Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	28th November 1904
Colliery:	Easington
Cause:	(See description below)
Lives Lost:	1

On November 28th an accident occurred at the Easington Sinking Pit, belonging to the Easington Coal Co., Ltd., through an inrush of water. Nineteen men were in the pit at the time, fortunately 18 of them managed to escape, but one was drowned and up to the time of writing his body has not been recovered.

The coal measures on the east coast of Durham are overlain with a panel of limestone, which at this point is about 80 fathoms thick, and below this is a bed of sand about 17 fathoms thick, containing large quantities of water. The shafts are within 650 yards of the sea, and there was no doubt that a connection existed between the shaft and the sea water through the fissures in the limestone. Sinking operations were commenced about six years ago and carried on in the usual manner for some time until a depth of 80 fathoms was reached, the water being dealt with by means of pumps, the feeder at that time being about 4,000 gallons per minute. As sinking through such a large volume of water was becoming very difficult and costly, after careful consideration it was decided to employ the Poetch system of freezing to enable sinking to be carried on in hard frozen ground until the impervious strata of the coal measures were reached and a sufficiently good bed found on which to set a curb and build up tubbing to hold the water back. This system has been successfully employed on the continent, but only once before in this country, and then only at a shallow depth. The shaft when finished is to be 20 feet diameter inside the walling, and in order to get in tubes through which the freezing mixture is to flow, bore holes were put down at a distance of 6 feet from the side of the shaft and 3 feet 6 inches apart, or 26 holes in all. All of which were put down 100 fathoms vertically, which would reach some 3 fathoms into the coal measure sandstones, where the permanent wedging cribs would be laid. An outer tube of 4½ inches diameter was put in with an inner one 2 inches diameter, held in position by stays or lugs, so that the liquid could be forced down the inner tube and come up between it and the outer one. This was a slow process, but was eventually accomplished, and freezing was commenced in March last, the freezing mixture used being chloride of sodium. A temperature of 14° F. was produced and this was subsequently reduced to minus 4° F., the normal temperature of the strata being about 52°. Freezing went on till September when it was thought that an ice wall of some 16 feet had been formed, and freezing would of course be continued during the whole time the pit was being sunk and the tubbing put in position. It is almost impossible at such a depth to be certain that all the holes are absolutely vertical, and for this reason, and with a view to ensure everything being perfectly secure, sinking was postponed for at least a fortnight after, in the opinion of engineers, an ice wall of sufficient thickness had been formed.

Everything proceeded satisfactorily till the 28th November when the bottom of the shaft was about four and a half feet below the bottom of the limestone and that distance into the quicksand. Suddenly one of the men in the bottom noticed a small jet of water squirting out of the side, and in the course of a few seconds it increased in size sending a large stream of sand and water right across the shaft. Sixteen of the men succeeded in getting to the kibble and were taken to bank, leaving three below. Some of the men immediately returned and found one man floating supported on some timber which had been lying in the shaft, and another had managed to keep his head above water by holding on to the electric cable used for shot firing and getting some support for his feet on the wall side, these were rescued but the other man had disappeared. He was last seen holding on to the rapper wire, and it seems probable that he either let go or was washed away by the force of water. An attempt was at once made to recover the body with grappling irons but the sand which came away with the water had settled to such an extent that there was no possibility of reaching him, and in a short time the water rose to its original level about 32 fathoms from the surface.

The water appears to have broken away at a parting in the marl slates about 2 inches thick, part of the "fish bed" immediately at the bottom of the limestone, and which, being of a dry nature, may not have frozen in the same way as the other wetter strata.

The work was done under the supervision of Mr. W. B. Wilson, resident manager, Mr. de Hulster, who has had charge of like undertakings abroad, and Mr. F. Coulson, consulting engineer, who has had very great experience of sinking both in this country and abroad.

Before recommencing sinking chain ladders will be suspended in the shaft which will be an additional safeguard in the event of anything similar occurring in the future, and it is confidently hoped that in course of time such a solid wall of ice will be formed as to enable sinking operations to be continued without undue risk.

Source:

1904 Mines Inspectors Report (Cd 2506)

	Atkinson, Robert, aged 50, Sinker, inrush of water in sinking pit, his body was not recovered until 3 years later.
	All names found

 

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