glass as was with Halifax. Glad I read this book. I will strongly recommend it . P.S. L. Mac Donald in ch.4 talks about the initial flame ball. In the PEPCON videos it looks like that ball was missed and the camera was not on . Not so . It's so quick that one has to grab the little ball on the bottom and work back to see the white out of the flash and the flame ball. Other sources stated PEPCON as equiv.to 1 kiloton and Halifax 3 kilotons of TNT. Wikipedia states that the Halifax explosion " is still the world's largest man-made accidental explosion".
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