On December 6, 1917 one of the most horrific disasters in Canadian history took place when the French munitions ship, the Mont Blanc, collided with the Belgium relief ship, the Imo, just outside of Halifax Harbour. The spark from that collision caused an explosion, the equivalent of 3 kilotons of TNT, inside of the Mont Blanc blew it apart and destroyed a good portion of Halifax too.
This event that killed 2 000 people, left 6 000 completely homeless and 25 000 without adequate shelter, would come to be known as the Halifax Explosion. As a result of the magnitude of this explosion, a piece of an anchor shaft from the SS Mont Blanc, weighing 1140 lbs, flew 2.35 miles over Halifax and the Northwest Arm to a small park just behind Regatta Point Trail. It was relocated 200 metres and set in stone as the monument you see here.
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