This book covers the Halifax Explosion of 1917. The explosion occurred in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on the morning of December 06, 1917. The SS Mont-Blanc (France) collided with the SS Imo (Norway) in the Narrows Straight. The SS Mont-Blanc was carrying explosive materials, and a fire that started as a result of the collision ignited the explosive material. The explosion occurred approximately twenty minutes after the initial impact. The resulting explosion blew the ship apart, raining down white hot metal onto the towns near port. Towns a hundred miles away felt the explosion. The gun, a 90 millimeter, was blown three and a half miles from the ship. The blast shockwave leveled buildings, docks, and railways. 1,600 residents of Halifax were killed immediately, and a further 9,000 were injured. More of the injured died later. Recovery efforts began right away, and clearing the debris and repairing damage began, but it took a long time to rebuild and clean the mess.

The most interesting thing about this book was the aftermath of the explosion. A long time after, the explosion was still measured against modern explosions in terms of destruction and loss of life. Robert Oppenheimer studied this explosion while he was working on the Manhattan Project, which I had never read before. (It was reported that the Little Boy bomb was the equivalent of seven Halifax explosions.) Trauma care greatly improved after the explosion, and we are still building upon that newly learned information today. This book was really good. I really enjoyed learning all of these detailed facts. This book was referenced on a podcast episode I listened to about the disaster, and it did not disappoint. It was really well written and researched. If you are into disasters or shipping in general, check this book out.