[list-cumbria] Carlisle Patriot, 25 Oct 1823 - Catastrophe at Whitehaven

[Petra Mitchinson]

Saturday 25 Oct 1823   (p. 3, col. 3)

 

CATASTROPHE AT WHITEHAVEN. 

 

The following further particulars relative to this distressing occurrence have reached us since the publication of our last number:-


 

"A terrible explosion intimated the catastrophe, and a single moment consummated the work of destruction! The explicit injunctions
of the director of these extensive works,-the constant and daily vigilance of the under stewards.-and the examples of the more
circumspect portion of the workmen themselves, were alike unavailing to prevent the consequences of one unguarded moment. There is
no certainty indeed, but there is a great probability that the explosion was occasioned by the inadvertence, or supineness, or
foolhardihood of some one or other of the miners, who had ventured to remove the safety cylinder of his Davy's lamp in a situation
where the deadly vapour was present, and where, it is understood, not one of the workmen had any occasion to enter. The pit, we are
informed, was in general well ventilated, and particularly so where the miners were immediately employed; and any foul air which was
known to be in any part of the excavation, was only in some recesses which admitted not of a free circulation. It is possible, and
indeed probable, that some one of the colliers had unwittingly thrown his clothes into some corner where there was foul air, and on
going to look for them, preparatory to leaving off work, had, for his own convenience and for the sake of better light, removed the
cylinder from the Davy lamp, and thus ignited the fatal fluid; but all that is known with certainty is, that an explosion took
place, which occasioned the instant death of fifteen men, fifteen boys, and two girls-being the greater part of the human beings in
the pit at the moment. Seventeen horses (of great value) also perished.-It may be noticed, as a very remarkable and unaccountable
circumstance, that in some instances, the horses were killed, while their drivers and followers in the same track (and in the very
path of the rapid and deadly current of ignited air) escaped with little or no injury! "Causa latet, res est notissima." The names
of the sufferers are, Fergus ERAIL, Patrick M'LAUGHLIN, Wm. THOMPSON, Peter MACALLISTER, John MURRAY, Thomas IRVINE, Thomas HUGHES,
Richard BAINBRIDGE, John TWEEDY, Joseph USHER, Archibald M'LAUGHLIN, John M'GUIRE, Jonathan DIXON, Patrick MATTHEWS, and James
HINDE, all of whom were of the age of 20 years or upwards, and several have left families:-William SINCLAIR, Patrick MACKIE, John
CROKIN, Thos. FITZPATRICK, William M'CULLOCH, John HERRING, John M'CLELLAN, Matthew BLAYLOCK, Jas. M'CLELLAN, John ELLWOOD,
Christopher PEARSON, William CRAGG, John BLAYLOCK, Jos. LEATHERS, and John CARTMELL, boys, or under the age of 20 years; and Mary
FROGGAT, and Ann BAINBRIDGE, girls."-Cumb. Pacquet. 

 

 

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