Sharp County record., 1878-10-10
Particulars Regarding the Kecent Ivifi-
bic Calamity in South Wales.


bic Calamity in South Wales.
LONDON, September l2.-The full ex-
tent of the terrible disaster at Abercorne
YESTERDAY is now known. At 2:30 this
morning a flooding of the pit was COM
menced. At that time the fire was with
in short distance of the bottom of the
shaft, and all hope of further rescues
had to be abandoned. When this de-
cision was announced to the relatives of
the 251 men still in the pit, the scene
was terrible beyond description. Thir-
teen additional bodies of victims were
recovered before the flooding of the pit
began.
THE ABERCORNE CoLLIERY
is the property of the Ebbervale Steel,
Iron and Coal Company, one of the
largest iron and coal proprietors in
South Wales. 1t is situated few hum
dred yards from the AbercOrne Railway
Station, in the Western Valley Section
of the Monmouthshire Railway. The
pit is $50 yards, and one of the
longest and best worked in the
district. 1t was yielding 1000 tons
of steam coal daily. The machinery
for water-pumping and ventilation was
of the best kind, and the use of safety
lamps in the mine was rigidly enforced.
The cause of the explosion can not even
be surmised. Three detonations were
successfully heard in the surfase franae-
works, and the castings of the pit were
thrown to height of 800 feet above the
mouth of the shaft. The colliery en-
ployeeS, upwards of 1000 hands, of
whom 373, taking their turn in the shaft,
went down at II o'clock in the morn
ing. Twenty-one of this number came
up at noon, up to which time nothing
had occurred to create suspicion of the
danger. At12:10p. m. loud rumbling
noise was heard, quickly followed by
FLASH OF FLAME
from the pits mouth, and columns of
smoke, dust and debris ascending high
in the air. The explosion damaged the
winding-gear thus destroying the only
means of communication with the men
in the pit. AS soon as the gearing could
be repaired working parties were sent
down the shaft, and 80 men and boys,
working within few hundred yards
from the shaft, were rescued, but it be-
came evident little hope could be enter
tanned of the life of those re-
naming. About four hundred yards
from the bottom of the shaft are stables,
and fourteen horses were found, all
dead. Beyond this point the explorers
could not 60 on account of the impurity
of the sir and prevalence of the choke
damp.
VOLUNTEER EXPLORERS
succeeded in bringing in ten or twelve
men very much burnt, also seven dead
bodies, but it is feared that twenty 9TH
ers can't be for the present got, in con-
sequence of the fire extending, and
there remains no reasonable hope that
any further lives can be saved.
The whole district of Monmouthshire
is much excited, and it seemed last
night as if the entire female population
of the district had gathered about the
mouth of the shaft. The accounts to-
day from the scene of the disaster are
distressing in the extreme. The min
ers employed in this district are of
rather superior class, and are indus
trious and generally well to to do, and
good degree of intelligence and edu-
cation prevails among them. The agony
of wives. parents and children of the
250 men who are without doubt killed
in the mine is impossible to describe.