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

[Pamela Simmons]

Is there any more information about the people who were killed?  My 2xG Grandfather Edward Fitzpatrick and family  lived in Whitehaven & I was wondering if Thomas Fitzpatrick could be a relative .  

Thanks
Pamela

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From: Petra Mitchinson via list-cumbria
Sent: 15 February 2024 09:13
To: CUL Google Group
Cc: Petra Mitchinson; Cumbria Mailing List (CFHS)
Subject: [list-cumbria] Carlisle Patriot,25 Oct 1823 - Catastrophe at Whitehaven

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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