On Saturday, 3rd February, 1906, an incident occurred at the Pretoria pit of the TullIgarth Colliery, near Clackmannan, belonging to James Fyfe & Company. The pit was located beside the Stirling and Dunfermline railway line at Tulligarth Farm.
OS Map with green spots showing pit location and possible water source location
Early on the Saturday morning, water rushed into an area in the lower seam where men were working via old mining works. The mine had opened in 1900 as part of the Tulligarth Colliery complex, and the coal seams locally were found at roughly 11 and a half fathoms (70 feet) and 16 fathoms (96 feet) deep. When the water was noticed the miners quickly evacuated the pit and carried out a roll-call. It soon became clear that five men remained in the pit.
They were Alexander Forsyth and two of his sons Alexander and David, who had only started working there the previous day, along with Alexander Forsyth, a cousin, and his son, also Alexander.
As soon as the incident was reported, Robert Fyfe, the manager, ordered the source of the ingress to be located. It was at an old quarry about half a mile west of the pit where a disused shaft had been blocked up but had given way (possibly where the Helensfield Poultry Farm now stands).
Pumps were brought to the site and began pumping the water out, while the other men from the pit tried to stop the water using shovels and explosives at the old quarry. Thanks to those measures the level reduced, but it was still difficult to reach the trapped miners. Luckily they had managed to find shelter where the water not submerged the workings. Knocking could be heard by the rescuers.
On the Saturday evening, Robert McLaren, HM Inspector of Mines for the East of Scotland suggested boring a hole through the roughly six fathoms (36 feet) of rock which separated the upper and lower coal seams to reach the men. This work took place overnight, and by this time firefighters had arrived at the old shaft at the quarry and were drawing off water there. This work too went on all night and a strong clay embankment was built at the mouth of the shaft by around 50 or 60 men, and completed by the Sunday afternoon.
Reaching the trapped miners, however, would take some time. Alexander Forsyth and his two sons were finally located, so food and milk were sent down to them, but the other two were around 200 yards further west of them. The three had tried to reach the others but were blocked by a roof-fall. Their lamps had also gone out on the Saturday, so they were in complete darkness.
It was only on the Monday communication was established with the other two Forsyths. On the Wednesday morning, the ordeal for Forsyth and his two sons was over when they finally reached the surface. The other two were rescued the next day.
The 'Evening Star' newspaper of Boulder, Western Australia reported on the incident as follows:
Evening Star (Boulder, WA : Thursday 22 March 1906, page 2)
I'll No' Leave You
DRAMATIC STORY OF RESCUED MINERS.
All the five men who were entombed in different parts of the Pretoria Pit, Clackmannan, by an inrush of water last month were finally rescued.. Two, father and son, had been underground without food or light for ninety hours.
Stirring stories of the heroism of the rescuers and the pathetic bravery of he entombed men are told. The last three men reached were Alexander Forsyth and his two sons. The men appeared to be calm and self-possessed; indeed the rescuers were the more affected.
"I knew ye would come," - were the words uttered by the father, as he shook hands with his rescuers.
The rescue party at once set about the task of reaching the other two men, father and son, who were situated at a distance of about a hundred and fifty yards from where their relatives had been imprisoned. The roof of the working had given way, and in order to prevent dislodgment, blasting was discarded, and the pick and shovel resorted to. The work was carried on with the greatest dispatch and by midnight, the rescuers were within three yards of the men. Here the rescuers met with a bitter disappointment. An opening had been made through the debris large enough for one of the rescuers to pass his arm through and shake hands with the imprisoned men, when a volume of black damp* descended with great suddenness, and extinguished the lamps.
The elder Forsyth cried out that he was fainting, and his son, finding that his comrades were beating a retreat, called out piteously, "Surely you are not going to leave us to die now!"
An Affecting Meeting.
One young miner - John Horne to his pick, after calling out to the imfectionate tribute - refused to give way, and despite the poisonous vapor, continued to work away doggedly with his pick, after calling out to the imprisoned men, "Aye Sandy; dinna ye trouble yersel. I'll no leave ye."
The men who had retreated were soon back again, and had provided themselves with a cylinder of oxygen. Dr. Robertson and two medical assistants accompanied them. The party had to crawl on all fours for over a hundred yards along the working, and in the last fifty yards there was a space of about 20 inches only from the pavement to the roof, through which they forced their way. When they reached the boulder which separated them from the entombed men, they turned on the oxygen to counteract the black damp and lighted acetylene and electric lamps. The work of making the opening was slow, and a pit prop, which intercepted their progress, had to be cut. A saw was passed through to the father and son, and the old man sawed the beam through. An entrance was soon effected, and the men were brought out of their prison.
It was an affecting meeting as rescuers and rescued men stood once more together.
In view of the fact that the men had been without food or nourishment of any kind since Saturday, their condition was wonderful. Even the old man Forsyth, who is 60, was able to walk a bit, and there was a touch of humour as well as pathos in his first remark, "If I had only had a bit of tobacco." Tears of joy trickled down the old man's face. He subsequently collapsed, however, his brave spirit having failed him in the reaction.
Half Slice of Bread.
When be was ascending to the pit-head the elder Forsyth remarked that he had lost his bonnet. "Oh, never, mind," he added, "I'll be like Sir Colin's Cawmell's (Campbell's) sodgers - I'll get a new yin" - the allusion being to the incident in the battle of Alma, when Sir Colin, observing his men going back to pick up their Glengarry bonnets, told them that they would get new ones.
After a refreshing sleep, the elder Forsyth related his experiences.
"We had given up hope," he remarked, "because we did not receive, any answer to our repeated rapping. Our lamps went out, on Sunday morning, and the only food,we had was half a slice of bread. We licked the bread one after the other, and finally my son gave it to me to eat." The son added, the bread was so saturated with water that they had to suck it. "I had a big supply of tobacco with me, and kept chewing this, until it was tasteless, but my thirst was almost unquenchable. The only water we had to drink was that which had kept us prisoners.
Describing the inrush of water, young Forsyth related that it rose inch by inch, and stopped just at their feet at six o'clock on Sunday night. The trying position soon began to tell on the father's nerves, and it was only by the son's repeated assurances that the water instead of increasing was retreating, that be was able to buoy up the old man's hopes. Forsyth said that he kept up rapping in the hope of attracting attention, for a day and a half. "The arm is gey stiff yet," he added.
Another stirring story was told by Alexander Forsyth, the eldest of the three men first rescued. He said: "I have been working in the mine for forty-three years, but I have never had an experience like this. It was just about the breakfast hour on Saturday; when we noticed water at first in the pit. My son knew I was working in another part, and they came back for me, and we then attempted to get through. The water was within two inches of the roof then."
"We felt it was all up with us, and my sons broke down. I said there was no use going on like that, and after I had engaged in prayer, we examined our position. I noticed the air was coming and going in waves, owing, as I thought, to the action of the pumps. We were never without lights, as each of us had husbanded our supply of oil and wicks, and we replenished our supply of oil from that which was used to oil the wheels of the wagons. Our lights at first threatened to go out, but they afterwards burst into a bright flame, and I thanked the Lord."
"We all along felt that our position was desperate, but I kept up the spirit of my sons, and pointed out that so long as we had air we might survive and I knew from our position that the water could not mount higher. Our hopes rose and fell with the ebb and flow of the water. We had no idea that a borehole was being made to pass food to us. I am told that this is the first case in the history of mining which entombed miners have been fed through boreholes."
* Black Damp, (also known as stythe or choke damp) is an asphyxiant, reducing the available oxygen content of air to a level incapable of sustaining human or animal life. It is not a single gas but a mixture of unbreathable gases left after oxygen is removed from the air and typically consists of nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapour. The term is related to terms for other underground mine gases such as fire damp, white damp, stink damp, and afterdamp.
References:
Alloa Advertiser - A Walk in the Past
The Evening Star article on Trove.nla.gov.au
Wikipedia - Black Damp definition