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Re: (rshsdepot) Hell's Gate

The Station master was Vince Coleman, who was despatcher at Richmond
Station, less than 1000 feet from the pier against which the Mont Blanc came
to rest before the explosion. From my own research, more than 60 Canadian
Government Railway employees were killed or died as  aresult of their
injuries December 6 1917, along with six from the CPR and four from the
Dominion Atlantic Railway.

Jay Underwood
Elmsdale NS (30 miles from Halifax)
- ----- Original Message -----
From: JIMBEAR <ribear_@_cox.net>
To: <rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net>; Henry Rosenberg <hwr5@columbia.edu>
Cc: Les & Phyllis <lesphyl_@_earthlink.net>; Rick Pinard <PinardR@rferl.org>;
Jamie <nyclincoln_@_aol.com>; RSHS Depot <rshsdepot@lists.railfan.net>
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 4:01 AM
Subject: Re: (rshsdepot) Hell's Gate


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "fred fep" <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>
> To: "Henry Rosenberg" <hwr5_@_columbia.edu>
> Cc: "Les & Phyllis" <lesphyl_@_earthlink.net>; "Rick Pinard"
<PinardR_@_rferl.org>; "Jamie" <nyclincoln@aol.com>; "RSHS
> Depot" <rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 12:33 AM
> Subject: (rshsdepot) Hell's Gate
>
>
> > The explosion was the largest ever until Hiroshima.
> >
> >
> > Association guided ships through the passage. In the 1870s the reefs
> > were blasted; supposedly the explosion was heard as far away as Newark.
> >
> > ...from http://www.astorialic.org/topics/names.htm
>
> Someone at the Astoria Historical Society need to do a better job of
checking
> their facts. The greatest explosion in history before the first atomic
bomb occurred
> at Halifax, NS during WWI. A French munitions ship, the Mont Blanc, loaded
> with nearly 200 tons of TNT, 10 tons, of gun cotton, 35 tons of benzol,
and 2,300
> tons of picric acid (used in manufacturing gunpowder) collided with
another ship in
> the channel and caught fire. It exploded 20 minutes later. The resulting
explosion
> completely obliterated the 320 foot long, 3,000 ton ship (one of its
anchors was
> found two miles away)  and killed more than 1,900 people eventually died
as a
> result of the explosion in Halifax that day. During the development of the
atomic
> bomb. Robert Oppenheimer and the other scientists used the Halifax
destruction
> to calculate the effects of the atomic bomb.
>
> BTW, the French crew abandoned the ship and left it adrift. It came to
rest
> against the railroad pier. The station master sent a last telegraph
message seconds
> before the explosion, describing the peril and saying goodbye.
>
> Jim.
>
>
>
> =================================
> The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
> railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org
>
>

=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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