SS Mont-Blanc - Aftermath

Aftermath

Mont-Blanc's crew abandoned ship before the explosion and all survived, except for one sailor who died from loss of blood after being hit by debris from the blast, 20 year old gunner, Yves Quequiner. Mont-Blanc's captain, Aime Le Medec, and pilot, Francis Mackey, were blamed for the collision by a Judicial Inquiry and subsequently charged with manslaughter and criminal negligence at a preliminary hearing (6 March 1918). However the charges against the captain and pilot at the preliminary hearing were dropped after Judge Benjamin Russell, a Nova Scotia Supreme Court justice, determined there was no substantial evidence to support these charges and issued writs of habeas corpus (15 March 1918). An attempt by Nova Scotia's Attorney General, Orlando T. Daniels, to have Russell's decision overturned failed (2 April 1918). Two other bids on 9 April and 2 October also failed. It should be noted that the Royal Canadian Navy's chief examining officer of the port, Acting Commander F. Evan Wyatt was also arrested on the same charges but on a separate warrant. After the preliminary hearing, he faced a grand jury that found a true bill against him. The only person bound over for trial, Wyatt was acquitted by a jury of all charges in less than a day (17 April 1918).

In the civil litigation, the case was first heard by Justice Arthur Drysdale, the judge at the original inquiry formed to determine the cause of the collision. Not surprisingly, his decision put the entire blame on Mont-Blanc. A subsequent appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada by Imo's owners (19 May 1919) and combined appeal and cross-appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (22 March 1920) determined that Mont-Blanc and Imo were equally to blame for navigational errors which led to the collision.