Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Disaster of 1917
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0802715109
Manufacturer: Walker & Company
Release Date: 2006-11-14
Average Customer Review: 
(From 20 total reviews)
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com:
Assiduous research, beautiful writing, and a great talent for historical reconstruction make Laura MacDonald’s Curse of the Narrows the definitive account of the Halifax explosion of December 1917. MacDonald is a master of minutia–chemistry, laws of navigation, the horrors visited on the poor people of Halifax’s north end–and she writes with supreme authority and exquisite detail.
MacDonald begins her account with geography and she sets the scene by examining the bustling port of Halifax in the First World War. Using the very best recent scholarship, she then reconstructs the accident itself, describing closely the series of small errors that lead the Norwegian freighter Imo to ram into the French munitions vessel Mont Blanc in the narrows of Halifax harbor: “The Mont Blanc, with 2,925 tons of explosives, packed in hermetically sealed holds inside a super-heated hull was now the most powerful bomb the war and the world had yet produced.” When it exploded, thousands of innocent people were killed in an instant. If MacDonald had limited her investigation into the causes of the accident her book would still be worth buying. She offers much more: examinations of the inquiries and court cases, the official response to the devastation, and above all the ways in which families were challenged by the appalling effects of the explosion. By tracing the struggles of these families, the Duggans, the Frasers, and the Galloways among others, MacDonald brings the scope of the tragedy home to the reader in a way that few would have believed possible. Be warned. Parts of this book are book have an impact on the reader’s soul no less than the concussion of the explosion itself. This is a magnificent accomplishment. –William Newbigging
Product Description:
Set against the background of World War I, Curse of the Narrows is the first major account of the world’s largest pre-atomic explosion that set in motion a remarkable relief effort originating from Boston.
Customer Reviews
Couldn’t finish it by P. J Troost
The subject of this book is very interesting, but the author went to great pains to turn what could have been a magazine article into a full length book. Lot’s of detail about minor characters and tangential information, but the gigantic cast of characters is not presented is a compelling way that makes you want that much detail. I got about 3/4 of the way through, misplaced the book and didn’t bother to look for it which is very rare for me — in the last 10 years this is one of only two books I started and didn’t feel compelled to finish. The story of the actual explosion is definitely worth a read but this book cries out for Readers Digest condensed book treatment.
big fun in little halifax by Alison Merschoff
Gripping read, but a little bit of a slow start. You have to expect that with disaster books; they need time to set the scene of devastation. This is well written and well-researched, with a number of good pictures. Very informative, especially if you have even a passing association or knowledge of the city of Halifax. Also, a must for anyone with ties to Boston.
fascinating read by bookworm
I had never heard of this disaster until recently. When I picked out this book I didn’t have high hopes. The last few books like this weren’t very good but this was fantastic. Laura MacDonald’s writing is very detailed and personalized. You can really feel for the people and what it was like because this doesn’t just spout statistics at you although they are included. Books like this work so much better when they are filled with the personalized stories like this is. Anyone would love this story and I wish they would make movies out of something like this instead of other books.
Tragic Event, Excellent Book by Gregg Eldred
Do you live in Boston? Every Christmas, there is a 50 foot Christmas tree from the city of Halifax in your Commons. Do you know why? Did you know that it was a gift from Nova Scotia?
On December 6, 1917, an explosion rocked Halifax Harbour, flattening much of Halifax and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Scores were killed and many more injured. One of the first responders was the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Ever since then, Nova Scotia has sent a Christmas tree to Boston as thanks.
Contents:
A Short History of Halifax
Chapter 1: Wednesday
Chapter 2: December 6, 1917: Winter Morning
Chapter 3: Black Smoke, White Smoke
Chapter 4: A Word on Explosions
Chapter 5: Minutes Later
Chapter 6: Far from the Harbor
Chapter 7: Scramble at City Hall
Chapter 8: The First Responders
Chapter 9: Duggan Walks Home
Chapter 10: Nightfall
Chapter 11: Friday Night and Folly Mountain
Chapter 12: Saturday: Reorganizing the Relief
Chapter 13: Duggans Reunited, If Briefly
Chapter 14: The End of Emergency Relief
Chapter 15: Cap Ratshesky Says Good-Bye
Chapter 16: Playing Solomon
Chapter 17: Proper Burials, Private Services
Chapter 18: Monday, December 17, 1917
Chapter 19: Rules of the Road versus the Law of the Land
Chapter 20: The Tree at Boston Common
Epilogue
Appendices
Curse of the Narrows, by Laura M. Mac Donald, is an extremely well documented and researched account of what led up to the explosion, the explosion itself, and the aftermath. She begins the book with an explanation of the Narrows and the importance of the harbour in peacetime as well as at the outbreak of the First World War. Two ships collided in the harbour, one, the Mont Blanc, was loaded with high explosives. The Imo, a Relief ship, punched a hole in the deck of the Mont Blanc, causing some of the explosives to leak, leading to a fire that could not be controlled. The captain of the Mont Blanc gave the order to abandon ship. The ship ran aground near the city of Halifax. To give you an idea of how hot the fire on the ship was, the water under the ship actually evaporated as it came into contact with the hull. It wasn’t long before 2,900 tons of high explosives went up. The effects were devastating. And then, water in the harbour, trying to reach equilibrium, created a tsunami. That made matters even worse. Finally, a blinding snowstorm hit the area. Mac Donald goes into very good detail on these events. The reader is left with no question as to the destruction of the area. Communication service disappeared in an instant. There was no word coming out from the area. Reports to other areas of Canada and United States were sketchy, but some information did make it out. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts responded with a trainload of relief workers from the Red Cross as well as doctors, nurses, and supplies.
While you can tell that this book was exceedingly well researched (and there are footnotes and direct quotes aplenty), it reads quickly and like a great work of fiction. But is definitely not the latter. Covering the events of that fateful day, and the aftermath, Mac Donald takes the explosion and the stories of some of the participants and weaves an excellent historical novel. You learn about Dr. George Cox, an ocularist from rural Canada. He practiced in the farmlands of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, mainly for two reasons: He loved nature, and eye problems in the rural areas meant much more hardship for a family. He worked extremely hard to save the sight of all of his patients. One of the First Responders, he operated around the clock on the majority of people with eye injuries in Halifax. While his nurses fainted from exhaustion, he toiled onward. That is just one of incredible personal stories in this book. Mac Donald allows the people to tell the story, and that makes this book much more powerful.
A very well researched and written novel. It also includes many photographs of the aftermath, which drives home the destruction. Do not skip the Appendices, there is a lot of good information in there.
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Tags: 20th century history, canada, canadian history, disasters-industrial, halifax, history, nova scotia, red cross, world war i, ww1
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