A CITY OF WOUNDED.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 February 1918, Page 3

A CITY OF WOUNDED.

jl HALIFAX. INCIDENTS. f t STORIES OF RETURNED SAILORS

| Many men who were in British ships j at Halifax at the time of the munition ship’s explosion,- caused by a collision in the harbour, are in England on Christmas leave. Their stories are full j of vivid horror. They carry with them j picture postcards, of Halifax as it was $— a clean town full of bright houses, ■ wharfs and factories—and lasting ) memories of the scenes of desolation j and death which followed the mamij .moth explosion. “There were a thousand people on | the jetties and piers watching the fire in the ship,” said one sailor yesterday. ■: “All of them went. There were scores, j of people in the station near the pier, j The whole side of an iron ship was lift- .. ed and fell on the building. Only five , escaped.' A man was blown two miles

Land found without a thread of clct’.i- ---!' ing on him.. 1 j LIKE A BOMBARDMENT, i “After the first blast the air was full of shells and fragments of metal which . rained down on the town and ships, setting lire to everything as they ox-* plodcd, killing people in the town and •officers and men/ on the decks. For many' minutes after, the explosion it was like a heavy bombardment-.

“Not a building iu the main street es caped and not a pane of glass was .left whole for miles' around. Houses and ..ships were burning in every direction.* Every mail was ordered ashore at once for help. Only tbo sick-bay men were left, but even those were sent' ashore to rescue the people and put out the (ires. „ *

“ The commander of the put off with a boat’s crew to bob) to put the fire out. in tbo munition slop. They [mlled under I lie stern knowing that

she might, go up at any moment. The

■commander was first on hoard. He bad iust reached the deck when she went up and the boat’s crew vanished.

“There was not a ship in harbour which escaped without casualties. One

rescue party was seal to tile arsenal

which was on fire in several places. Twice they' were ordered to run for their lives and twice they went hack. •Finally they put the fire out.

DEAD SCHOOL CHILDREN. “ In one school Yve found 20 children lying on the' floor,'all dead. Tn a factory wo found a dozen bodies. You could only tell they were young women bv their clothes. One of our men was allowed to search for his 'wife, who

! lived three' uijlcs away. He found her ! with a piece of glass driven into the Lack of her neck. Men and women ! were searching for their dead for days afterwards.

j “Our party pulled a hundred people j out of burning buildings. There was | not a fireman or fire appliance left in tbo-town. "Both the motor-engines and all the crews bad gone to put out the fire in the munition ship, and all were [ lost. • ’■ ; “ Very ‘ little could have been d/>*>•» for the peonle if Boston bad not rush-ed-relief trains and doctors up at.once. The blizzard was awful next day. Fo ,p a few hours it checked the fires, 'blit they hurst out again and it was not until the rain came that the largest of them were put out. “T shall always remember the awful calm of Ilio people who were left alive, after the explosion and the .curious sight of so many walking about when we left with their .faces bandaged. Everyone was more or less cut with glass.”' *•" "..