![]() Pier 6 and the ship vanished in a column of flame. ExplosionĪnd then at 9:05 am, Mont-Blanc exploded. He even signed off with a telegraph shorthand for "Goodbye Boys". Good-bye boys.”Ĭlearly Coleman knew the explosion was imminent and that he was staring death in the face. Ammunition ship afire in harbor making for Pier 6 and will explode. The newspapers of the day recorded slight variations on the exact wording of Coleman's message but its content is consistently reported as: Within minutes it was due to pass along the approach tracks to the North Street Station directly in front of the blazing Mont-Blanc. It had about 300 people aboard and was due in Halifax at 8:55 am. 10, the overnight train from Saint John, New Brunswick. Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, M2004.50.103aĬoleman was especially worried about Passenger Train No. Coleman started to leave with his boss, William Lovett, the chief clerk at Richmond but then Coleman turned back to use the telegraph key to send his famous message.Ĭoleman's telegraph key, recovered from the wreckage of the station. The sailor had been sent ashore by one of the naval officers responding to the blaze, one of the few people who knew of her deadly cargo. He warned everyone that the burning Mont-Blanc was full of ammmunition and about to explode. Suddenly a naval sailor burst through the door. The French munitions ship Mont-Blanc had caught fire after a collision. ![]() Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, M2004.54.2, Gift of Janette SnooksĪs Coleman relieved the night dispatcher at the telegraph, off in the distance there was a muffled crash, followed by a column of black smoke rising above the rows of parked freight cars in front of the station. In his wallet that morning, tucked beside some raffle tickets for the Victory Bond drive, was a clipping about an upcoming union meeting in Montreal. He was also very active in his railway union. A few years previously he was commended for helping to stop a runaway train. As dispatcher, he was a rank above the ordinary telegraph operators in most stations. He sent orders to the countless trains feeding freight into the ship filled wharves of North End Halifax as well as routing the heavy wartime passenger traffic passing into the North Street Station and the vital troop trains and hospital trains from the Pier 2 ocean liner terminal.Ĭoleman worked for what everyone in Halifax called the "Intercolonial Railway" or "ICR" even though it had been renamed "Canadian Government Railways" in 1916. Working only a few feet from the harbour with its busy piers, his job was to control the massive rail traffic generated by the crowded wartime harbour of Halifax. ![]() He worked not in the grand brick passenger station on North Street but in the deceptively small wooden station in the middle of the Richmond rail yards. It was a short five blocks to his workplace at the Richmond railway station. He left his wife Frances looking after their young two-year old daughter Eileen, dressed in a cheerful blue dress handmade by Frances. The morning of December 6, 1917, Railway Dispatcher Vincent Coleman went to work from his home on Russell Street in the neighbourhood of Halifax's North End known as Richmond. Munitions ship on fire and making for Pier 6.
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