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Name: Picton Official Number: 123165 Signal Letters: HGTD
Name Changes:
Tonnage: 5083 Gross, 4706 under deck, 3241 Net
Dimensions: 378.5' long, 52.1' breadth, 27.9' deep
Built: Stockton, Great Britain Builder: Richardson, Duck & Co. Year: 1906
Registered Port: London, Great Britain Owners: Picton Steam Ship Co., Ltd.
Engines: Steam, screw
Horsepower:
Crew: Captain T. Smithson
Career: At the Sugar Refinery Wharf waiting for repairs, she had a mixed cargo, including a large number of shells (ammunition). Courageous and quick-thinking stevadores closed her hatches as the burning Mont Blanc drew near, avoiding a secondary explosion when Mont Blanc blew up. Picton did catch fire but it was extinquished by her crew with the help of the tug Lee, also in the harbour.
Sources: Lloyds Register, 1917; Armstrong, John Griffith, The Halifax Explosion and the Royal Canadian Navy (2002).; "The Halifax Explosion: A Marine Disaster" by David B. Flemming (1985); Shattered City by Janet Kitz (1989).

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