“War” News
The freighter Greenhill Park exploded in Vancouver harbor March 6, 1945, easily the most spectacular and disastrous event in the port’s history. Eight longshoremen were killed, 19 other workers were injured, seven firemen ended up in hospital and hundreds of windows in downtown Vancouver, some as far west as Thurlow and as far north as Dunsmuir, were blown out. Some initially thought it was a Japanese attack.
An investigation into the explosion was conducted by the department of transport and presided over by Mr. Justice Sydney Smith. His report was released two months after the blast. It concluded that the explosion had resulted from “improper stowage of combustible, dangerous and explosive material . . . and the ignition thereof by a lighted match.”
The main cargo of the ship was sodium chlorate but a fair amount of general cargo was loaded, too, including some barrels of liquor. In 1957—12 years after the disaster—one of the crewmen who had survived said that “it was impossible to keep anything like that secret from longshoremen and it wasn’t long before a narrow passage was cleared back to where the liquor was stowed.
“One by one, the men would come down into that hold to draw off a drink, or fill a bottle to take home in a lunch box. The last man to do so had already had a few drinks and he couldn’t see so well down in there. So he struck a match.”
A considerable amount of the liquor had been spilled out of the barrels onto the deck and that narrow passage was full of fumes—so, immediately, there was an explosion, with the results outlined above.
The Greenhill Park was towed to Siwash Rock, where the fire was finally extinguished.
More War News
On April 6 Coevorden, the Dutch city from which Capt. George Vancouver’s family derived its name, was liberated from Nazi occupation by Canadian troops. In a happy coincidence, April 6 is the City of Vancouver’s birthday.
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