A CANADIAN-LED campaign is underway to preserve a vessel which was a survivor of the infamous Halifax Explosion, writes Alex Bowers. The ship, CSS Acadia, is currently in a state of disrepair despite its outstanding historical connection with the horrific events that took place in Nova Scotia over 100 years ago.
On 6 December 1917, two ships, the SS Imo and Mont Blanc – the latter carrying 2,925 tonnes of explosive material bound for the European battlefields of the First World War – collided in Halifax harbour. The collision caused the largest manmade explosion prior to the 1945 Atomic Bomb detonations over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is estimated that nearly 2,000 lives were lost during and immediately after the incident. (See Britain at War, December 2017)
