Victoria Park

A thought-provoking visit to the 129 graves of Titanic victims in the non-denominational cemetery in Halifax. Most of the bodies found were men, of course, Many of the headstones have no name because the bodies were not identified. Some of them, including the Unknown Child (2 year old Sidney Goodwin), were identified 100 years later by DNA matching. Sidney’s relatives asked that the Unknown Child headstone remained to commemorate all the children who were never found. Alma Paulson was travelling from Sweden with her 4 children to join her husband Nils who was working in New York. Travelling in 2nd Class, they all perished and the children’s bodies were lost. The larger gravestones were family-funded; White Star Line paid for the basic ones. The numbers denote the ‘body number’ - the order in which they were found. Some of the few women were identified by their initials embroidered on their underwear.

In the same cemetery is a memorial to the crew of SS Curacas, who all perished in the Halifax explosion, the biggest accidental man-made explosion in history. A French munitions ship was on fire. It’s crew abandoned ship and it exploded, killing over 2000 people (including those gathered to watch the ship on fire), injuring 9000 and making 20,0000 homeless in a city of just 65,000. It flattened the harbour area of Halifax. The Curacas was berthed next door. The French crew forgot to fly their munitions flag so no one knew the ship was so dangerous.

Boston, Mass. immediately sent emergency medical equipment and crews; now every year, Halifax sends Nova Scotia’s best Christmas tree to Boston city as a gift in recognition of their kindness.Read more