vince coleman halifax explosion

A few days later, searchers found Vincent Coleman's body in the wreckage of the Richmond rail yards. He left his wife Frances looking after their young two-year old daughter Eileen, dressed in a cheerful blue dress handmade by Frances. The kitchen sink crashed down on two year old Eileen Coleman, badly cutting her neck and leaving her little blue dress spattered with bloodstains that you can see to this day. He ran back into his office and started the telegraph to stop the train," Jim Coleman explained. "He had a choice, he had a decision to make and I think he made the right one — to stay and save the people," Jim Coleman told The Homestretch Tuesday. His train was running on time, but was held fifteen minutes by the dispatcher at Rockingham. Coleman's wife Frances suffered serious back injuries. Fortunately, it was running a few minutes late and was far enough from the explosion so the blast inflicted only broken windows and minor injuries. He stands with a number of heroes of the Halifax explosion such as Horatio Brennan, a heroic tugboat captain who died trying to pull Mont-Blanc away from the city. [My grandfather] tried to clear the people away, there were school children, away from there. Coleman died in the explosion as did his office manager, William Lovett, and his stenographer, Florence Young. Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion, December 6, 1917. The sailor had been sent ashore by one of the naval officers responding to the blaze, one of the few people who knew of her deadly cargo. "People just didn't talk about it and now, 100 years later, people are talking about it and wanting to learn more about it. Vincent ColemanNova Scotia Archives, 230.1, N-6198. Image credits: CAFinUS. Pier 6 and the ship vanished in a column of flame. Observing the burning ship just prior to the explosion, both he and his co-worker decided to run from what they knew would be a life-threatening situation. Patrick Vincent Coleman (13 March 1872 – 6 December 1917) was a train dispatcher for the Canadian Government Railways (formerly the ICR, Intercolonial Railway of Canada) who was killed in the Halifax Explosion, but not before he sent a message to an incoming passenger train to stop outside the range of the explosion. Patrick Vincent Coleman was a train dispatcher for the Canadian Government Railways who was killed in the Halifax Explosion, but not before he sent a message to an incoming passenger train to stop out of range of the explosion. Coleman's telegraph key, recovered from the wreckage of the station.Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, M2004.50.103a. By: Misaki Chan Vincent Coleman was born on 13 March 1872, in Halifax, Nova Scotia He has a wife named Frances Coleman and 4 Childrens . Within a week, the battered wartime port of Halifax was back in action, and trains rumbled through the ruins of Richmond bringing passengers to the repaired North End station and supplies to the cleared wharves of the harbour. Once Vince Coleman was told he automatically remembered that there was a train coming from New Brunswick come towards the explosion. Ammunition ship afire in harbour making for Pier 6 and will explode. It wasn't really spoken about.". A single telegram saved the lives of hundreds on Dec. 6, 1917 — the day two ships collided in the Halifax Harbour, setting off an explosion that decimated the city. Coleman was a dispatch operator working at a Halifax, Nova Scotia, railroad on December 6, 1917. 10 and save the 300 people aboard? Ammunition ship afire in harbour making for Pier 6 and will explode. Ammunition ship afire in harbor making for Pier 6 and will explode. They, too, are buried at Mount Olivet. Guess this will be my last message. This help, in the vital first hours was absolutely critical to the fate of for hundreds of lives as a snowstorm the next day slowed everything down. Vince Coleman’s widow, Frances, also survived. HALIFAX — He is the ultimate hero of the Halifax Explosion: Vince Coleman saved a trainload of passengers at the cost of his own life. It would be many decades before two-way radios were installed aboard trains. Clearly Coleman knew the explosion was imminent and that he was staring death in the face. The kitchen sink crashed down on two year old Eileen Coleman, badly cutting her neck and leaving her little blue dress spattered with bloodstains that you can see to this day. Vince Coleman (train dispatcher) P. Vincent Coleman (1872 - December 6, 1917) was a train dispatcher for the Canadian Government Railways (formerly the ICR, Intercolonial Railway of Canada) who was killed in the Halifax Explosion. Train dispatcher Vince Coleman sacrifices his own life to save a train from the Halifax Explosion. 10 are safe. Coleman's action and results were truly heroic. People poured out of the offices in that part of the city to watch. Frances was presented with the telegraph key, the watch and the pen of her husband who was quickly becoming famous. Unaware of the Mont-Blanc’s cargo, crowds gathered to see the fire. My father talked about it. According to MacMechan, the train was past the point where it could be stopped because it had already passed the Rockingham station, the last station before Richmond. It was a short five blocks to his workplace at the Richmond railway station. Coleman started to leave with his boss, William Lovett, the chief clerk at Richmond but then Coleman turned back to use the telegraph key to send his famous message. HALIFAX — Exactly one century after he died, mustachioed train dispatcher Vince Coleman’s status as the ultimate Halifax Explosion hero will be cemented Wednesday. This is how rail traffic was controlled in 1917. HALIFAX — Exactly one century after he died, mustachioed train dispatcher Vince Coleman’s status as the ultimate Halifax Explosion hero will be cemented Wednesday. A sailor came by and said the ship was full of explosives and it was going to blow up. His grandson is set to speak at the event, which marks the 100th anniversary of the day a Norwegian vessel and a French cargo ship collided, killing nearly 2,000 people and injuring 9,000. Good-bye boys.” Coleman died at .. More specifically, Mr. Coleman worked for the Canadian Government Railways company during WW1. HALIFAX - Exactly one century after he died, mustachioed train dispatcher Vince Coleman's status as the ultimate Halifax Explosion hero will be cemented Wednesday. Coleman no doubt died instantly at his telegraph key. He died in the Halifax explosion which, for those who don't know, Ammunition ship afire in harbor making for Pier 6 and will explode. "They were all heroes. "When the ships collided, there was a huge fire aboard the ships. He even signed off with a telegraph shorthand for "Goodbye Boys". The explosion shattered the glass and hundreds and hundreds were blind or semi-blind," he said. Today he is remembered as one of the heroic figures from the disaster. Otherwise the lines would just have gone dead and hours would have been wasted figuring out what was wrong in Halifax. On Wednesday, a ferry … May be reproduced for personal and study purposes only. Written by Dan Conlin, former Curator of Marine History (April, 2014). The choice is yours with an Annual Pass. Suddenly a naval sailor burst through the door. Contact webmaster with questions or comments regarding this page. Coleman was killed in the Halifax Explosion in 1917 that claimed the lives of 2,000 and injured 9,000 more. The home that Vincent Coleman had left that morning was only 2000 feet from Ground Zero. Eileen Coleman's DressMaritime Museum of the Atlantic, M2004.54.1, Gift of Janette Snooks. It was crushed by the blast and buried in debris from the railway yard as tidal waves rose from the harbour and roared back and forth across the Richmond yards. The Coleman house was wrecked and then burned by the explosion. However a recent railway history, Built for War: Canada's Intercolonial by Jay Underwood, records an article in the December 7, 1917 Moncton Transcript newspaper which indicates that Coleman did stop the train: "Conductor Gillespie Had a Marvelous Escape From Death—Conductor Gillespie, who went to Halifax on No. Without warning the munition ship exploded into flames a few hours later. Seconds later, the ship would explode and set off the 3,000 tons of explosives inside. The newspapers of the day recorded slight variations on the exact wording of Coleman's message but its content is consistently reported as: “Hold up the train. The French munitions ship Mont-Blanc had caught fire after a collision. Frances and all four of her children survived and recovered. Jim Coleman’s father was one of Vince’s four children, all of whom survived the Halifax Explosion. A sailor appraised train dispatcher Vince Coleman of the danger, and rather than flee, Coleman warned incoming trains: “Hold up the train. Guess this will be my last message. Patrick Vincent "Vince" Coleman (March 13 th, 1872 - December 6 th, 1917) was a Canadian train dispatcher who lost his life during the Halifax Explosion while he warned an oncoming train about the pending disaster.. On that fateful day, the SS Mont-Blanc, a French munitions ship carrying a cargo of high explosives collided with a Norwegian vessel, SS Imo. As dispatcher, he was a rank above the ordinary telegraph operators in most stations. The train that Vincent Coleman stopped from entering the area had 700 people on board. A single telegram saved the lives of hundreds on Dec. 6, 1917 — the day two ships collided in the Halifax Harbour, setting off an explosion that decimated the city. Pier 6 and the Richmond rail yards after the explosion.MMA, Charles A. Vaughan Collection, MP207.1.184/47, N-14,020. He says, that the explosion blew the windows out of the train at Rockingham some 4 miles from Halifax. Eileen Coleman's Dress Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, M2004.54.1, Gift of Janette Snooks Coleman's wife Frances suffered serious back injuries. Box 500 Station A Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6. Vincent Coleman's neighbourhoodNova Scotia Archives, Notman Collection. Here’s a reenactment detailing Vince Coleman’s involvement in providing aid during the catastrophe. Images or text not to be reproduced for commercial purposes without permission from the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. You can still see water stains in his wallet at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic today. These were the last words of Vince Coleman, the train dispatcher who met his end on December 6, 1917, in the Halifax Explosion. Come for an hour or stay for the day. He was also very active in his railway union. CNS photo/Francis Campbell, The Catholic Register The tall, gray and weathered headstone in Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery is carved with 11 names, all from the same family, and with a simple statement at the bottom: “They died Dec. 6, 1917, at 66 Veith St.” He worked not in the grand brick passenger station on North Street but in the deceptively small wooden station in the middle of the Richmond rail yards. He warned everyone that the burning Mont-Blanc was full of ammmunition and about to explode. Vince Coleman Halifax Explosion-Vince Coleman, a railway dispatcher, sacrificed his life in order to warn an incoming train of the imminent Halifax explosion. SS Mont-Blanc , a French cargo ship laden with high explosives , collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo in the Narrows, a strait connecting the upper Halifax Harbour to Bedford Basin . When I was growing up in the '50s, '60s and '70s there were no commemorative events. 10 was gathered from interviews of passengers and crew by Archibald MacMechan in 1917 and published in Graham Metson's 1978 book The Halifax Explosion December 6, 1917. The home that Vincent Coleman had left that morning was only 2000 feet from Ground Zero. We remember it as a great act of heroism by a telegrapher, train dispatcher Vince Coleman . Vince Coleman. "In addition to people dying, lots of people lost their vision because they were looking out the window. Only known photograph of the blast, probably taken about 15 seconds after detonation from about one mile away. They were transferred to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in 2005. He sent orders to the countless trains feeding freight into the ship filled wharves of North End Halifax as well as routing the heavy wartime passenger traffic passing into the North Street Station and the vital troop trains and hospital trains from the Pier 2 ocean liner terminal. 9 Express from Halifax. People were coming in from all over to help out. Articles belonging to telegraph operator Vince Coleman are among the artifacts from the Halifax Explosion displayed at the Maritime Museum of Atlantic in Halifax … The Halifax explosion is considered to be one of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions. It is a priority for CBC to create a website that is accessible to all Canadians including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive challenges. The explosion was even heard all the way south in Massachusetts. Please credit the Nova Scotia Museum, Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage. His last message was: "Hold up the train. It was the largest man-made explosion to ever happen until the atomic bomb. A sailor apprised train dispatcher Vince Coleman of the danger, and rather than flee, Coleman warned incoming trains: “Hold up the train. Website developed and maintained by Nova Scotia Communities, Culture and Heritage Contact Us Social Media, ormer Curator of Marine History (April, 2014), Vincent Coleman and the Halifax Explosion, Travelling Exhibit MS St. Louis: Ship of Fate, Teaching With Small Boats Alliance Conference, Nova Scotia Communities, Culture and Heritage. Calgarian Jim Coleman never met his grandfather, railway dispatcher Vincent Coleman, but he's come to learn a lot about the man who died to save the lives of many. When a … "Hold up the train. Vince Coleman, a train dispatcher who gave his life in the 1917 Halifax explosion to save hundreds of lives. Such was the case that December morning in Halifax, when Vince Coleman, a railway dispatcher working less than a mile from the explosion, learned what the Mont-Blanc was carrying. On that day, Coleman and his co-worker, Henry Dunstan got word that a ship caring explosives was docked in Halifax Harbor. Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered on CBC Gem. Coleman's message, followed up an hour or so later by a more detailed call for help from a Halifax Intercolonial official, put an entire railways system into high gear and the Intercolonial sent six different relief trains to Halifax that day from Truro, Kentville, Amherst, New Glasgow and Moncton bringing firefighters, doctors, nurses, medical supplies and wrecking crew. Her two older children Gerald and Eleanor rushed home from school to take their mother and sister to Gottigen Street where soldiers took them to the Camp Hill Hospital. It had about 300 people aboard and was due in Halifax at 8:55 am. ", Audience Relations, CBC P.O. 10, that was his intention and he clearly halted all the other inbound freight and passenger trains. Vince Coleman was also the subject of a Heritage Minute and was a prominent character in the CBC miniseries Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion. Bang, bang, bang, all the way to Truro the order boards would drop bringing all Halifax bound trains to a halt as soon as they approached their next station. Conductor Gillespie had a narrow escape from death. The American relief trains did not arrive until two days later. HALIFAX - He is the ultimate hero of the Halifax Explosion: Vince Coleman saved a trainload of passengers at the cost of his own life. 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