Shipwreck Monday-SS Mont-Blanc And SS Imo

 

SS Mont-Blanc was built in Middlesbrough, England in 1899, ordered from an English shipyard by French shipping investors.

A classic three-island style, general cargo steamship, Mont-Blanc was a tramp steamer, carrying diverse types of cargos around the world. The ship changed owners several times and was registered at first in Rouen, then Marseille and finally Saint-Nazaire, France. In World War I, Mont-Blanc was purchased by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (The French Line). The French state-owned corporation put in charge of much of France's wartime shipping.

SS Imo, was a steamship which served in passenger and freight trades and later as a whaling supply ship. She had been built as the SS Runic, for the White Star Line, and was launched in 1889. She was sold to the West India & Pacific Steamship Company in 1895, and was renamed SS Tampican. Sold again to the South Pacific Whaling Company in 1912, she was renamed Imo. As Imo she was involved in a collision with the SS Mont-Blanc while in Halifax in 1917. The Mont-Blanc, carrying a cargo of munitions and explosives, subsequently caught fire and exploded, damaging and destroying a large part of the city in the Halifax Explosion.

The Halifax Explosion occurred on Thursday, December 6, 1917, when the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, was devastated by the detonation of the SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship that was fully loaded with wartime explosives. The Mont-Blanc detonated after colliding with the Norwegian SS Imo in a part of Halifax Harbour called "The Narrows". About 2,000 people were killed by debris, fires, and collapsed buildings, and it is estimated that over 9,000 were injured. Until the Trinity test explosions of atomic bombs, it was the largest man-made explosion in recorded history.

At 8:40 in the morning, the SS Mont-Blanc, chartered by the French government to carry munitions to Europe, collided with the unloaded Norwegian ship Imo, chartered by the Commission for Relief in Belgium to carry relief supplies. Mont-Blanc caught fire ten minutes after the collision and exploded about twenty-five minutes later (at 9:04:35 AM). All buildings and structures covering nearly 2 square kilometres (500 acres) along the adjacent shore were obliterated, including those in the neighbouring communities of Richmond and Dartmouth The explosion caused a tsunami in the harbour and a pressure wave of air that snapped trees, bent iron rails, demolished buildings, grounded vessels, and carried fragments of the Mont-Blanc for kilometres.

SS Imo survived the explosion and was repaired and returned to service, being renamed SS Guvernøren in 1918. She ran aground off the Falkland Islands in 1921 and was abandoned.