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MG 1 vol 2124 number 176

HALIFAX DISASTER RECORD OFFICE
CHRONICLE BUILDING

HALIFAX, N.S.

Eastern Passage

There was considerable breakage of glass, and a few people were hurt. Some wreckage fell along the shore. NO refugees fled so far from Dartmouth. The steamer Picton was insecurely anchored at Lawlor's Island, on Thursday morning, she drifted Northwards and grounded on a point of land in the most densely populated portion of Eastern Passage. The inhabitants were alarmed, and this alarm was increased when flames spurted from the vessel followed by thick clouds of smoke, which obscured the entire landscape. The people ran to the woods where they remained for several hours. This panic was repeated on Sunday morning, and the people sat up all the intervening nights, as, although 25 of the Picton's crew were quartered at the Eastern Passage Post Office, no reassurance was given. So nervous were the folk that, when the Picton was taken away on January 18th many of them left their houses and sought shelter across the Railway track.

J. H. Mitchell.