16^th May 1910

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The Whitehaven Colliery Disaster

Royal Sympathy And Donations

The Mayor of Whitehaven has received the following telegram :—

The following message has been sent by Queen Alexandra to the Mayor :—

The Mayor telegraphed as follows to Queen Alexandra :—

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(From Our Special Correspondent.)

Whitehaven, Sunday Night.

General gloom has settled over the town of Whitehaven as it has become clear that there is no hope for the 130 men and boys who are entombed under the sea in the Wellington Pit. In spite of the conclusion of the experts that nobody could be alive when the workings were bricked up on Friday, it is the opinion of not a few people in and around Whitehaven that many, if not all, of the miners were alive at that time, and the horror of the thought that this may have been the case has added much to the sufferings of their relatives. The feeling was so strong against the walling-up of the workings that there were riotous scenes on Friday night and an appeal was made to the Home Secretary through Mr. John Hanlon, secretary to Whitehaven Miners' Lodges, to order the reopening of the pit. Early yesterday morning it was freely reported that the Home Secretary had agreed to the request, and the publication of the following telegram caused universal disappointment :—

The opinion that the entombed men may have been alive appears to have originated among miners who are prepared to set their knowledge of the mine against the opinion of experts. Whether it would have been possible to rescue the men is quite another matter, but a plan put forward by a miner named Graham who has worked in this pit for nearly 50 years gave rise yesterday to a strong feeling that the workings had been walled up hastily and that nothing of the kind should have been done while a possibility of life remained.

A Miner's Rescue Scheme.

I have had a long conversation with Graham this morning, when, aided by a rough sketch of the workings, he went at considerable length into the details of his scheme. It is not surprising that people who have not heard the fatal objection of the experts should have clamoured for it to be tried. The rescue parties all started from a point 5,000 yards from the pit shaft and 300 yards from the friction gear close to which the fire is raging, and attempted to pass along the main haulage way. A current of air was forced down this passage to return by the up cast which runs parallel with it on the right about 30 yards away. The descent is so sharp, however, that smoke and fumes came back along the main haulage way as up a chimney, and the smoke and fumes forced round by the air pressure prevented any progress being made along the up cast. Graham's idea is to divert the air down a passage to the left 30 yards away from and running parallel with the main haulage way. This passage, which is known as the old horse road, was built by Graham and another man, and he claims that by forcing the air down it he could easily pass the region in which the fire is situated and reach the men in the workings, which extend for two miles further under the sea. The rescue party, he says, could return the same way. Dealing with the objection which had been raised that the result of forcing the air down the old horse way would be that on its return it would fan the flames from behind along the main haulage way and thus cut off the retreat of the rescue party Graham declared that he had no desire to commit suicide, but he believed that many of his comrades were still alive, and he only asked for a chance of rescuing them. He believed that there was no danger of the fire's cutting off the rescue party if proper precautions were taken. In the furthest part of the mine, where it is very damp, he maintained that there were plenty of places where, even if the smoke penetrated to that part of the workings, the men could take refuge and where the air would be fresh.

A Rejoinder.

This scheme was so much talked about yesterday that last night Mr. R. W. Moore, Lord Lonsdale's mining engineer, caused the following circular to be distributed :—

A report having been circulated that I was in favour of attempting to reach the fire at the friction gear by way of the south back dip, I may say that, in conference with the inspectors and the colliery officials, I thoroughly considered the proposal on the spot nearly three miles from the shaft, before the district was barred off, and became convinced that it would be impracticable and highly dangerous to do so. It would mean, in my opinion, the wanton sacrifice of any party attempting to carry out such a foolhardy scheme.

Mr. Henry, the under-manager of the pit, with whom I discussed Graham's plan later, classed it with that of a man at Clapham who telegraphed a suggestion that rescuers in an iron chamber with an electric searchlight in front should be sent through the fire to explore the distant part of the mine. Any attempt to carry out the plan which Graham has formulated would, he was certain, add very considerably to the already very heavy death roll. As an illustration of the impracticability of the idea, he mentioned that by accident a brattice cloth, which is a canvas cloth coated with tar and pitch used largely in the mine for directing the air currents, had been so arranged as to divert the air down the old horse road. The effect had been that within a few seconds the air striking the fire from behind had drawn the fumes 80 yards along the main haulage way towards the rescuers. If that air current had been continued for any length of time the brattice cloth would never have held the fumes back, and the retreat of the rescuers would have been cut off. He added that Mr. Redmayne, the Chief Inspector of Mines, when informed of the suggestion, had asked, "Do you want us all to commit suicide ?" Mr. Henry, who was the first to enter the mine after the explosion and the last to leave it when it was walled up, said he would never have agreed to the course which had been adopted if he had not been sure that nothing more could be done, and that it was quite impossible for any of the entombed miners to be still alive.

Lord Lonsdale's Views.

Lord Lonsdale, who arrived from London yesterday morning by special train, and has since paid several visits to the mine, is equally convinced that everything possible has been done, and that nobody could for a moment live in the atmosphere inside the pit. He stated this afternoon that the observation pipe at the bricked up wall shows a temperature of 350deg., and that if a single brick were to be taken out of the wall the pressure of gas from behind would be so great that it would cause an inrush into the workings on this side of the wall which would inevitably be fatal to every one there. If they acted on Graham's suggestion and sent air round by the old horse road they would be simply stoking the fire behind the men acting as rescuers. As showing the condition of the working in which Graham contends there are men still alive, Lord Lonsdale mentioned that the stopping between the Wellington Pit and the William Pit shows signs of the percolation of gas, and this indicates that the whole of the workings must be full of fumes and gas.

From my conversation with Mr. Henry, it seems clear that, if the seriousness of the situation had been realized in time on Wednesday evening, the huge death-roll might have been very greatly diminished. When he entered the mine, neither Mr. Henry nor any of those at the pit mouth knew what had happened. The only thing which was clear was that something had gone wrong. It is probable that an explosion took place about a mile and a half from the junction where the fire broke out, and its full force would have been exhausted by the time it reached the point. Unfortunately, as it has proved, Mr. Henry, whilst passing along the main haulage way, found the bodies of two men who had been overcome by gas, and it took him an hour and a half to revive them. When he proceeded along the main haulage way, Mr. Henry met the two men who had come through the fire. At that time it was very small, and if he could have arrived there an hour earlier than he did, he entertains no doubt that he could have extinguished it easily. It must have started in a very small way, but in the interval between the two hewers' getting through and Mr. Henry's arrival at the junction it had grown so much that it was impossible to overcome it.

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A Whitehaven correspondent writes that it was feared that the demonstration against the walling in of the men would be renewed on Saturday evening, and the strength of the police was materially added to, but the night passed off without incident. The consideration of the Earl of Lonsdale for the distressed families has been shown in various ways. He has personally expressed sympathy to the bereaved and has sent many poor people to his local estate office for anything they might need. Many pathetic and interesting incidents are being recalled. Three men owed their lives to being turned back from the colliery by the management for some cause which required looking into.

The disaster was made the subject of references in all the places of worship in Whitehaven yesterday. The Roman Church has lost no fewer than 50 members, and yesterday morning's early mass was celebrated in affecting circumstances.

The delivery of Queen Alexandra's personal message of sympathy was also attended with pathetic scenes. People's eyes filled with tears as they read the touching words.

The number of miners who have lost their lives is now officially given as 133. Over £2,000 has already been contributed to the relief fund. The Daily Mail has telegraphed a donation of £500, and the Bishop of Carlisle has sent £50.