504 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1813. 



rescuingtheir neighbours from their 

 perilous situation, seemed to supply 

 with sti'ength proportionate to the 

 urgency of the occasion, put their 

 shoulders to the starts or shafts of 

 the gin, and wrought it with as- 

 tonishing expedition. By twelve 

 o'clock, 32 persons, all that sur- 

 vived this dreadful calamity, were 

 brought to day-light. The dead 

 bodies of two boys, who were 

 miserably scorched and shattered, 

 M^ere also brought up at this time : 

 three boys out of the S2 who escaped 

 alive, died within a few hours after 

 the accident. Only 29 persons 

 were, therefore, left to relate what 

 they observed of the appearances 

 and effects of this subterraneous 

 thundering : 121 were in the mine 

 when it happened, and 87 remain- 

 ed in the workings. One overman, 

 two wastemen, two deputies, one 

 headsman or putter (who had a 

 violent tooth-ach), and two masons, 

 in all eight persons, came up at 

 different intervals, a short time be- 

 fore the explosion. 



Those who had their friends 

 restored, hastened with them from 

 the dismal scene, and seemed for 

 a while to suffer as much from the 

 excess of joy as they had lately 

 done from grief; and they who 

 were yet held in doubt concerning 

 the fate of their relations and 

 friends, filled the air with shrieks 

 and bowlings ; went about wring- 

 ing their hands ; and threw their 

 bodies into the most ^rantic and ex- 

 travagant gestures, 



The persons who now remained 

 in the mine, had all been employ- 

 ed in the workings to which the 

 plane-board was the general ave- 

 nue, and as none had escaped by 

 that way, the apprehension for their 

 safety began to strengthen every 



moment. At a quarter after 12 

 o'clock, Mr. Straker Mr. Ander- 

 son, William Haswell, Edward 

 Rogers, John Wilson, Joseph Pear- 

 son, Henry Anderson, Michael 

 Menham, and Joseph Greener, 

 therefore, descended the John Pit 

 in expectation of meeting with 

 some of them alive. As the fire- 

 damp would have instantly ignited 

 at candles, they lighted their way 

 by steel-mills, small machines 

 which give light by turning a plain 

 thin cylinder of steel against a 

 piece of flint. Knowing that a 

 great number of the workmen 

 would be at the crane when the 

 explosion happened, they attempt- 

 ed to reach it by the plane-board : 

 but their progress was intercepted 

 at the second pillar by the preva- 

 lence of choak-damp : the noxious 

 fluid filled the board between the 

 roof and the thill; and the sparks 

 from the steel fell into it like dark 

 drops of blood. Being, therefore, 

 deprived of light, and nearly poi- 

 soned for want of atmospheric air, 

 they retraced their steps to the 

 shaft, and with similar success at- 

 tempted to pass up the narrow- 

 boards : in these they were stopped 

 at the sixth pillar by a thick smoke, 

 which stood like a wall the whole 

 height of the board. Here their 

 flint-mills were not only rendered 

 useless, and respiration became ex- 

 tremely difficult, but the probabiU- 

 ty of their ever reaching the places 

 where they expected to meet with 

 those they were in search of, or of 

 finding any of them alive, was 

 entirely done away. To the hope- 

 lessness of success in their enter- 

 prise, should also be added , their 

 certainty of the mine being on fire, 

 and the probability of a second 

 explosion at every moment oc» 



