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HALIFAX DISASTER RECORD OFFICE
CHRONICLE BUILDING
HALIFAX, N. S.

wandered down, and told me to carry on." McLennan was trying to get the thing cleaned up. He was told to get a guard and put it on. "Now comes the story of the 72nd Battery." McLennan got men from the street. Thought the G. O. C.'s were good, and "grabbed men" where-ever he could get them. Got two men of the 72nd Battery, and a B. E. F. People were coming back then. McLennan had to write a note to their O. C. for commandeering them. McLennan established fire-picket, and he and his men were working till two o'clock clearing away the broken wood-work. When he was on the roof immediately after the alarm, a naval officer appeared with blue-jackets carrying buckets of water, salt water.
Note This was Engineer Lieutenant Bannatyne, who informed Director on the evening of December 6th, 1917, that he had seen the magazine with smoke and steam coming out of it, also an officer whom he did not know on top of it, and two men. Bannatyne broke into a store in the DockYard, got buckets and men and brought them up to the magazine. He expected the magazine to blow up. /M
McLennan. "It was like an act of Providence." McLennan stated that he gave no orders about warning people. He was too busy and paid no attention to the crowd. He understood that a man in the crowd in Barrington Street pointed with a cane towards the magazine when the smoke and steam were arising from it, and that this caused the panic. From the street the smoke etc. proceeding from the heater-house would look as if it came from the magazine itself. McLennan was no relieved until eleven o'clock the morning of the 7 During the night he improvised a shelter for himself and his guard, in the lantern-house, a small building near the street. He ran a "two-by-four" scantling along the walls that were standing for a