The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-10-09 00:00:00

THE FIRE IN SEAHAM COLLIERY.

On Monday the fire was still burning in the east
way of the Maudlin seam. It originated from in
accumulation of savrdust miied with disinfectants,
and the coal, being of a gaseous nature, soon ignited.
The decision come to at a consultation held on Satur-
day afternoon by the general committee, consisting of
Mr. Bell (G-overnment inspector), and Messrs. Hall,
Lishman, Foster, Corbett, Stratton, Johnson, Arm-
strong, Eminson, and Turnbull, was that of building
a "stopping" in the travelling way of the Maudlin
seam, and thus suppress what fire may exist there.
This was thought to be the most effectual and
safe means of accomplishing the object. Other
means could have been tried, but only at
the risk of the lives of the officials and
workmen employed in carrying them out.
Workmen are now employed in building three
" stoppings," one of which is eight feet high, eight
feet long, and six feet thick, and composed of solid
brickwork, the others being somewhat smaller. -Each
will, when finished, be hermetically sealed. Here will
be a g-uage set to show the state of the heat, and two
3-inch pipes will be built from the inner to the outer
side. In these there will be plugs which can be re-
moved at will for the purpose of examinations being
made at any time. All draught being thus excluded,
the fire will burn itself gradually out. How long it
may be before this takes place is not easy to estimate,
as it may be a week or two, or it may be a month or
more. After the last explosion in the same pit, and
when a like stopping was erected under the same cir-
cumstances, seven weeks elapsed before it was taken
down. Of course the bodies remaining cannot now be
recovered until the tire is found to have been burned
out, and it is sf.f3 to search for them.

Upon the tin water can of one of the dead men,
Michael Smith, brought up out of the pit last week,
there was scratched, evidently with a nail, the follow-
ing letter to hiewife

"Dear Margaret,—There was forty of us altogether ite
seven am., some was singing hymns, but my thought was on
my little Michael. I thought that him and I would meet in
Heaven at the same time. Oh, dear wife, God save you and
the children, and pray for myself. Dear wife, farewell.
My last thoughts are about you and the children. Be sure
and learn the children to pray for me. Oh, what a terrible
position we are in.—MICHAEL Small, 54, Henry-street."

The little Michael he refers to was his child whom he
had left at home ill. The lad died on the day of the
explosion.
- -

The following written record has also been found,
purporting to have been written on a Thursday, the
explosion occurring on a Wednesday. It is in chalk
upon a deal fencing board about Gin, wide and 6ft.
long, and is as follows
"The Lord has been with us. We are all ready for
Heaven.—R. J. C. Co.—Half-past two o'clock, Thursday.'
The writing is bold and plain, and has evidently
been written under a good light and with great cool-
ness.

The Daily Telegraph of Tuesday gives a fac-simile drawing
of the tinned water-bottle (side and bottom), on which
the miner, Michael Smith, scratched with the point
of a rusty brattice nail the farewell letter to his
wife, the size being reduced one-half. The Telegraph
remaras :—" It is necessary to explain that the address of
Smith, which appears in heavier and more distinct
writing on the upper portion of the flask, had been
marked there for some time, and grown rusted. Ott
the other side, which was greatly battered and
bent, appeared, also in old writing, the man's
name in full with the date, distinctly and firmly
traced, 'Anna 1880,' this being also bitten in with rust.
under this inscription he had scratched this words Look at
the bottom ' ; his obvious reason being that the plain flat
surface afforded a better ground for writing on. When he
had filled up this oval space, he continued the letter, as seen
above, on the less battered side of the flask; and it would
appear that the last words, 'Oh, what an awful position we
are in,' were added some time afterwards, probably not long
before his death. They are less firm than the
.rest
of the writing; but every line seems to indicate
the perfect self-possession of the poor fellow, and his heroic
'calmness in presence of a cruel death. Michael Inith, who
was thirty-seven years of age at the time of this fatality, was
the son of a schoolmaster in the county of Durham. lie was
evidently a good writer, and could also play the violin fairly
well. Two of his children are living, the 'little Michael'
so touchingly named in the letter having died on the day of
the explosion. The poor widow was nursing her sick child
when she heard the dull thud that bore the message of a
more terrible derivation. In dying Michael irnith
had clasped this-bottle so closely under the right arm that
it escaped the notice of the explorers, even when the body
had been brought to the surface: and it was the afflicted
wife and mother who herself made the discovery of this sad
relic, which she now treasures with the greatest affection.
No more pathetic memorial of human love and faith over-
coming mortal anguish. could be preserved. The careful
drawing from which our fac-simile has been en,graved was
made in the house, from which Mrs. Smith would not allow
the original to be taken."