Sunday Feature

The Splintered City: The Halifax Harbour Explosion, 1917

Sunday 20 May 2007 22:10-22:55 (Radio 3)

Sean Street tells the story of the biggest man-made explosion prior to the atomic bomb, when a munitions ship and, ironically, a refugee relief vessel collided, leaving Halifax, Nova Scotia, devastated. With 2,000 people killed and many thousands more injured, the world was changed as it initiated the first global response to a disaster and the academic study of catastrophe.

By the harbour and in the streets of the splintered city, Sean meets some of the survivors 90 years on and explores the causes and contradictions of the disaster

Duration:

45 minutes

Sunday Feature

Episode and Playlist Information

• 5 Aug 07 Sibelian Landscapes
• 22 Jul 07 Courting the East
• 1 Jul 07 Sex, Books and Empire
• 24 Jun 07 Return to Beirut
• 10 Jun 07 HP Lovecraft
• 3 Jun 07 Elgar and Empire
• 20 May 07 The Splintered City
• 13 May 07 Charles Correa
• 6 May 07 Something in the Air
• 29 Apr 07 Ivan Blatny

Sunday Feature pages