ENGINE ROD BROKEN

Another correspondent states that it was about ten minutes to three on Monday afternoon the underground staff changed shifts. Those travelling downwards had got clear, and the others were coming up. When full the ladder carries about 150 men, but on this occasion there were from 100 to 120 aboard. The engine started operations at 2.30, and about three the manager (Captain Ben Nicholas), who was standing within fifty yards of the engine-shed, noticed the engine stop and the engineman come to the door. Captain Nicholas asked what was the matter. He replied that he believed something had gone wrong with the engine, and that the men had rung up from below. The engineman, however, added that he had detected a slight jerk, and had stopped the engine before he received the ring to halt. Captain Nicholas went towards the “dry” to inquire of the men who had come up what was amiss. They said the rod of the man-engine had parted right at the nose at the moment the engine was at the top of its stroke, which meant that the rod dropped twelve feet with the men on the ladder.

Consequently some were knocked off and squeezed against the sides of the shaft, smashing the platform on which the men stood. The passage up the shaft was thus blocked in places. Surface men were at once organised into rescue parties and sent to various levels to get out any injured. The rescuers were within speaking distance of the men in the 12 and 24 levels, but the platforms had been knocked out, and it was impossible for them to go up or down. A road, however, was put in for these men, and they were freed.