This Christmas Tradition Reminds Me of What America Has Lost

"On December 6, 1917, in the harbor of Halifax, Nova Scotia, a Norwegian freighter called the Imo collided with a French cargo ship called the Mont Blanc. It happened that the Mont Blanc was headed for a military convoy loaded with some 2,300 tons of picric acid, 200 tons of TNT, 35 tons of benzol, and 10 tons of gun cotton, all destined for the battlefields in France. The collision shoved the Mont Blanc, now on fire, toward the shoreline."

"The Halifax Fire Department had just arrived when, at 9:05 a.m., the Mont Blanc exploded. Until J. Robert Oppenheimer got to New Mexico a couple of decades later, the explosion was the largest man-made detonation in human history. An estimated 1,800 people were killed, but there never was a precise count. (One victim wasn't discovered for over a year.) Over 9,000 people were injured and 25,000 people were left at least partially homeless."

"Officials of the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee organized a relief train almost immediately. Its arrival was delayed by the blizzard, but it got there two days after the disaster. The train carried food and water and, perhaps most importantly, medical personnel to relieve their exhausted local counterparts in Halifax. These included personnel from the Perkins School for the Blind, since so many of the injured were people blinded by flying glass."

"In 1918, officials in Halfax organized the donation of a Christmas tree to the city of Boston in gratitude for the help the city had received after the explosion. That tradition has continued to this day. This year's tree is tucked in a corner of Boston Common along Tremont Street behind the Park Street subway stop. On Tuesday night, I paid it a visit."

On December 6, 1917, the Norwegian freighter Imo collided with the French cargo ship Mont Blanc in Halifax harbor, igniting a fire aboard the Mont Blanc. The Mont Blanc was laden with enormous quantities of picric acid, TNT, benzol, and gun cotton bound for Europe. At 9:05 a.m. the vessel exploded in what was the largest man-made detonation until the mid-20th century, killing roughly 1,800 people, injuring over 9,000, and leaving 25,000 at least partially homeless. A blizzard hampered relief, but a Boston-organized relief train arrived with supplies and medical personnel, and Halifax began an annual tradition of sending Boston a Christmas tree in gratitude.

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