Durham Mining Museum - Joseph Usher (original) (raw)

Dreadful Occurrence

(Further particulars - from the Carlisle Journal)

On Monday last, the town of Whitehaven was thrown into the utmost agitation, by an awful explosion of fire-damp from the William Pit (a name of disastrous import), a coal-mine belonging to the Earl of Lonsdale, when it was known that a considerable number of colliers were at the moment employed in the workings. It was impossible to ascertain the extent of the calamity immediately, but the final certainty soon became apparent. No less than fourteen men, sixteen boys, and two girls, have come to a premature death by this catastrophe. That the pit was overcharged with fire-damp in some part of the workings, is now too evident ; but it is doing no more than justice to those who have the more immediate super-intendance of these very extensive concerns to say, that no precaution was omitted by them to guard the colliers against any sudden accident. The workmen, it appears, were employed in removing some pillars, in a part of the pit where the ventilation was extremely good, and where there was not, consequently, any reason to apprehend danger from the existence of fire-damp ; and indeed the air was in general supposed to be good, except in some recesses into which the colliers had no occasion to enter. They were, besides, every one furnished with a safety lamp, and were under strict orders from the superintendents to keep their lamps properly secured. When the misfortune happened, they had all nearly finished their work for the day, and by what or whose neglect or mismanagement it was occasioned scarcely a conjecture can now be formed. It is generally supposed that one of the workmen had been using some improper liberties with his lamp, and had removed the cylinder when in a place where the fire-damp was present. There were also 17 horses killed, but some of their drivers escaped. In recording the above melancholy event, it may not be irrelative to mention a remarkable coincidence of names and circumstances which occurred some years since in the county of Durham. On the 25th of May, 1812, a tremendous explosion took place in the William Pit, a coal-mine at Felling Colliery, by which 92 persons out of 124 lost their lives, and 32 were saved ; being the exact number of those who have perished in the William Pit at Whitehaven.

• Northumberland & Cumberland Mining Disasters by Maureen Anderson, Published by Wharncliffe Books, 2009, ISBN 1-845630-81-5

• Information supplied by West Cumbria Mines Research

• The Times Newspaper

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