The Express.
London, England, 1867-11-11 00:00:00

LOSS OF ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY LIVES.

The most frightful calamity that ever betel
South Wales in the shape of colliery explosions
happened on Friday afternoon, at Ferndale Col-
liery, situated at the top of the Rhonddavach valley,
a small dingle branching out of the Rhonddavalloy,
at Porth, on the Taff Vale Railway, and extending
for about five miles by railway, but more than that
by the highway. It is a large colliery, belonging
to Messrs. Davis and Son, the great coal
owners, of Aberdare, and gives employment
to three hundred hands, men and boys.
The pit was sunk about eight years ago to the four
feet seam, which is the famous Merthyr steam coal,
at 300 yards from the surface, and the output is
very considerable. It has communication with
Cardiff by the Taff Vale Bailway ; but being at the
top of the valley, and alone, with the population
entirely dependent upon it, there is no passenger
train service, and consequently it is difficult of
access, the road or rather route from Aberdare
being simply a beaten path over a steep and rugged
mountain. The nearest railway station is five miles
ea. The village is of mushroom growth, having
grown with the colliery. There are now about 250
houses, including a considerable number of wooden
shanties of the American type, but be tterconstructed,
and far more comfortable. Every house is inhabited,
and most householders have lodgers, the gross
population of the village being about 800. The
village isnamed after the colliery, Ferndale, though
it is better known in the locality as Blaenllechan.
As far as communication is concerned it would
appear that although there is a means of getting
the coal away, the inhabitants are shut out fro n
the world between two ranges of mountains. The
little village has been plunged into mourning by
one of the 'Saddest events that ever betel the
district. On Friday morning, and for several
mornings previously, there was a dense fog, so
dense in fact that nothing could be seen a few yards
off, and this heavy condition of the atmosphere had
its deleterious effect upon the ventilation
of the mine. About 170 men and boys
went down to work on that morning, but it does
not appear that any misgivings were entertained as
to the safety of the pit, and things went on as
usual until shortly after one o'clock, when a frightful
explosion of firedamp took place, and in an instant
the whole pit was in a blaze. The blast swept along
the main drift, and extended into all the workings.
The men at the bottom of the shaft—those em-
ployed to hitch the trams on the cage—were blown
away, two of them being killed, and the third
escaping in the most extraordinary manner without
much injury. The blast then ascended the shaft
with a tremendous roar, and drove the men at the
top from their posts. It was at once evident that
there bad been a great explosion, and messengers
were sent off for the proprietors, and to neighbouring
pita for assistance. The report spread like wild-
fire, and it was not long before the pit's mouth was
besieged by an anxious and excited crowd of people
who had dear friends in the mine. It was impos-
sible to go down immediately after the explosion,
but as soon as the air had cleared an exploring
party went down, and returned with the intelli-
gence that the workings had been terribly damaged
and the ventilation interrupted. Measures were
then taken for carrying the air forward, and after a
painful delay several ies were found, including
that of Mr. Williams, the manager of the pit, who
was amongst the killed. It was found that enormoas
falls had been effected by the explosion, and often
the communication was entirely cut off by rubbish,
which had to be removed before the bodies could be
et at. The clearance of these falls oecasioned a
vast amount of delay and a corresponding amount
of distressing suspense to the friends of the
hapless workmen at the bank. At five o'clock on
Friday only 20 bodies had been recovered, and
although working parties were incessantly engaged
in exploring the workings, up to five o'clock on
Saturday morning only 53 had been got out. Of
those four or five were alive, but three in such an
awful condition that it is feared their sufferings
will soon be too much for their endurance. There
then remained 120 in the workings behind the falls,
but unhapily the falls were so great and the air
so foul that they are being cleared with the greatest
possible difficulty and danger. The airways are
absolutely blocked up, so that no hopes are enter-
tained theta single individual of the 120 in the pit
will be brought out alive. The air at the face of
the rubbish is so bad that for hours together the
workmen are obliged to grope in the dark, it being
impossible to carry a light through so much car-
buretted hydrogen as exists. A Brattice was
erected, and oven with this it was impossible to
obtain a clear current to the front. The men,
therefore, guided by Mr. Curnew, of the Plymouth
Collieries, Merthyr, and formerly head viewer of
Ferndale Colliery, continued up to 6 p.m. on Satur-
day to work in the dark. They were then on the
Duffryn side of the pit, where about 25 of the
120 men are entombed. About 20 yards of
rubbish had then to be cleared before they could
be taken out, but so slowly was the work being
carried on that Mr. Curnew did not think that
under the most favourable circumstances would
the bodies be reached before Sunday morning. It
was not intended to attempt the clearance of the
great fall in the main drift until the Duffryn side
had been cleared, the chance of rescuing the men
alive being hopeless, as the airways are all blown
down and choked up with tons upon tons of debris.
It is somewhat remarkable that between two of
these fearful falls a couple of horses were found
alive, and a hole having been made large enough
to pass food and water into them it is ex-
pected that they will be recovered. No
such air communication as that has been
discovered in the debris which shuts off the poor
fellows in the main workings from the world out-
side. Some of the mining surveyors who have
gone down the pit say that it will take at least a
week to get out all the bodies. Mr. Davis, the
proprietor, was down nearly all day on Saturday, and
in the afternoon Mr. Wales, the inspector for
South Wales, arrived and went down. Of the
whole number that were in the workings when the
disaster happened--170—only two have escaped
with little injury. Four or five were brought up
alive, but with these two exceptions they were
so dreadfully injured, that it will be strange
if they survive. Up to 5 a.m. on Saturday, 53
had been brought to bank, of whom 49 were dead,
some of them so horribly burnt as to have had
all traces of humanity obliterated. The blow
has fallen with dreadful effects upon some families.
In one house a father and four sons lay stretched
out, and in another, of six that went to work in
the morning only one returned alive, and he was
badly hurt. In half the houses which were
visited by the coroner and jury on Saturday the
victims lay in pairs, and in other houses the women
were waiting with woe-begone countenances the
arrival of the corpses of their beloved ones from
the fatal pit. Hardly one house out of three will
escape this awful visitation, and as the workpeople
there have gathered from the Merthyr and Aber-
dare districts chiefly, the excitement in those two
towns is immense. At most of the homes of the
deceased there was much poverty and physical
suffering apparent ; in some cases the bodies lay on
the floor, covered with sacks, just as they came
from the pit.
As to the cause of the accident, it would be
hazardous (says our correspondent) to give an
opinion, it being utterly impossible, at this moment,
to say where the gas fired.

The death is announced in the Dublin papers of
Mr. Richard O'Gorman, " a venerable patriot and distin-
guished Insban," at the patriarchal age of 89 years. The
Freeman's' Journal says:—" In all the episodes of the
stirring times, when an oppressed people were being taught
their strength he was always prominent."