1. Early career

2. Halifax Explosion

3. Later career

4. Stamp and commemoration

5. Footnotes

6. Bibliography

7. External links

SS Imo^[1] was a steamship that served in passenger and freight trades and later as a whaling supply ship. Christened {{SS|Runic}}, she was bought, sold and renamed numerous times during her career. In 1917, Imo was under Norwegian registry chartered by the Belgian Relief Commission to bring supplies to war-ravaged Europe.

On 6 December, she was involved in a collision in Halifax Harbour with a French munitions vessel, {{SS|Mont-Blanc}}, laden with a full cargo of highly volatile explosives. The resultant fire aboard Mont Blanc caused the historic and catastrophic Halifax Explosion, which levelled the Richmond District in the North End of the city. Though Imo{{'}}s superstructure was severely damaged by the blast, the ship was repaired and returned to service in 1918.

She was named Guvernøren in 1920.^[2] She ran aground off the Falkland Islands on 30 November 1921 and was abandoned.

Early career

Launched in 1889 as Runic for the White Star Line, she served as a cargo liner, designed to carry 12 passengers in addition to freight, mostly livestock. She was sold in May 1895 to the West Indies and Pacific Steamship Line and renamed Tampican. Tampican was transferred with the rest of the company's fleet to Frederick Leyland & Co. on 31 December 1899. She was sold in 1912 to the Southern Pacific Whaling Company to serve as a whaling supply ship. Renamed Imo by the new owners, she operated out of the port of Christiana, Norway (now Oslo).^[3]

Halifax Explosion

In 1917 Imo sailed as a charter for the Belgian Relief Commission. Being neutral, SS Imo said on her side the words "Belgian Relief" to protect her from German submarines.^[4] Imo was sailing in ballast (empty) en route to New York to load relief supplies. The ship arrived in Halifax on 3 December for neutral inspection and spent two days in Bedford Basin awaiting refuelling supplies.^[5] Though given clearance to leave the port on 5 December, Imo{{'}}s departure was delayed as her coal load did not arrive until late that afternoon. The loading of fuel was not completed until after the anti-submarine nets had been raised for the night. Therefore, the vessel could not weigh anchor until the next morning.{{sfn|Kitz|Payzant|2006|p=16}}{{sfn|Flemming|2004|p=18}}

Imo was granted clearance to leave Bedford Basin by signals from the guard ship HMCS Acadia at approximately 7:30 am on the morning of 6 December,^[6] with Pilot William Hayes aboard. The ship entered the Narrows well above the harbour's speed limit in an attempt to make up for the delay experienced in loading her cargo.^[5] Imo met an American tramp steamer, SS Clara, being piloted up the wrong (western) side of the harbour.{{sfn|Flemming|2004|p=23}} The pilots agreed to pass starboard to starboard.{{sfn|Mac Donald|2005|pp=30–31}} Soon afterwards, though, Imo was forced to head even further towards the Dartmouth shore after passing the tugboat Stella Maris, which was travelling up the harbour to Bedford Basin near mid-channel. Horatio Brannen, the captain of Stella Maris, saw Imo approaching at excessive speed and ordered his ship closer to the western shore to avoid an accident.{{sfn|Flemming|2004|p=24}}{{sfn|Kitz|Payzant|2006|p=17}}{{sfn|Mac Donald|2005|p=33}}

This incident forced Imo even further over towards the Dartmouth side of the harbour into the path of the on-coming {{SS|Mont-Blanc}}, a French cargo ship fully loaded with a highly volatile cargo of wartime explosives. Unable to ground his ship for fear of a shock that would set off his explosive cargo, Pilot Francis Mackey ordered Mont-Blanc to steer hard to port (starboard helm) and crossed the Norwegian ship's bows in a last-second bid to avoid a collision. The two ships were almost parallel to each other, when Imo suddenly sent out three signal blasts, indicating the ship was reversing its engines. The combination of the cargoless ship's height in the water and the transverse thrust of her right-hand propellor caused the ship's head to swing into Mont-Blanc.{{sfn|Mac Donald|2005|pp=40–41}}^[5] At 8:45 am, the two ships collided at slow speed in "The Narrows" of Halifax Harbour.{{sfn|Flemming|2004|p=25}}

While the damage to Mont Blanc was not severe, it toppled barrels that broke open and flooded the deck with benzol that quickly flowed into the hold. As Imo{{'}}s engines engaged, she quickly disengaged, which created sparks inside Mont-Blanc{{'}}s hull. These ignited the vapours from the benzol. A fire started at the water line and travelled quickly up the side of the ship as the benzol spewed out from crushed drums on Mont-Blanc{{'}}s decks. The fire quickly became uncontrollable. Surrounded by thick black smoke, and fearing she would explode almost immediately, the captain ordered the crew to abandon ship.{{sfn|Kitz|1989|p=19}}{{sfn|Flemming|2004|p=25}} At 9:04:35 am, the out-of-control fire aboard Mont-Blanc finally set off her highly explosive cargo.{{sfn|Mac Donald|2005|p=58}} The ship was completely blown apart and a powerful blast wave radiated away from the explosion at more than {{convert|1000|m}} per second. Temperatures of {{convert|5000|C}} and pressures of thousands of atmospheres accompanied the moment of detonation at the centre of the explosion.{{sfn|Ruffman|Howell|1994|p=277}}^[5]

Approximately 1,950 people were killed by debris, fires, or collapsed buildings, and it is estimated that over 9,000 people were injured.^[7] The explosion wrecked the upper decks of Imo. Three of the four open bridge personnel were killed: Captain From, Pilot William Hayes and R. Albert Ingvald Iverson, the first officer. John Johansen, the helmsman, was severely injured but survived. Four more crew members were also killed: Harold Iverson (crewman), Oscar Kallstrom (fireman), Johannes C. Kersenboom (carpenter) and Gustav Petersen (boatswain).^[8] The blast and the tsunami that followed threw the ship ashore on the Dartmouth side of Halifax Harbour.^[9]

The Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry carried out the official investigation into the cause of the collision. Charles Jost Burchell, a prominent Halifax lawyer, represented Imo's owners as he did in the lengthy civil litigation. The inquiry initially held Imo's crew blameless, and put the entire responsibility for the collision on the Mont-Blanc. However following appeals to the Supreme Court of Canada in May 1919 and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (22 March 1920), both ships were found to have made navigational errors and were found equally at fault for the collision and its consequences.^[10][11]

Later career

Stamp and commemoration

In 2005, a stamp was issued by the Falkland Islands, showing Imo.^[14] The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia has an exhibit about the ship's role in the Halifax Explosion, which also displays some fittings from Imo including a dog collar from the ship's mascot.

On November 6, 2017, Canada Post issued a stamp commemorating the devastating explosion. Released one month before the blast's 100th anniversary, the issue also salutes the resilience of the Haligonians who rebuilt their city from the ashes.

The stamp captures the moments before and after the disaster through elements from the past and present. Since few photos exist of the doomed ships just before the accident, local illustrator Mike Little recreated the scene based on historic accounts and materials. An image of the front page of The Halifax Herald the day after the explosion shows the heartbreaking aftermath. The stamp was designed by Larry Burke and Anna Stredulinsky of Burke & Burke in Halifax.^[15]

Footnotes

Bibliography

• {{Cite book|last=Flemming|first=David|title=Explosion in Halifax Harbour|year=2004|publisher=Formac|isbn=978-0-88780-632-2|ref=harv}}
• {{Cite book |last=Kitz |first=Janet |title=The Halifax Explosion and the Road to Recovery |publisher=Nimbus Publishing |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-921054-30-6|ref=harv}}
• {{Cite book |last=Kitz |first=Janet |last2=Payzant |first2=Joan |title=December 1917: Revisiting the Halifax Explosion |publisher=Nimbus Publishing|year=2006 |isbn=978-1-55109-566-0|ref=harv}}
• {{Cite book |last=Mac Donald |first=Laura |title=Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Explosion of 1917 |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-00-200787-0|ref=harv}}
• {{cite book|editor1-last=Ruffman|editor1-first=Alan|editor2-last=Howell|editor2-first=Colin D. |title=Ground Zero: A Reassessment of the 1917 Explosion in Halifax Harbour|year=1994|publisher=Nimbus Publishing|isbn=978-1-55109-095-5|ref=harv}}

External links

• Guver Noren [+1921] WRECK
• HalifaxExplosion.net features images and reading material related to the Halifax Explosion and the early RCN.

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