As part of our research about "Songs of Death and Disaster" we have so far located 19 songs (or poems) about the 1917 Halifax explosion. (It is not always clear if something is a song or a poem.) The words from the 19 are listed below.

Macintyre, Daniel (Undated) The Halifax explosion song"
Mestre, Eric (Undated) "The Ballad of the Halifax Explosion"
O'Brien, Mary Ellen (1945) "Halifax Disaster"
Peppard, Rosalie (Undated) "Sparkles on her face"

The following are all in the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and apparently were all collected and given to the museum by D. Stone. Nothing further is known about this person. We would appreciate any information about any of these songs and anything about Stone. (There is a second Stone mentioned with a different initial.)

In other news, the disaster song project has resulted in two publications:

Scanlon, Joseph, Nick Johnston, Allison Vandervalk and Heather Sparling (2012) "101 Years of Mine Disasters and 101 Years of Song: Truth or Myth in Nova Scotia Mining Songs? "International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters Vol. 30 No. 1 pp: 34-60

Scanlon, Joseph, Allison Vandervalk and Mattea Chadwick-Shubat (2012) "Challenge to the Lord: Folk Songs About the 'Unsinkable' Titanic" Canadian Folk Music Vol. 45 No. 3 pp: 3-10

Please post any info or ideally sent it to Breanna Lester (breannalester@cmail.carleton.ca)   or Joe Scanlon (jscanlon@connect.carleton.ca)