Scapegoat: 100th Anniversary Edition — a triple-award winning book

Description

Scapegoat: 100th Anniversary Edition: ISBN 9781895814620: Triple Award winner; 504 pp., 270 photos/sketches;  Noted. and Indexed.

Summary: On the morning of 6 December 1917, a French munitions ship, SS Mont Blanc, carrying a full cargo of highly volatile explosives, and a Belgian Relief vessel under Norwegian registry, SS Imo, collided in Halifax Harbour. Twenty minutes later, a catastrophic explosion destroyed the district of Richmond in the North End of the city, causing the loss of over 2,000 lives, countless injuries and millions of dollars in property damage. At first, German spies and saboteurs were assumed to have been the culprits. However, within a few days, Captain Aimé Le Médec and Pilot Francis Mackey of Mont Blanc were under intense scrutiny in the court of public opinion.

The federal government launched an immediate inquiry to investigate the causes of the accident which led to the disaster. However, Ottawa’s underlying goal was to assume control over the port and its pilotage system. During the latter part of the proceedings, fingers pointed towards the Royal Canadian Navy for alleged mismanagement of the port. By that time, the drive to find those responsible for the unthinkable had reached a fever pitch. As a result of the inquiry decision, the captain and pilot, along with RCN chief examining officer, Commander F. Evan Wyatt, were singled out for blame. They were arrested and subsequently charged with manslaughter and criminal negligence.

Within the framework of the inquiry transcripts and through the incorporation of additional legal records, official naval documentation, photographs and archived resources, this volume details the circumstances leading up to the day of the collision, fire and explosion. The courtroom then becomes the setting for a close examination of the inquiry itself and the numerous legal proceedings, which followed. Ultimately, the evolution of the concerted efforts to indict a scapegoat in the wake of this unprecedented marine and civil disaster is revealed. (The original editions now SOLD OUT)

100th ANNIVERSARY EDITION: “Scapegoat” book wins the prestigious International JOHN LYMAN AWARD (Canadian Naval and Maritime History) The award was for books published in 2016, and was announced by the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH) in the Summer, 2017. The cover, award sticker and plaque are attached. The John Lyman Book Awards are given annually by the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH) to recognise excellence in “books, authors and editors that contribute significantly to the understanding of the maritime and naval history of North America, its rivers and lakes and adjoining oceans”.These awards are named after Professor John Lyman of the University of North Carolina. There are six awards: five for the USA and one for Canada.

Scapegoat, the amazing story of the post-Halifax Explosion (December 6, 1917) legal proceedings has won several previous awards, with the first edition winning the 2014 Atlantic Book Award (Robbie Robertson Dartmouth Book Award) for the best non-fiction book published in Atlantic Canada that year. That was followed in 2015 with a bronze medal in the International Independent Publisher Awards (IPPY). This new edition was released early (late 2016) as an updated edition for the 100th Anniversary of the Halifax Explosion to be memorialized on December 6, 2017. This edition has been thoroughly edited and revised, with many re-organized & consolidated appendices, as well as all-new additional chapters (28 new pages … see details of additions on p.2 of this release.

NEW MATERIAL: 1. A new chapter on the “Ships in the Harbour” on that fateful day … 41 vessels with 33 accompanying photos; 2. Another new detailed chapter on the first Royal Naval College of Canada, founded in 1911 in Halifax, but moved to the west coast after the devastation of Halifax. 3. An important detailed time line from Collision to the Explosion itself (very popular at talks/presentations). 4. Complete witness lists for trials, commissions, appeals. 5. Seventy (70) additional historical photos (many never previously seen – many from USA and UK).