DUNGANNON. Dungannon, Tyrone, Ireland. 11th. December, 1895.

The colliery was the property of the Dungannon Collieries, Limited who had their offices in Manchester and was made up of shareholders lining in and around Manchester. Mr. Donald Munro was the agent and managing director and Mr. William McKay the certificated manager. They had leased a large area in Dungannon from several landowners including the Earl of Ranfurly, Messrs. Lindsay, of Shakerley and Harper.

A shaft was started to be sunk in 1891, eight feet in diameter and called the Emerald Pit. On 28th February, 1895 the coal was won at a depth of 200 yards. Mr. Gerrard, the Inspector visited the pit and explained that a second outlet would have to be provided and until communication was made with the second outlet, no working of the coal seam could be done except with the exemption of the Secretary of State. Mr. Gerrard was told that an old shaft, about 300 yards to the rise would be made available for the second outlet and communication would be made with that shaft.

In April, 1895, the plans of the abandoned workings in connection with the old shaft were shown to Mr. Munro and he was permitted to copy them. The date of the abandonment was June 1888. The mine was visited by the Inspectors in October and it was found that the communication had been driven for only 105 yards and level had been driven on the north side for 145 yards and on the south side for 90 yards. There were a number of wide work places being worked on both sides. On one occasion there were twenty-eight men in the mine at one time, on other occasion’s twenty-seven and twenty-three men. On October 19th the following notice was sent by the Inspector:

I hereby give you notice that to confirm the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887, all working places other than the communication with the Congo Pit be stopped. That boring in advance of that communication be immediately put into operation in accordance with the 13th General Rule.

The reason for the advance borings was that several men who had worked in the Congo Mine informed the Inspector that a down brow had been driven 80 to 100 yards below the level shown on the abandoned plan. On the 14th October, the face of the communication brow was within 30 yards of the alleged old working.

On the 4th December a borehole, 11 yards in advance of the face tapped water. Mr. Munro was present when this was done. The bore rods were left in the holes but there was no tap fixed and the water as allowed to run from the hole along the floor to the brow of the shaft. From that date to the date of the accident the water was allowed to flow uninterrupted and men were employed in the brow making manholes and repairs.

On the morning of the 10th December, the men were working near the face of the brow under the charge of the underlooker and were visited by the manager and in the afternoon shift, two colliers, Frank Paton and James Bretland, were working under the supervision of the fireman,. About 9 p.m., having finished their manholes, they began to work at the face in the upper portion of the seam. A bat was set and the coal hewed. One witness at the inquest stated that the face advanced two feet. At 11 p.m. these men left and met the men coming in down the brow. This shift was made up of two colliers, William Bretland and John Cooper and their filler David Bretland. The men going in asked the others where they had been working and were told “at the face”. Edward Rafferty, the fireman, took charge of the shift. In addition to Cooper, the two Bretlands and Rafferty Edward McMahon, and a labourer and Thomas Ward, the hooker-on at the bottom of the shaft were in the mine.

About 12.15 a.m. on the 11th, John McMullen, the men who were in charge of the pumps in the shaft, went down the pit with Frank Mitchell, the weight clerk. Mitchell had no business to go down and had been ordered by the manager on previous occasions not to do so. McMullen went up the brow to the face with the excuse that he was going to see if he could reduce the water running from the borehole. Edward McMahon had left the face of the brow about that time, leaving Rafferty, Cooper, William and David Bretland at work. McMahon met McMullen and Mitchell going up the brow and about 12.30 a.m. McMahon and Ward were about 20 yards from the shaft when a strong wind coming down the brow warned them that something was wrong. Their lamps were blown out and one had his cap blown off. They ran to the shaft. Fortunately the cage was there and the engineman at his post and on signalling, they were brought to the top.

The manager and others were sent for. On descending the shaft at 1.15 a.m. the water was found to have risen 15 yards up the shaft and very soon it rose to 70 yards up the shaft. The old Congo Pit was descended but the workings were open for only 20 yards and nothing in the way of an attempted rescue could be contemplated from that side. Arrangements were made at once to draw the water from the Emerald Pit by a water tank. The pumping engines were underwater and had stopped. A tank holding 280 gallons of water was put to use and by this means the water was lowered to a level where the pumps could be started. On the 17th December one of the force pumps in the lodge in the shaft was started under 20 yards of water. On the 8th January, the water was lowered so that a duplex force pump at the bottom of the shaft was started, also under 20 yards of water.

By the 20th January, an entrance into the mine was made and at 21 yards fro the shaft the first body was found to be that of David Bretland. Within thirty-eight yards from the shaft, the remaining bodies were found. Four were amongst rails, props and bars and debris carried down the brow by the rushing water. all the bodies were stripped of clothing and had on only their boots. Rails were bent in horseshoe shapes, some of them being as heavy as 30lbs. to the yard. The last body was found 59 yards from the shaft and about 230 yards from the face of the brow. This was recovered on 26th January. It was not until 8 a.m. On the 31st January that conditions enabled the Inspector and others to make a full examination since much debris had to be removed and the mine made safe.

Those who died were:

  • Edward Rafferty aged 42 years, fireman,
  • John Cooper aged 56 years, collier,
  • William Bretland aged 31 years, filler,
  • John McMullen aged 42 years, pumpman,
  • Frederick Mitchell aged 21 years, weigh clerk.

As it was vital to know the relative position of old workings a joint survey was made to fix the position of shafts and survey the approach workings. On 29th January, Mr. Saint, Assistant Inspector of Mines and Mr. John James Whitehead, mining engineer of Stretford, Manchester on behalf of Company, made survey. It was discovered that on the 4th December, the distance driven in the new brow extended some yards beyond the recorded position of old workings and therefore these workings were further away than was expected. Mr. Gerrard did not know if it was for this reason or Mr. Munro’s anxiety to return to England which caused him to direct that a borehole forward right away until it tapped the water, but extra long rods were obtained, front borehole sent forward until the water rushed through when it was 11 yards long. It was then thought that there were 11 yards of coal between the face of the new brow and water.

On 10th December, if not before it was certain that coal was worked at face reducing the coal barrier. How much was taken off will never be known as after inundation, all trace of the original face was removed. The survey found that the face in the upper portion of the seam was shown to be 6 feet beyond the face of the lower portion of the seam, the latter being 3 feet 6 inches beyond the last flank boreholes. No evidence of the measurement was given and appeared to the Inspector to be all guesses. It could have been that the faces were further from the last flank holes. If this was so, the urgent necessity of additional flank holes would have been increased. When Mr. Gerrard visited the colliery in November, these flank holes were being bored nine feet apart. The distance between ten last two holes, the nearest was nine feet from the face. The front borehole put through the old level passed to right of and very near to a place driven 8 yards below the old level. If this borehole was originally 33 feet long and the down brow 24 feet down, difference gave the intervening barrier as 9 feet. The distance between the last two holes, the nearest face was 9 feet. If the face of the new brow was carried further, after the water had been tapped, the intervening barrier would have been so much the less. Whether the barrier was 11 feet or 9 feet, it was quite certain that the pressure of the water broke through and swept the men before it.

The section of the seam was 11 inches of very hard coal near the roof, then 6 inches of dirt, then 2 feet of tender coal. It emerged that there was a small fault on the right-hand side of the face which ran through the barrier. Mr. Gerrard thought that this fault would have considerably weakened the barrier and its presence was known before the accident.

The inquest was held on the 6th February before Mr. J. Malone, Coroner for the district and Owen Muldoon, the engine winder who lived in Killybracky, who told the court:

My duties are lowering and raising men and coals. I was on duty on the 10th December at 7 p.m. and remained until seven the following morning. I remember the third shift going down about 11 o’clock. Edward Rafferty was in charge. Eight went down. Mitchell and McMullan are included in this number. They went down afterwards. They went down about quarter past twelve. I could not say anything about the pumps. If they had not been working, I would have heard something about it. The first thing that attracted my attention after they went down, they signalled to bring men from the bottom of the pit. I brought them up, Ward and McMahon. When they came up they shouted to lower the cage quickly. I lowered the cage with extra speed, owing to the attitude of the boys on the bank. I got no more signals. I heard about the water from the banksman and I shouted them to go to Curran for Thomas Kettle, the enginewright and manager. A message was sent to them with all haste. I did not discover anything until I called the boys into the house. I watched for a signal for about ten minutes before I called them in. They told me about the wind and noise. Thomas Kettle came and descended when he came in he said, “Owen, What’s wrong?” I said, “Tom, I’m afraid the water’s broke.” He said, “I’ll go down.” I told him to be cautious as we did not know how the water was coming in. I told him I would lower him very cautiously. I did not know anything more until he came back.

James Bretland who lived in Curran and was at work on the 10th December was examined. He said:

I began work at 3 p.m. and I did not notice anything out of common with the face of the brow. I did not notice any difference in the quantity of water coming through the borehole. The men of my shift finished the manhole first. When we went up the face the roof was bad and wanted a bar. Peter McGuirk got the bar. When he was getting it we were getting ready for it. We made a hole on each side and stuck the bar into it. Then we commenced to work at the face. We got about 2 feet to three-quarters of a yard of coal off the face. I do not think we got more off it. We got no orders to the contrary. McGuirk told us to finish the manhole, then go to the face. We were working there to 11 o’clock. On the first shift on another morning, there was also a little taken from the face. Fred Bocher was on that shift. I could see the face he had touched. I could not say how often I have been up the face between the 4th and 11th, December. I would say about one and a half yards at least had been taken.

After hearing all the evidence and the Coroner’s summing up the jury returned the following verdict:

That Edward Rafferty and the others came to their deaths through a breach between the old Congo Pit and the Emerald Pit. We consider that the present Company worked strictly in accordance with the plans supplied to them, which have been proved to be defective, and they carried out their operations with great skill and care, and took all the precautions to avert the accident and that the zeal and energy with which they displayed in their efforts to clear the mine and recover the bodies is to be highly recommended. We are also of the opinion that the Home Office should make greater efforts in order to test the accuracy of plans of mines about to be abandoned before they receive them.

As to the recommendation of the jury, Mr. Gerrard pointed out that it was absolutely impracticable. In this case, the Congo workings were filled with water and notice was given to Mr. James Brown, Inspector on the 28th August, 1888 that,”The colliery has been closed for the past two months. The mine is now flooded.”

On the 26th January 1889, Mr. Brown wrote, “We are trying to get a man to take charge.” On the 13th July 1889, he wrote. “I now enclose tracing of the colliery workings at Congo there is little hope of reopening.” Mr. Gerrard continued:

As to the surveying and up-keeping of colliery plans, in many cases it is open to improvement. It may be well to consider how this may be attained. The owner, agent and manager are required under the 34th section of the Act to keep, “accurate plan of the working of the mine” if he produces and imperfect or inaccurate plan he will be guilty of an offence against this Act unless he shows that he was ignorant of the concealment, imperfection or inaccuracy. It was given in evidence by the manager of the Congo Colliery at the time it stopped, that the old downset was not made by him and had been made before he took charge.

Mr. Gerrard pointed out that it would be difficult to ascertain who was in charge at the time.

 

REFERENCES
The Mines Inspectors Report, 1895. Mr. Gerrard.
The Colliery Guardian, 13th December 1895, p.1125.

Information supplied by Ian Winstanley and the Coal Mining History Resource Centre.

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