West Chester Amateur Radio Association retweetledi
"Coleman rushed back to his telegraph key and tapped out a desperate warning..."
"On December 6, 1917, Halifax, Nova Scotia, was shattered by the largest man-made explosion in history before the atomic age. In the city’s harbor, the French cargo ship Mont-Blanc—its holds crammed with high explosives—collided with another vessel. Flames quickly consumed the doomed ship.
Nearby, railway dispatcher Vince Coleman grasped the danger at once. A passenger train, packed with people, was only minutes from entering the blast zone. Instead of escaping, Coleman rushed back to his telegraph key and tapped out a desperate warning:
“Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbor making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye boys.”
He was right. Moments later, the Mont-Blanc erupted with the force of 2.9 kilotons of TNT, leveling swaths of Halifax, killing nearly 2,000, and wounding thousands more. Coleman perished instantly, but his signal reached the station. Over 300 passengers were spared from certain death.
Though not a soldier, Coleman’s sacrifice embodied the highest measure of duty. Canada later honored him with plaques, memorials, and even a celebrated Heritage Minute. More than a century on, his name endures—taught in schools and remembered as the man who chose the lives of strangers over his own in a moment of unthinkable catastrophe."
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