AH-WR-1221

SS Mont-Blanc

Cargo Steamship · France · Lost 1917 · Nova Scotia & Sable Island

The French munitions ship Mont-Blanc exploded in Halifax Harbour in 1917 after a collision, in the largest human-made blast before the atomic bomb.

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Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Documented Likeness. Drawn from surviving builder's plans or clear photographs of this vessel. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

SS Mont-Blanc was a French cargo steamer carrying a full load of wartime high explosives and benzol from New York toward Bordeaux via a Halifax convoy assembly. On the morning of 6 December 1917, she collided with the outbound Norwegian ship Imo in the Narrows of Halifax Harbour. A fire from leaking benzol spread to her explosive cargo, and about twenty minutes later Mont-Blanc detonated in the Halifax Explosion, killing roughly 1,782 people and levelling much of the city's Richmond district.

Vessel

Built: 1899
Builder: Sir Raylton Dixon & Co
Yard: Middlesbrough, England
Material: Steel
Length: 320 ft
Beam: 44.8 ft
Tonnage: 3279
Propulsion: Steam, triple-expansion engine, single screw
Owners: Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (chartered to the French government)

Loss

Date: December 6, 1917
Cause: Collision
Location: The Narrows, Halifax Harbour
Water: Halifax Harbour
Voyage: New York, United States → Bordeaux, France (via Halifax, to join a transatlantic convoy)
Cargo: 2,300 tons of picric acid, 200 tons of TNT, 10 tons of guncotton, and drums of benzol carried on deck
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: Mont-Blanc's own crew abandoned ship before the explosion and reportedly survived; the explosion itself killed roughly 1,782 people ashore and on other vessels in Halifax and Dartmouth.
Master: Aimé Le Médec

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Vessel was almost entirely disintegrated by the explosion; fragments were scattered for kilometres, including a section of anchor shank found roughly 3.5 km away
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Not established