Selwyn House School - Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR 1939- 1940 States and Canada, but it was a very long time before the city and its population re- Covered. P. R. I., Form 5. lNO'I'EI Stories of this, the most horrible explosion in world history, are conflicting, but the above account, told the author of the above article by one who experienced the tragedy, is closely' borne out by .-Xrthur Mee in his Hero Book. He tells how Captain Newcombe having, at the time of the collision, a wound dressed aboard the Niobe after the amputation of a leg, called for volunteers to take the ship's pinnace, when Boat- swain Matthison of Toronto and six seamen came forward at once to try and grapple with the burning Mont Blanc. The seven men perished. Another account states that three otlicers and twenty men of H.NI.S. Highflyer anchored near by put a boat overside, reached the Mont Blanc, and clambered aboard. All were dissolved in that globe of fiery gas 4 by possibly the greatest detonation ever heard on earth. In any case, the officers and men of Xiobe and Highflyer offer an example of bravery that will be long remembered in our naval history. - Ed. I The Defeat of the Emi bpm . IVhife --ljax shepherded Formose , On the seas of Uruguay, J German hallleship arose - The .fdnziral Graf Spee .' is fhe English me! fheir thunderingfoes, The French ship left thefraiv. The .z'ja.v had hut six-inrh guns, Seven thousand tons her weightg The Graf Spee izeiglzea' len thousand Ions, ina' eleven-inch guns, her rafeg Bu! the Graf Spee ana' her lhousanfl sons Eaeh minute neared their fate. For ou! of a efoud came Exeter , .ind slruek, and took her slrokeg Jchiffes darted after her, .ind in and out the smoke, Now, her guns, now, as hraee a slir, The guns of Jjax spoke. Hurrah .' The Spee turns in to shore .' She's wounded ! Vietoflv .' Now will she five hut two days more, ,ind .fhen her end will he .J turn, a pause, a mighty roar, - Then silence on the sea. J. S. C., Form 5. ll5l

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Sl-iI.WYN HUL'S1-1 SCHOOI, NI.-XG.-XZINPQ The Ziaalifax Qlixplnsiun. Thursday December oth, 1917, will ever be memorable as the date of the great disaster which, with catastrophic suddenness, burst upon the beautiful and historic city of H2llifz1X. The spotlight is on two ships, the French ship Mont Blanc , a steamer, and a Norwegian ship, the lmo During the 1Yar, ships who wanted either to enter or leave the port had to ask the Admiralty at what time they could enter or leave. Naturally a great many ofthe old salts resented having to ask a young Lieutenant when they were allowed to move their own ships. The lmo was requested to leave the harbour at 8 p.m. on the evening of the Sth, but her captain decided to take his ship out at 8 a.m. on the oth. Consequently there were two ships advancing towards each other, the Admiralty having arranged with the Mont Blanc to come in at 3 a.m. on the oth. The Tmo was on her way to New York to pick up a relief cargo for the war sullferers of Belgium. The Mont Blanc was carrying a deck cargo of benzol, and an under - cargo of the most powerful explosive, T.N.T. Slowly the two vessels approached each other, nearer and nearer they drew, reaching the Narrows between the harbour and Bedford basin. Then happened the inexplicable: someone had blundered . The Norwegian vessel collided with the Mont Blanc and almost immediately her deck cargo of benzol caught Fire. The lmo then sheered otli and went aground. The oH'icers on board l-l.lXI.S. Niobe lan old cruiser which was now tied up to the wharf, and used as a depot shipl sent a picket boat to try and tow the French ship away from the wharves Lthe ship burned for about seventeen minutes before she went upl. However, it was too late to do anything, as the fire had reached the 4 000 tons ofexplosive she carried, and the ship blew up. The men on the picket boat were never heard of or seen again. The damage of course was terrible. Property damage was estimated at between forty and fifty millions. There were 1,200 dead, 2,000 wounded, and 6,000 rendered home- lessg some say the death list amounted to '2,000, the injured 20,000. Five hundred persons vanished altogether. The houses collapsed like cards. The whole north end of the city, practically two square miles of territory, became a burning ruin. A considerable section of the water front was completely shattered. There was not a single window left intact. One piece of the Mont Blanc's anchor went three miles in Hameg the other part sailed across the harbour and landed hve miles away. :X box-car on a station siding was picked up and thrown right across a corner of the harbour, and could be seen sticking up in the ground for weeks. The lmo which had run aground had her decks completely swept, her captain and thirty of his crew had been squashed on her deck by the concussion, her masts had been taken otl' her, ,-Xll kinds of ships were drifting round the harbour. To crown it all, a blizzard arrived in the evening making the already terrible-iob of the rescuers twice as hard. However, aid was sent immediately from all parts of the 1141

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SELWYN HOUSE SCHOOL MAGAZINE Qu iincihent at bca. H.lNl.S. Hood was ploughing her way through the Atlantic in a heavy swell. She was hunting for the German raider Deutschland , but so far she had not caught her. Sub-lieutenant Bob Saunders was sleeping like a log when somebody threw open his door and yelled, Your watch, Sir Bob got out of his bunk and sighed regretfully, but duty was duty. He pulled on his heavy rubber boots and oilskins, and headed for the bridge. Arriving there, he settled down to a steady pace and walked to and fro across the bridge. Suddenly he stopped and peered ahead. He thought he could see a dark shape, but was not sure, so he whipped out his night-glasses. Derelict bearing down on our port beam , cried the lookout. 4' Ah, that explains it , said Bob to himself. Bob got the ship away from the derelict and yelled for a messenger to go and tell the Captain. The ship directed a searchlight on the derelict, which showed it was a three-masted barque. Meanwhile the Captain was ordering the whaler's crew away. As Bob was in command of the whaler, he jumped in with the crew who took their places in the boat. Oil was being let out of the ship in order that the sea might be made as calm as possible for the Whaler. Reaching the ship, they found that it had been a case of mutiny, but that the captain was still aboard, though wounded. Rowing back to the ship they took the captain aboard, and the ship proceeded on her interrupted course. D. W., Form 2 B. Swan Jfrantiscn Jfair. XYhen l went to the San Francisco Fair the First thing l saw was the Hall of Science, which included Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Astronomy, and significant chapters of modern medicine. There is a Radio Active Klan in this Hall. All of these wonders can only be understood by seeing them. The l'nder Sea Gallery discloses the mysteries of the water kingdom. Then again you may see how X-Rays are taken, listen to lectures, and see the moving pictures of the world of to-morrow. The most interesting thing of all is the Hall of Air Transportation . It consists of Doug. Corrigan's i900 crate in which he flew the Atlantic from New York to Ire- land non-stop in 1933. You can also see some old planes built by Robert Fowler in 1912. One of them is an 80 H.P. bi-plane. There is also a good display of gas models weighing from l lb. to -l lbs. llfil