Reading Comprehension #1
Directions: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow in the spaces provided.
The Halifax Explosion
Halifax was an important port city during World War I. It handled over 17 million tons of cargo, most of which was clothing, food, ammunition, and equipment bound for the "front". Three out of every four Canadian soldiers left for Europe through the port of Halifax. It was also a place to imprison enemy soldiers and treat wounded soldiers returning from Europe. Many people who worked in the waterfront area lived in the north end of Halifax in an area called Richmond.
On December 1, 1917, a French steamer ship, the Mont Blanc, left New York laden with 2,622 tons of explosives. The ship's, captain was sailing to Halifax to join a convoy that was crossing the Atlantic. There was a rule that all ships transporting and handling explosives were to fly a red flag, but because the Mont Blanc was only conveying explosives and not handling them, her captain chose not to fly a red flag.
On the same evening, the Imo, a Belgian steamer carrying coal, was waiting to leave the Halifax harbour. Her captain was miffed because he had to wait overnight, so the next morning he left early, without permission from the harbour authorities.
As the Imo headed out to sea, she met several other freighters. To steer clear of these ships, she moved farther away from the shore than she should have, until she was directly in the path of the Mont Blanc! The two ships tried to avoid a collision, but the lmo struck the Mont Blanc's bow, where some of the explosives were stored. After the lmo struck, the Mont Blanc stopped her engines and lay damaged, drifting toward the Halifax piers. The captain ordered the crew to lifeboats. The crew, now liberated from the smoking ship, rowed to Dartmouth without giving the alarm that the ship's main cargo was explosives.
People residing in Richmond and Halifax watched the two ships in the harbour, observing the smoke billowing out of the Mont Blanc, but almost no one was aware of the imminent danger. Vincent Coleman, the telegraph operator at the train station, did know that smoke on a munition ship was a bad sign, and warned incoming trains to avoid Halifax just minutes before the Mont Blanc exploded.
When the fire on the Mont Blanc ignited the explosives, the blast was so tremendous that vibrations could be felt up to 450 kilometres away. The force of the blast blew the anchor off the Mont Blanc more than 5 kilometers. The air wave from the blast drove down everything in its path. Houses, stores, boatyards, piers and factories were crushed. Fires broke out everywhere. In Halifax, more than 1900 people were killed simultaneously, and more than 9000 were injured. Many people disappeared, never to be found again. A soldier, who had just returned from the "front" in France, declared that what he saw in Halifax was worse than anything he had seen on the battlefield.