For Courage

Unobtrusive among the names of 858 other Canadians commended in King George VI's New Year's Honors List was that of a quiet, coolheaded civilian who had helped save Halifax from what might have been one of the world's worst disasters. His name was John Brackett. His job: harbor pilot. His citation: M.B.E. (for Member of the Order of the British Empire). Censorship had long suppressed the full story of what 54-year-old Pilot Brackett had done. Now the censorship was lifted.

In November 1943 the U.S. freighter Volunteer, crammed with explosives, lay at anchor in Halifax Harbor. Suddenly she caught fire. If she blew up, she would probably blow up a good deal of Halifax too. At first her crew fought the flames with extinguishers, finally broke wireless silence to flash an S O S. The Navy's harbor master, Commander (now Captain) Owen Robertson, rushed aboard with a special crew. But still the fire gained.

Finally Commander Robertson decided to move the ship. Harbor Pilot Brackett, ignoring danger, went aboard. While the flames licked closer to the million-dollar cargo, he guided the Volunteer down the harbor, finally beached her on McNab Island. There seacocks were opened to flood the holds. The ship was saved.

Anxious Haligonians, who from shore had watched the billows of smoke and the swords of flame leap from the Volunteer, knew--some of them could even remember--what Halifax had missed. In December 1917 another munitions ship, the Mont Blanc, had caught fire in their harbor. In one monstrous moment, 4,000 tons of TNT exploded.

Nothing remained where the Mont Blanc had been. A half-ton fragment of her anchor was found three miles away. A gigantic rock, torn from the harbor bed, killed 64 workmen on a pier. In Halifax, whole streets of houses crumpled as if struck by a giant hand. The concussion crushed people to pulp or tossed them high. The walls of a school fell in on 200 children before they could rise from their seats. Countless fires started, merged into one. The toll: 2,000 dead, another 500 never accounted for, 20,000 injured. Property damage totaled some $50,000,000.

Halifax had reason to be grateful to John Brackett.

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