The Halifax Explosion and the Royal Canadian Navy: Inquiry and Intrigue

The Halifax Explosion of 1917 is a defining event in the Canadian consciousness, yet it has never been the subject of a sustained analytical history. Astonishingly, government archives that contain firsthand accounts of the disaster and chronicle the response of national authorities have never been systematically consulted - until now. This book carefully retraces the events preceding the disaster and the role of the military in its aftermath. Armstrong’s compelling analysis of the legal maneuvers, rhetoric, blunders, public controversy, and crisis management that ensued reveals, for the first time, the rationale behind the public inquiry findings. His disturbing conclusion is that federal officials knew of potential dangers in the harbour before the explosion, took no corrective action, and kept that information from the public. The result was the scapegoating of a Halifax naval officer and the lasting - and mostly undeserved - vilification of the navy. This comprehensive and revealing study will be of interest to military and naval devotees, those interested in disaster response and in political and legal affairs, and the general public.