From the News

Dated: December 19, 1917

The following letter was received by Mrs. Houghton from her husband, Fred Houghton, who is stationed at Halifax attached to the Motor Boat Patrol. He saw and came through the recent explosion and the fateful event he describes and gives his own and another Kenora man's experiences:

Mess No. 12, H.M.C.S. Niobe

Halifax, N.S.

"It was about fifteen minutes to nine on the morning of Dec. 6th. We had just finished breakfast and the majority of the boys in our Mess had gone below to report for duty. Some of us were sitting around talking when a fellow came in and said that there was a collision out in the harbor. We all went to the port holes but could only see the one boat (the Belgian Relief) all battered at the bow. Thinking that there was no real damage done we went back and sat down, when after a few minutes the same fellow came in saying that one of the boats in the collision was on fire. Not being able to see much from the port holes a few of us including Arthur Chaloner and myself went on top deck to have a good view of the fire, which was about five hundred yards from us. We were watching it for about ten minutes, during which time there were some two hundred of us gathered, and each time the flames leaped we would all exclaim something, as they were leaping about six hundred feet into the air. Then the great explosion occurred which just took the whole lot of us off our feet and landed us in a heap about fifteen or twenty feet away. I could not explain my feelings at that time, but it just appeared as though the whole earth had come up under us, and taken our breath away. I found it so difficult to breath that I thought I would never come out alive, and at the same time there was thousands of pieces of shells falling all around us, some weighing about one hundred pounds or more; but nevertheless I am thankful to say that both Arthur and myself came through with nothing more than a good shaking, but all around there were fellows covered with blood and being taken to the sick bay for treatment. This occurred about ten minutes past nine. About half an hour afterwards those that were able were allowed to leave the ship, so, along with others, Arthur and I made our way to the burning houses and there we saw sights that would turn the hearts of any human being. There were men, women and children, both dead and living, lying everywhere helpless. The dead we would lay aside, the wounded we carried as best we could to the nearest dressing station, where there were military doctors attending them and then forwarding them to the hospitals. We carried till about noon all kinds of mutilated bodies, till I saw one girl that completely upset me. She had both legs blown off. They were carrying her on a sack and that was only one instance. There were hundreds of such cases, but that one fixed me. I just beat it back to the ship all in. We had some dinner and by that time they would not allow any civilians to go near, which kept us out, as we are still wearing our own clothes to date. To show the force of the explosion it just wrenched the Niobe anchor from its bed, which was twenty feet of solid cement dug into the ground. It also laid flat everything within one mile or so, and shook the whole town to such an extent that every house in Halifax was damaged in some way or other. It was terrible, every other person you meet on the street carries some mark from the broken glass, etc. I could not start to write every detail as it would take too much time and space so please accept this as an outline of the facts as seen by me and others that were there including A. Chaloner, who, I can safely say was just as sick of it as I was when we quit.

Yours truly,

FRED HOUGHTON, E.R.A.