A new book is shedding light on the mystery of a Second World War marine tragedy that was kept under a cloak of secrecy despite decimating the ranks of Halifax’s harbour pilots.
Set to be released this week by Formac Publishing, “Broadside: Halifax’s Wartime Pilot Boat Disaster,” recounts in vivid detail the events of March 28, 1940, when a 5,000-tonne freighter — SS Esmond — plowed through the port side of the boat Hebridean. Nine men were killed, including six harbour pilots, navigators who board large ships to help them manoeuver through local waters.
The book is the first for former television journalist Rick Grant following a 40-year career, mainly with CTV News in Halifax. The 79-year-old retired in November 2015.
In his introduction to the book, Grant calls the tragedy “the most disastrous moment in the more than 200-year history of professional harbour pilotage in Canada.” But what happened that night remains largely uncertain, mainly because of a federal government more intent in advancing Canada’s wartime interests than attempting to find the cause of the deadly collision, Grant asserts in the book.
“I had no idea about it (the disaster) and I covered the port for a number of years,” Grant said in an interview. “Even people around the port weren’t terribly knowledgeable.”
He said he first heard about the fate of the Hebridean from a friend in 2021 and did some research that led to a magazine article, although he found that he couldn’t use all the detail he gleaned from Library and Archives Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I had so much information that I thought, well, I’ll write a book,” Grant said. “It resulted in a lot more research but it gave me an opportunity to tell the story.”
During early 1940, the motorized Schooner Hebridean was used to shuttle harbour pilots to vessels taking part in the convoys that ferried vital supplies across the North Atlantic to Great Britain as it fought largely alone against Nazi Germany.
The Port of Halifax was a busy place and the work of the pilots was crucial in getting the convoys safely through the harbour and out to sea. Harbour pilots must know the characteristics of the vessels they are assisting, along with the movement of the currents and tides in the harbour and the placement of wartime defensive measures such as minefields.
By March 1940 there were 22 pilots who worked Halifax harbour and more were needed.
“I couldn’t get over looking at the volumes of material going through the port in 1940,” said Grant. “I think it was the 1980s before it achieved that same number again.”
Using eyewitness testimony from a three-day inquiry held after the sinking of the Hebridean, along with newspaper accounts, Grant pieced together a narrative of what likely happened the night of March 28.
The collision occurred while most of the pilots were sleeping in their bunks below the Hebridean’s deck. Pilot Tupper Hayes, who had been picked up from the Hebridean in a small boat, was being rowed to the nearby British-registered freighter Esmond.
While the transfer was underway, the Hebridean suddenly cut across the Esmond’s bow. That’s when everything went terribly wrong.
“The four on the Esmond’s bridge watched in horror as the Hebridean disappeared at speed beneath the freighter’s starboard bow.”
Only two people on the Hebridean survived — pilots Roy Sullivan and Carl Himmelman were pulled from the icy water of the harbour. The bodies of the nine victims were never found.
The disaster came under the purview of C.D. Howe, the most powerful minister in the cabinet of then-prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. Less than 24 hours after the Hebridean sank on a Thursday, an inquiry was ready to go. Hearings commenced Saturday under the guidance of William Francis Carroll, who was the chief justice of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court at the time.
The hearings lasted three days and were closed to the public, families of the victims, and reporters. Carroll would submit a seven-page report to the federal government within two weeks that blamed pilot James Renner, who was at the wheel of the Hebridean, for the tragedy.
The report ignored testimony that the Esmond was moving instead of being stopped for the pilot transfer at the time of the collision.
“I’ve never seen anything move that fast … it just blew me away,” Grant said of the speed of the government’s inquiry, which also kept Carroll’s report conclusions secret under the guise of wartime security.
Grant said that there is nothing he could find in the hearing transcript or report that would have compromised security at the port. According to the book, that was also the conclusion of Capt. Eric Brand, who was director of the Royal Canadian Navy’s trade and intelligence division in 1940.
As a result, Grant said the families of the victims were left with a mystery that “went through at least two generations,” before much of the information came to light through the efforts of the victims’ grandchildren.
“Why did he (Renner) cross in front, God knows,” Grant said. “That’s one of the things I didn’t answer because I think it’s still a mystery.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2025.