The city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, is reeling following the harbor explosion three days ago between a French vessel carrying explosives bound for France and a Norwegian relief vessel en route to New York.
The explosion flattened schools, railway and waterfront structures, homes and buildings in the harbor region, killing their occupants.
Thousands of other structures not in the immediate blast radius were damaged from the concussive force of the explosion.
The local coroner has ordered four thousand coffins.
[Ed: The final death toll will be 1,963, with 9.000 wounded.]
Hospitals are overwhelmed with survivors wounded and blinded by flying shards of glass and wood.
Debris has been found five miles away.
Damaged buildings continue to fall from the weight of more than two feet of new snow which fell in yesterday’s blizzard.
Tens of thousands are without shelter.
An appeal has gone out to neighboring communities to send construction crews and building supplies so that emergency shelters can be built quickly before more cold and storms come.
The need for clothing, especially children’s clothing, and blankets, is acute.
Halifax is a scene of despair.
A soldier on leave after three years of fighting in France arrived yesterday to find that his home and entire family are gone.
He is working tonight in a clothing depot, explaining that he had to do something or he’d go mad.
In the midst of such despair, rescuers have taken joy in small miracles.
Yesterday, more than two days since the blast, they discovered a small boy and his puppy, cold and hungry, but safe within the interior walls of a destroyed home.
On December 6, a German U-boat struck the US destroyer Jacob Jones as she sailed from France to her home port in Queenstown, Ireland.
The ship went down in eight minutes, becoming the first US destroyer ever to be lost in enemy action.
The Navy Department reports that various ships have rescued survivors.
[Ed: It will later be learned that the U-boat commander pulled two injured Jacob Jones sailors from the water and brought them on board his submarine. Then, he radioed the US naval base at Queenstown with the coordinates for survivors in lifeboats, enabling British vessels to find and rescue them. This man followed the law of war with respect to the shipwrecked.]
Rumors swirl in the nation of Georgia that the deposed Russian czar, Nicholas II, has escaped his confinement in Siberia.
Russian diplomats have discounted these rumors, noting the great distances Nicholas would have to travel to reach safety.
Yet, concerns have remained since it was learned that the British government offered Nicholas asylum soon after he was deposed.
The British head of state, King George V, is Nicholas’s first cousin.
In Rome, joyous celebrations have broken out with the news that, eight months after declaring war against Germany, the US has formally declared war on its ally, Austria-Hungary.
The Italian army has recently suffered a debilitating defeat in the north at the hands of forces from Austria and Germany and is in disarray.
And finally…
The 29th annual New York Poultry and Pigeon Association show will take place at Madison Square Garden in late December.
Hundreds of classes of poultry and pigeons will be on display during the show, with cash prizes and trophies awarded for those birds judged ‘best in class.’
With the war stimulating interest in the use carrier pigeons as messengers, the American Federation of Homer Pigeon Fanciers has announced it will mount several special exhibits.
[Ed: Carrier pigeons proved to be invaluable during the war and were used extensively, both on land and sea.]
I’ll see you tomorrow.
— Brenda
Stories from the New York Times.
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