Captain Aimee Le Medec Research Paper

On the morning of December 6, 1917, a tragic disaster prevailed itself in the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. During WW1, the cause of this tragedy was the collision of two ships; the Norwegian vessel SS Imo and the Belgian steamer, the Mont Blanc which occurred in front of the Halifax port. Halifax played a crucial role during the war because it was deemed the docking station where soldiers and supplies were sent overseas. Essentially, The Halifax Explosion was the largest blast in Canadian history, which in turn caused rigorous turmoil throughout the nation; despite such devastation, alleviation teams came to help seatone Halifax.

On January 15, 1919, one of the most tragic and strange disasters occurred in Boston, Massachusetts. It was around forty degrees that day, when two days previously it had been only two degrees. At 12:30 PM 2,300,000 gallons of molasses spilled into the streets near Keany Square after the tank holding it exploded, most think due to a combination of poor design and the drastic temperature flux. The aftermath was tragic, with twenty one deaths and one hundred and fifty injured. The company who owned the tank was quick to blame others, but soon it was found that the tank was poorly constructed, and if more time had been taken, the Boston Molasses Disaster would never have happened.

While John Brown and his party of 55 were attacked the ship. They robbed all of the ship and wounded Dudingston and captured the crew. John Brown left Dudingston and his crew on shore. While they were laying on the shore hurt, John Brown made them watch as they were robbing the ship. After, they set fire to the ship to let it burn. When King George heard about this news, he was very mad. Parliament was very mad about the incident also. But no arrests were ever made. The Burning of the Gaspee was all over newspapers and many authors started to write about it.

Submarine divers were sent to Havana to find out the cause of this tragic event. The divers soon found 260 men dead from the explosion. Dynomite experts learned that the explosion was no accident. This was an intentional doing. There was some overheard conversation that there was a plot to blow up the ship. The United States naval forces discovered that there was a mine in the harbor that caused the explosion.

When it comes to Canadian History, perhaps the most controversial and widely disputable topic of debate would have to be one of Canada’s greatest wars: The War of 1812. A wide array of views are held on many aspects of the war ranging from who won to what ramifications the war would ultimately sire. In yet another discussion on the ever so controversial War of 1812, a new question was posed and deliberated by five historians: whose war, was it? Like any other question posed about this war a multitude of ideas would ultimately arise in each of their differing viewpoints. In their roundhouse discussion, the historians would ultimately serve to paint the War of 1812 as a war that transcends much further than the nationalistic view. A view that, though an important part of Canadian history, has been exaggerated to the point of choking out the many voices who fought and continue to fight for inclusion in the narrative. In their remembrance of the War of 1812, society unwittingly failed history in their lackluster commemorations which exclude important narratives and voices and stand tainted by the misuse of history to serve the nationalistic agenda.

In June of 1772, a British schooner, known as the Gaspee, commandeered by Lieutenant William Dudingston, traveled along the Narragansett Bay in pursuit of smugglers (Park, 54-55). During the chase the ship ran aground, and the crew found themselves stuck in the shallow waters. The armed naval vessel was suddenly boarded by an angry mob; the commander was shot, the crew taken ashore, and then, the Gaspee was set aflame (Park 54-55). The attack on a British naval ship, would become known as The Gaspee Affair, and it led to the British government demanding those involved, to be tried in Great Britain, outside the colonies (Blinka, 54). Those involved in the burning of the Gaspee were never properly identified (Park 54-55) A trial never

February 15th, 1898, the USS Maine was hit with a mine as it sat in the Havana Harbor. There is large speculation to whether that is the truth or not. Over the years it is still a topic of debate as of what caused the explosion. Some believe that the Spaniards did it, others believe it was a clumsy mistake of misplaced ammo, others believe it was a spontaneous coal fire that caught a box of ammunition on fire. No matter the cause, the loss of the ship and 260 of her crew was devastating to America at the time and led to strong feelings of dislike towards the Spaniards, leading to the Spanish-American war of 1898. The theories behind the explosion of the USS Maine is mainly focused around two ideas, there are many angles that can be viewed for the cause of this disaster and its fueling of the war that will be examined in this paper.

The Great War from 1914-1918 in Europe had a traumatic toll on Canadians. The soldiers in the fields were forever changed by the war but they weren’t the only ones who were changed. World War 1 had a significant impact on Canada’s homefront. The impact of the Great War on Canadian civilians can be easily seen through the increased rate and level of discrimination, growth of Canadian economy and the independence of women.

At 12:01, with the echo of the last bell lingering in the air, the one-hundred pounds of dynamite hidden in the wagon exploded (Andrews, 2014). Shrapnel encompassed the immediate area; people were dropping everywhere. The structures nearby shook as the shock wave slammed through the exterior walls. The cloth awnings that overlooked the streets burst into flames (Bellows, 2007). Next, came a rain shower of glass that drenched the streets from the shattered windows. Nearby, World War I veterans experienced a scene of devastation very similar to that of the battlefields. They initially suspected that cause of such destruction had come from the skies (King, 2011). One witness wrote, “ It was a crash out of a blue sky, an unexpected, death dealing bolt which in a twinkling turned into a shamble the busiest corner of Americas financial center” (Gage 2002).

At 9:40 pm on February 15 1898 a massive explosion rocked the Maine, soon after there was a second one. The Maine sunk almost immediately. Unfortunately the explosions happened in the front of the ship close to the living quarters of the men. Out of the 354 men on board 266 died from the blasts. Many others were injured terribly.

What would it have been like living in Halifax? With war all around you? Having to see soldiers with weapons in your home town every day, as a child? The answers are clear and horrific in this story that Kristin Lewis has told us. But if you want to know what it was like to live at this time then keep on reading it won’t even cost you a dime!

Not until the Gulf of Tonkin Incident would a trigger to war be so scrutinized and clouded in mystery as the destruction of the USS Maine. Over one hundred years later there is still a debate over what caused the explosion on the Maine and ultimately led the United States to war with Spain. The debate of the USS Maine’s destruction is over whether the explosion came from inside the ship, the internal explosion theory, or came from an outside the ship, the external explosion theory. Most of these arguments are focused on the cause of the explosion, whether a fire broke out on board or if a perpetrator, either the Spanish or Cuban rebels caused the explosion. This paper will mainly focus on warning but also talk about the origin of the explosion,

The explosions caused great damage. The Indianapolis took on a heavy water. Twelve minutes later, she rolled completely over, then her stern rose into the air, and she plunged straight down into the ocean. Some 300 of the 1,196 crewmen went down with the ship. With very scarce lifeboats and many without lifejackets, the remainder of the crew were set adrift. The navy blamed the sinking on the captain which was Butler McVay. They blamed this on him because he did not use a zig zagging maneuver. Which would have prevented this tragic

“The Cause of the Catastrophe”, was a Newspaper article written in a paper called the Halifax Herald, two days after the Halifax explosion, on December 8th 1917. The source comes directly from Halifax, referencing key issues that came as consequences of the explosion. This article is aimed towards other Canadian citizens, as the Halifax Herald was a local newspaper (Now called ‘the Chronicle Herald’, a newspaper that covers all of Nova Scotia), looking to simply spread information to citizens of Halifax and discuss the destruction that ensued two days prior. While this article comes from a primary and reputable source, it does include a small amount of bias when explaining the cause of the explosion. They reference both; that the oncoming Belgian

A french ship, the Mont Blanc carrying munitions bound for the french war effort in Europe, collided with a BelgiumRelief vessel, the Imo. Both ships were on the same lane and exploded.