The Loudest Second in History

Before the atomic bomb, the loudest thing humans ever made was an accident. The internet says one burning ship erased a Canadian city in a single second, and that a telegraph operator stayed behind to send one final message. People call that message a legend. So we pulled the records.

December 6, 1917. The French freighter Mont-Blanc, carrying nearly 3,000 tons of high explosive with barrels of benzol fuel stacked on deck, collided with the Norwegian ship Imo in the Halifax narrows at 8:45 am. For 20 minutes she burned and drifted toward Pier 6 while the city pressed against its windows to watch the fire.

In the Richmond rail yard, dispatcher Vince Coleman learned what the cargo was. He stayed at his key. The records give his words: "Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbour making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye boys."

At 9:04:35 am the Mont-Blanc became 2.9 kilotons of light, the largest man-made explosion before nuclear weapons. The blast was felt 129 miles away in Cape Breton. It threw the ship's 1,140 lb anchor shaft 2.35 miles. The harbour reared back and returned as a wave 18 metres above the high-water mark. At least 1,782 people were gone. And because so many had watched through glass, ophthalmologists performed 249 eye removals; 16 people lost both eyes. The next day a blizzard buried the ruins in 41 cm of snow.

But every incoming train had stopped. Coleman's telegraph key sits today in the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

Verdict: NOT BS. The explosion was real. The good-bye was real. And every December, Nova Scotia still sends Boston its official Christmas tree, as thanks for the help that came after.

The receipts are at bskiller.com/reels.

Sources: Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Wikipedia, Britannica, The Canadian Encyclopedia, CBC, Canadian War Museum.