The Heroic Train Dispatcher of Halifax

Patrick Vince Coleman, a telegraph operator, saved hundreds of lives during an explosion of the SS Mont-Blanc, a French ship.

Smoke cloud from the Halifax Explosion, probably taken off McNabs Island. Original photograph developed by Captain Baird. Public Domain

When the French ship SS Mont-Blanc crashed into the Norwegian SS Imo, those who knew about the French vessel’s cargo anticipated that the disaster would soon get much worse.

All of the workers around the pier and the railyard in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, including train dispatcher Patrick Vincent Coleman, who was known by his middle name, started running around, warning everyone they could about the inevitable blast that was about to occur.

A Day to Remember

It began as a normal day for Coleman on Dec. 6, 1917, when he left his wife and 2-year-old daughter at home to head to work. Coleman was a rank above a normal telegraph operator. The train dispatcher had the important task of managing train schedules through the telegraph. He was well-known due to helping stop a runaway train a few years prior. He worked as a trusted dispatcher at the Richmond Train Station that was located just a few hundred feet from Pier 6.