8. Grand Parade
1 sound
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The piece of wood in the church wall remains, and has its own plaque.
The blast could be heard up to 200km away in New Brunswick and Cape Breton, at least as far north as Louisbourg, Cape Breton. One man described what he heard as being, “Similar in sound to a heavily loaded shotgun being fired into water at a couple feet distant.” (See: Halifax Explosion Heard at Black Brook, Port Morien, C.B. - 200 Miles Distant, (clipping), #305, MG1 vol 2124, Archibald MacMechan fonds, Nova Scotia Archives, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.)
“The new clock has two faces, one that shows the correct time, and another that will remain at four minutes and 35 seconds after nine o’clock. That’s the exact time of the accident known as the Halifax Explosion.” (See: CBC news, 5 June 1999. “New City Hall Clock Commemorates Explosion.” http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-city-hall-clock-commemorates-halifax-explosion-1.185826)
The most recent estimate of the death toll of the Halifax Explosion is 1952. The number has been updated multiple times as studies continue to refine the available data.
“Met trains to bring doctors etc., Asked what doctors they were R. P. said he did not know. “Was feeling all in then, and pretty grumpy. Didn’t talk to them at all.” “ From the personal narrative of Ralph Proctor, describing his duties the Saturday (8th December 1917) after the blast. (See: Personal Narrative of Mr. Ralph Proctor, #216, MG1 vol 2124, Archibald MacMechan fonds, Nova Scotia Archives, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.)
43 “Among sailors Halifax was reputed to be one of the wildest seaports in North America; it had the added virtue of being one of the least violent.” (See: Laura MacDonald, “Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Explosion 1917,” (Toronto, ON: Harper Collins): p. 7.)
44 The story of the South African war veteran who took his squad of Cape Breton recruits to the pub is taken from the work of Robert N. Clements, who served in the 25th Battalion Nova Scotia Rifles. The version told here is the same version he gives in his work, “Preparing for War: The 25th Battalion in Halifax, 1914-15”. (See: Robert N. Clements, “Preparing for War: The 25th Battalion in Halifax, 1914-1915.” Ed. Brian Douglas Tennyson, (Canadian Military History 20, no1, winter 2011): 61-73.)
