Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Disaster of 1917

The dramatic story of one of the greatest disasters in history.

In 1917, the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was crowded with ships leaving for war-torn Europe. On December 6th, two of them — the Mont Blanc and the Imo — collided in the Narrows, a hard-to-navigate stretch of the harbor. Ablaze, and with explosions on her deck filling the sky, the Mont Blanc grounded against the city's docks. As thousands rushed to their windows and into the streets to watch, she exploded with such force that the 3,121 tons of her iron hull vaporized in a cloud that shot up more than 2,000 feet; the explosion was so unusual that Robert Oppenheimer would study its effects to predict the devastation of an atomic bomb. The blast caused a giant wave that swept over parts of the city, followed by a slick, black rain that fell for ten minutes. Much of the city was flattened, and not one in 12,000 buildings within a 16-mile radius left undamaged. More than 1,600 Haligonians were killed and 6,000 injured; and within twenty-four hours, a blizzard had isolated Halifax from the world.

Set vividly against the background of World War I, Curse of the Narrows is the first major account of the world's largest pre-atomic explosion, the epic relief mission from Boston, and the riveting trial of the Mont Blanc's captain and pilot. Laura M. Mac Donald is as adept at describing the dynamics of a chain reaction explosion as she is at chronicling unforgettable human dramas of miraculous survival, unfathomable loss, and the medical breakthroughs in pediatrics and eye surgery that followed the disaster.

Using primary sources — many of which haven't been read in decades — and with a wonderful feel for narrative history, Mac Donald chronicles one of the most compelling and dramatic events of the 20th century.

"In this recounting of the December 6, 1917, explosion that leveled much of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Mac Donald gives a minutely detailed if not particularly lively rendition of what legend holds to be the most powerful manmade detonation before the testing of the atomic bomb in 1945. The unique natural characteristics of the city's harbor had long made it an ideal naval base of operations, and by 1917, Halifax had become a key transit point for war material bound from the ostensibly neutral United States to the beleaguered European allies. The merchant ship Mont Blanc, loaded with thousands of tons of TNT and the notoriously unstable explosive picric acid, was passing through the harbor's Narrows when it was struck by a Belgian relief vessel and exploded. More than 1,600 died, thousands more were injured and the blast wave collapsed buildings, in the words of a survivor, 'like a grain field in harvest before a gust of wind.' A television producer and Halifax native, Mac Donald draws out her narrative with excessive detail and flat prose, failing to bring her trove of first-person accounts to life. 40 b&w illus. not seen by PW." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"With 40 black-and-white illustrations, [Mac Donald's] book captures in vivid detail the history of this catastrophe." Booklist

"Laura M. Mac Donald, who grew up across Halifax Harbor in Dartmouth, gives a detailed, often wrenching account of this calamity in Curse of the Narrows, a book full of ordinary people overwhelmed by a disaster." Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times Book Review

"Well-constructed....Drawing on accounts by survivors and rescuers, Halifax native Mac Donald paints a scarifying portrait of a unique moment in maritime history." Kirkus Reviews

"This book is like an expensive Swiss watch, meticulously crafted, perfectly assembled, and relentlessly recording, second by dreadful second, the story of one of the greatest and most lethal explosion of all time. I have been fascinated by the Halifax disaster for many years, and have always wondered who might one day produce the definitive account. Well, to Laura Mac Donald go the laurels: she is a genius of a researcher and a demon of a writer, and the achievement of her marvelous book will last for as long as our memory of this most terrible event." Simon Winchester, author of Krakatoa

In this account of the 1917 explosion of a munitions ship in Halifax Harbor, MacDonald tells a riveting story of individual responses to a regional catastrophe. Relying on primary sources, including the files of the explosion's official historian and medical and social work records, she describes the event in careful detail and follows its consequences to the present day.
Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

In this account of the 1917 explosion of a munitions ship in Halifax Harbor, MacDonald tells a riveting story of individual responses to a regional catastrophe. Relying on primary sources, including the files of the explosion's official historian and medical and social work records, she describes the event in careful detail and follows its consequences to the present day. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Using primary sources — many of which have not been read in decades — Mac Donald chronicles the devastating 1917 explosion that flattened much of the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, when two ships bound for war-torn Europe collided in the harbor. 40 illustrations. 2 maps.

Laura M. Mac Donald has written several books and written and produced award-winning television shows and one feature film. A native of Halifax, she lives in New York City.