note: transcription publicly contributed - please contact us with comments, errors or omisions

[handwritten in pencil top left: Carew, Francis J. Foreman, Furness, Withy. His home, 353 Brunswick St]


Halifax, December 6th, 1918.

Thursday morning, about 8 a.m., a French munition ship, loaded with high explosives, was steaming up Halifax Harbor, with Pilot Mackey on the bridge. It was a fine and bright morning. About the same hour, there left Bedford Basin, a Belgian Relief Ship, S. S. "Imo" with pilot William Hayes on the bridge, going down the Harbor, proceeding to sea. These two steamers collided, which resulted in the explosion of the French ship, which caused the lives of some 1800 men, women and children, and causing thousands of the citizens of Halifax more or less injuries. Something like 500 of the people losing one or two eyes, and hundreds of others out and marked for life. At the time of the explosion, there were a number of ships in the upper part of the Harbor, loading and discharging cargo. One of the ships, the S. S. "Picton" at the Sugar Refinery Pier, discharging cargo of bagged flour and oats, and cases of baked beans, etc., had on board a large quantity of explosives of a very dangerous nature. The Captain and Officers kept a strict watch on the stevedores who were working on the ship, preventing them at any time from smoking. Furness Withy and Co., Ltd., being agents for ship and cargo, had a large number of men working on the ship, eighty in number under Frank Carew, superintendent foreman and two assistants, Alonzo Bezanson and James Leahy. At about 8.50 a.m. Mr. Carew hearing about the collision of the two ships, and fire breaking out on the French Ship surmised that there was liable to be something serious come out of it, and his first thought was for the citizens of Halifax. Knowing the nature of the cargo on the "Picton" he, with the other men, did not shirk the duty they stayed

[handwritten in pencil top right: MG 1 vol 2124 number 55]