Thursday, December 6, 2012  History rerun: December 6, 1917  It
was World War I.  Gigantic convoys of ships carrying weapons,
food, and troops went constantly to Europe, bringing supplies to
the Allies. They left from several major Canadian and American
ports.  On this day one of them went horribly wrong. And outside
of where it happened, it's mostly forgotten.  A large convoy was
gathering in Halifax harbor for the trans-Atlantic journey. One
ship was a freighter heavily loaded with explosives, the S.S.
Mont-Blanc.  At 8:40 that morning, due to a series of mutual
errors, she collided with the freighter S.S. Imo.  The Mont-
Blanc immediately caught fire. Her crew tried to put it out, but
due to its rapid spread were unable to. Scuttling attempts were
unsuccessful, and the crew were forced to abandon ship. Someone
rang a fire alarm, and several firefighting teams quickly
responded to the docks. But with the ship in the harbor, there
was little they could to but watch it burn. None of them knew
about its cargo.