An excellent recounting of the Halifax disaster of 1917 when a ship loaded with high explosives was struck by a Belgian relief ship, and the resulting explosion destroyed the city.

Particularly nice is the intertwining of stories and details of the various groups involved, from the survivors to the relief workers and medical personnel who responded to the disaster. MacDonald puts the disaster into historical perspective by exploring the medical and disaster response lessons which were learned in the disaster and later applied to a wide-range of other areas. Interviews with still-living survivors as well as historical documents enhance the book. I also appreciated the photographs of relevant people and places which were appropriately located throughout the text.

Worth owning. ( )

Disappointing. This book is just the personal recollections of various survivors strung together artlessly.

I originally started Laura M MacDonald’s The Curse of the Narrows back in February. I picked at it until I had to return it to the library and then I put it back on my request list and got it a week or so later. It was nominated for the Charles Taylor prize which is how it got on my reading list.

The book is really a very good history of the Halifax explosion. It outlines how it happened. It follows individuals through the following days. It looks at the relief workers that came from Boston. It looks at the doctors, the military, the citizens, the politicians.

Read the rest here. ( )

This is an excellent history for anyone interested in learning what happened in Halifax on the morning of December 6, 1917. What did happen was that a French munitions ship on its way east towards the First World War caught fire and exploded after an impact with a Belgian Relief ship in the Port of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

But this wasn't just a large explosion - this sent shock waves and earth tremors as far as 225 miles away, caused a tsunami in the Bay of Nova Scotia, wiped an entire city off of the coastline and incinerated entire families as they stood and watched a burning ship drift towards shore, none of them aware of the highly explosive cargo packed into her hold. Because it was wartime, the requirement that ships with dangerous cargo raise a red flag of warning had been suspended.

Particularly impressive is the author's description of the nature of explosions to explain the air blast that traveled across the land at supersonic speed, destroying everything in its path. Not everyone realizes that all of that air rushing outward had left a vacume, and that the air that rushed back to fill that void was just as destructive. She describes a heat so intense that it literally vaporized the water in the harbor for a radius of 20 feet around the explosion. She also described the impact of the blast on the survivors, nearly all of whom were unable to react or produce facial expressions for a nearly uniform eight days after the blast. Until Hiroshima, the explosion in Halifax was the largest manmade explosion in history.

If the incredible disaster weren't enough, the very next day Halifax was hit with a dangerous blizzard, hampering rescue and relief efforts. Once the blizzard ended, MacDonald of course also details the final indignity dumped on Halifax: the usual and annoying cast of political, judiciary and media characters who race into the aftermath of every disaster in an effort to stir up as much trouble and anger as they possibly can.

But the larger story is much more personal and riveting. She follows individuals and families who survived the blast and describes the responses of the medical community and entire cities, such as Boston, who rushed to their aid - in one memorable event, all of the passengers on one of the first relief trains got out and shoveled snow drifts higher than houses off of the tracks, so that the train could keep moving through the blizzard towards an isolated, silent and devastated Halifax.

And for those Bostonians who have forgotten why Halifax presents the city of Boston with a Christmas tree for Copley Square every year - now you'll know why.