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MG 1 volume 2124 number 189

HALIFAX DISASTER RECORD OFFICE
Chronicle Building
Halifax, N.S.
January 25th, 1918

Personal Testimony of Miss Margaret Mooney,
128 Edward Street.


Lived with her mother, three brothers and three sisters at 15 Russell St. Works in Mr. Bent's office. When the explosion occurred she was at her desk. Someone cried "Zeppelin! Go to the cellar. She, and all those around her, rushed down to the sidewalk where MacDonald, chief postal clerk, told her that a ship had exploded in the Dockyard. She thought of her mother, got her coat and hat, and ran North. On the way up she saw the shattered houses and people in a panic. She reached North St., a child [xx] seized her arm and tried to lead her somewhere, but she only "remembered her own", and went on her way. Could hear moans in ruins, and saw blinded "poking about with sticks". At the Dockyard bridge, they were placing the wounded [xxx] in cars. Miss mooney reached the North Ferry, then cut across a vacant lot. The houses were in flames. Mrs. Coleman, a neighbour said that all the Mooneys were safe, she had seen them running up Russell St. (Miss Mooney believes that she lied deliberately.) She also said that she had seen the wounded sisters on the doorstep, and a brother lying on the ground, but that they had been taken away. Miss Mooney believed her, and did not bother going to the house. She came back along Barrington St. Helped Mrs. Mary Murphy pull people out of the ruins. One was Mrs. Austin. She died as they were laying her on the counter of a near-by shop. Miss Mooney saw many people dying around her, and heard the "awful wailing". She went South in search of her family. She met a brother and a sister--the brother, Harry, was originally lame, but uninjured.