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Full Details

Surname
CRAZE
Forename
Richard
Day
26
Month
02
Year
1913
Age
28
Occupation
Miner
Mine/Quarry Name
Botallack
Mineral Worked
Tin
Owner
Botallack Mine Ltd
Location
St Just
County
Cornwall
Details of Event
He was in charge of a rock-drilling machine working in an end. The previous ore on quitting blasted a cut by firing five soles simultaneously, and at the same time four holes, arranged to explode singly, were blasted by another pare in a rise 20 feet from the end. Five reports were expected but only four were heard. The fore shift men reported the miss-fire to their respective partners, including Craze who were working on the afternoon shift. The afternoon shift men searched for the miss-fire, found it in the rise, and blasted it successfully. Four of the holes in the "end" were placed at the corners of a rectangle and the fifth, a plug hole, was in the centre; all the holes converged inwards towards a common point. Before commencing to drill, Craze found sockets of all the holes except the centre one; of two both on the same side of the end the top one was, as far us could be ascertained 6 inches deep and the bottom one 16 inches deep. Also it was seen that the back of the cut was not properly broken through. In spite of these warning conditions he commenced to drill a hole 8 inches into the deep socket and towards the centre of the back of the cut. When the hole had advanced about 6 inches an explosion occurred and he received injuries which terminated fatally three days later. Apparently he drilled into the socket of the centre hole in which remains of the explosive had been left behind from the previous blast. Possibly the finding of the miss-fire in the rise put him off his guard and induced him to make a less careful examination of the sockets than he otherwise would have done.