Halifax, September 7th 2015 : 75th anniversary of the arrival of "the most important cargo ever to land in the New World"

When the British liner The Duchess of Richmond docked in Halifax on September 7th 1940, few informed observers had any doubt what that all important cargo was.

Clearly it was the liner's one thousand Royal Navy sailors all set to man the 50 "destroyers for bases" ships that were busy arriving in Halifax that day to be de-commissioned by the US , handed over, and then promptly re-commissioned by the UK and Canada.

Of course, they were wrong --- the tale is far more interesting than that and little known even in Halifax, where it all began.