This is Angela Odell, and you are listening to Real Cool History for Kids, a podcast show featuring history told from a distinctly biblical worldview perspective.

Welcome to an adventure.

Welcome to episode 165 of Real Cool History for Kids. This episode is for Eden and Griffin Tannis, who wanted to hear the story of the Halifax explosion. Back in episode 72, I told you guys the story of the war to end all wars. This is one of the names World War I

was called because at that time people thought it would settle all disputes once and for all.

Well, we know that this didn't happen because there was a second World War a couple of

decades later. And I've made lots of episodes about that Second World War because that is the one

in which Hitler was trying to take over the world. Well, in today's episode, we're going to head back to World War I, or the Great War,

or the war to end all wars.

But World War I, to the morning of December 6th, 1917, in the peaceful port city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. During the war,

Halifax was one of the busiest ports in the world. Ships carrying food, supplies, and soldiers to

Europe came and went every single day.

The harbor was noisy with whistles blowing and cranes clanking

and children walking to school and fishermen hauling in their nets.

You get the picture.

It was noisy and really, really busy. Well, that morning, two ships were

entering the harbor from opposite directions. One was a Norwegian steamship called the SS Emo on its way

to pick up relief supplies. And the other was a French

cargo ship named the Mont Blanc, loaded with a very dangerous cargo. It had almost 3,000 tons of

explosives like T&T and Pickrick acid and benzol on board.

You know what?

We could kind of think as the Mont Blanc as basically a floating bomb.

Well, as those ships approached an area known as the Narrows, which got its name

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