Dupuis - Bearing witness: journalists, record keepers and the 1917 Halifax explosion

Praise for Bearing Witness

At the centenary of the worst maritime disaster in Canadian history, what better way to re-live the harrowing moment than through the vivid dispatches of journalists from all over North America who converged on Halifax to capture the traumatized responses of Haligonians to the devastation of their city. In Bearing Witness, Michael Dupuis introduces us to these men and women of the press and allows us to vicariously experience a time when newspapers were the only window on the world.

Marjorie Lang, author of Women Who Made The News:
Female Journalists in Canada, 1885-1945

Michael Dupuis book appeals to me not just as a Mackey, but as a former print journalist too. To an inspiring reporter, whether formally trained or self-proclaimed, there are all kinds of lessons tucked away in the newspaper articles reprinted here.

Frank Mackey, former Montreal Gazette and Canadian Press journalist,
grandson of Mont-Blanc pilot Francis Mackey

Bearing Witness is an indispensable and meticulously researched book for those who seek to know every detail of the events surrounding the Halifax Explosion. A large debt of gratitude is owed to Michael Dupuis, much like the people who fill this book, for researching and compiling this essential information for posterity.

Ben Proudfoot, Founder and CEO of Breakwater Studios

On the eve of the centenary, Michael Dupuis in Bearing Witness , has published a remarkably insightful study that should forever change the way we see the Halifax Explosion event. What Bearing Witness does is examine the stories behind the story the remarkable piecing together of the conflagration and aftermath by an echelon of committed journalists who responded with courage and insight.

Paul Heyer, author Titanic Century Media, Myth and the Making of a Cultural Icon

Michael Dupuis has shown tremendous resourcefulness in tracing the movements and activities of virtually all the Canadian and American journalists who covered the devastating Halifax Explosion of 1917. This account, together with extensive examples of what they wrote, provides a fascinating and richly detailed case study of how, in the face of great danger and many obstacles, journalists covered one of the biggest stories in Canadian history.

Gene Allen, Professor, School of Journalism, Ryerson University

Michael Dupuis has given us a definitive account of the coverage of the tremendous tragedy that struck Halifax, Nova Scotia, during World War I. The blast, which was the biggest explosion in world history before the atomic bomb, still reverberates today for both Canadians and Americans. Bearing Witness fills a gap in the history of the journalism with a readable tale of censorship, heroism and professionalism.

As a native Bostonian, I had heard bits and pieces of this story, but I had never been able to read the first-hand accounts of the New England journalists who raced to Halifax with the relief teams to bear witness. Their stories moved me one hundred years later. As a former Associated Press reporter, I was proud to learn of the daring work by members of the AP, the Can Press, and many newspapers in the region.

We are lucky to have this book to remind us of the suffering, heroism, and international cooperation that marked the response to the great catastrophe.

Christopher B. Daly, Boston University

Michael Dupuis exhaustive chronicle of the wartime disaster that altered Halifax is masterful. Told through the typewriters of a bygone era my grandfathers among them the book is a compelling read for all Canadians.

Barry OLeary, grandson of Ottawa Journal reporter Grattan OLeary

In Bearing Witness Michael Dupuis has collected a wealth of first-hand narrative from reporters who were actually in Halifax at the time of the Explosion or soon afterward. The graphic and painful information they offered to the outside world, under extreme difficulty, certainly helped to stimulate the outpouring of generous assistance to the suffering city.

And now, one hundred years later, Dupuis offers timely praise to those writers as well as a wonderful resource for historians still writing about that disaster and its lessons. Not surprising, some of their reportage was inaccurate and contradicts other accounts, reflecting the confusion and anxiety of that time, but Dupuis attaches footnotes and offers more recent correct information. Changing the narrative to dispel some persistent myths is just one of the virtues of Bearing Witness . It is also a compelling read, and a tribute to the courage and determination of those reporters who had to confront scenes of terrible misery, at considerable risk and with compassion.

Janet Maybee, author of Aftershock The Halifax Explosion
and the Persecution of Pilot Francis Mackey

The centenary of the Halifax disaster will witness an upsurge in serious scholarship on the devastating 1917 explosion in Halifax Harbour. Apart from Jacob Remess Disaster Citizenship , Michael Dupuiss uniquely original work has pride of place. Lavishly illustrated with maps and photographs, extensively annotated, and including a bibliography of both primary and secondary sources as well as two valuable appendices and an index, this documentary history will immediately establish itself as an indispensable handbook for all students of the Halifax disaster.

Barry Cahill, biographer of the Halifax Relief Commission

Bearing Witness

Journalists, Record Keepers and the 1917 Halifax Explosion

MICHAEL DUPUIS

Foreword by Alan Ruffman

FERNWOOD PUBLISHING
HALIFAX & WINNIPEG

Copyright 2017 Michael Dupuis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Editing and text design: Brenda Conroy

Cover design: John van der Woude

Front cover: Front page of Halifax Herald

7 December 1917, story by Herald journalist Peter Lawson.

Photo of damaged railway footbridge from the bottom of Duffus Street to the head of Pier 7. From a portion of View From Pier 8, a panorama by W.G. MacLaughlan (courtesy of Joel Zemel).

eBook: tikaebooks.com

Printed and bound in Canada

Published by Fernwood Publishing

32 Oceanvista Lane, Black Point, Nova Scotia, B0J 1B0

and 748 Broadway Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3G 0X3

www.fernwoodpublishing.ca

Fernwood Publishing Company Limited gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, the Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism under the Manitoba Publishers Marketing Assistance Program, the Province of Manitoba, through the Book Publishing Tax Credit, the support of the Province of Nova Scotia through the Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage and the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Dupuis, Michel, 1948-, author

Bearing witness : journalists, record keepers and the 1917 Halifax explosion / Michael Dupuis.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-55266-875-7 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-55266-876-4 (EPUB)

1. Halifax Explosion, Halifax, N.S., 1917--Press coverage.

2. Journalists--Nova Scotia--Halifax--History--20th century.

3. Journalism--Nova Scotia--Halifax--History--20th century.