Oh no

[highlyeccentric]

Asyouknowbob, I am a SUCKER for disaster logistics and Mediocre Acts of Sacrifice.

I have just learned (courtesy of The Longest Johns' song Fire and Flame) about Patrick Vince Coleman, a railwayman who died in the Halifax Explosion of 1917 (also new news to me) because, as he and his colleagues fled the harbour railway yards in expectation of the blast from the wharves, he realised there was an inbound passenger train approaching on the other side of the city. So he bolted back in to the railway yards and spent his last minutes frantically telegraphing 'stop the train, ammo ship at pier six will explode, goodbye boys' or words to that effect. (He did leave the telegraph station, but too late)

I am especially a sucker for disaster logistics stories when I'm on a deadline. Sigh. Back to the proofreading.

Comments

[lilysea]

I'm always moved by the botanists who died to save a seed bank, without which certain key plant species, and also key varieties/breeds/strains would have been lost to humanity forever

"The Institute of Plant Industry was established in 1921. Nikolai Vavilov was the head of this institute from 1924 to 1936 and had, and still has, the world's largest collection of plant seeds.

The Institute's seedbank survived the 28-month Siege of Leningrad in World War II, where several botanists starved to death rather than eat the collected seeds.

The Institute's extensive seed collection was an important target during the siege of Leningrad, Soviet officials took the time to evacuate the art from the city but neglected, or forgot to remove the world's largest seed collection. The scientists of the institute protected the seeds from the threats of the cold, the hungry residents of the besieged city, rats, and their own hunger. Twenty-eight of the botanists died during the siege, protecting their collection."

[highlyeccentric]

Oh wow. Good job those botanists.

[lilysea]

It's an amazing story. When they started getting really hungry, they voluntarily decided amongst themselves to keep watch in shifts of 2 or 3 people at a time, on the grounds that one person might be at risk of giving into hunger, but the other 1 or 2 people on shift would stop them.

[nineveh_uk]

I too am a sucker for said ordinary acts of sacrifice. I trust you know of the Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_Heroic_Self-Sacrifice

[highlyeccentric]

I did not but now I do!

[monksandbones]

Wow, okay, obviously I have not posted/retweeted enough links about this to date! Here's a thread from this year talking about Boston's Christmas tree from Nova Scotia. The Vince Coleman Heritage Minute is embedded in the thread, but also here!

However, I had not yet encountered this song in my Longest Johns youtube spirals, which I am about to remedy!

Edited to add: Though I shouldn't be surprised the Longest Johns have written a song about it, because they are remarkably heavy on Canadian Content (see also: The Last Bristolian Pirate/The Last Saskatchewan Pirate, them singing Northwest Passage and other Stan Rogers standards, etc)!

[highlyeccentric]

According to Wikipedia the Vince Coleman Heritage Minute is wrong on key particulars, such as the number of people on the train!

[naath]

I learned about the explosion/fire from https://www.iheart.com/podcast/stuff-you-missed-in-history-cl-21124503/episode/the-halifax-explosion-30208004/ the song made me cry.

[highlyeccentric]

it combines so many of my catnip tropes. Heroic individuals! Harsh landscape! Mass transport! my intense fear of fire!