Page
AN
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER A 3, 1960.
MIRACLE OF THE MINE
Death closed its jaws only just too late
NDY Cunningham sensed danger as soon as ke. heard his name called urgently over the rain- lashed field.
"Run, for God's sake, man?" The voices of his five fellow Scottish mine-workers carried to him across the bleak Ayrshire countryside behind the pithead at Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery,
It was The Day The Earth Fell In-just ten years ago.
out
Andy, warned by the instincl When ho Wils Interrupted
that for safety
Every good Andy had been laying miner develops, was running stakes round the hole, ready to of already.
drive in another section fence.
Goining the top of the hi, he looked back towards the
mall depression.
Why the panle? he wondered, Admittedly, the job that had brought thum lo Farmer Wheen's field was unpleasant in the rain, but draightforward enough, IL
simply a eyes, was Inalier of fencing off, for safety's sake, a small, shallow, wedge-shaped subsidence, about 25 feet by 10, in the centre of Ahe field.
“ANNIVERSARY STORY.
By GUY JONES
craler had appeared, almost perately
wide.
flu
planks, pl-
100 yards long by 50 yards props, baything they could find, into the crater's soggy maw ta slem its dendly; progres,
dramatically, the
All around, the ground itself was sinking. Only by contiz
had Andy missed being sucked down too,
像
Raised alarm
Then,
shrilled out mine telephone again In the .colilery office. Somehow Ite wiring had survived the deluge.
Over his only remaining r with the world, Androw Houston reported that thert men with him. were 115
his more, Including sirens Thirteen
brother James, could not be found
He raced off to give the alarm. Soon the
He could hardly believe his that every miner's wife fers were sounding out over the Ledden ecuntryside,
The fencing already crecled was settling into the ground, Only the tops of the poste could
A be seen.
great
A British Crossword Puzzle
11
12
#
「
18
ACROSS
1 Destvercled
(0).
from: Abraham
4 Needing to diei? (5).
He works like a Trojan (8).
Put the wind up (5),
10 From Lancakhire? (4).
12 Fastened the door (7).
15 Finally intercedes (5).
16 Pay for but never own (4).
17 Blundering idiol (4).
19 Push-bike presssory (5)..
20 Preity fish holders (7).
21 Account but not a bill (4),
23 Humble followers (5).
24 That's ruined it! .(0).
25 Great price reduction (5).
20 Sald in suppilention (0),'
4 15
16
8
16
21
22
24
DOWN
It was a little after 7 am on Thursday, September 7, 1950.
Although no one knew it yet, 120 Scottish miners WETE trapped deep down by a sudden deluge of 50,000 to 10,000 tons
Hid plight
They had discovered a barrel of water, and were using carefully. They knew their plight. They could only walt
of oozy, foul-smelling. thick and exchange jokes to pass black peat sludge.
It was the worst inrush in
gun.
For days it had been raining hard above the pit workings, The land was heavy with water.
Shrill call
the time.
To the rescuers, buckling on
}
"They knew their plight-they could only, wait.”
the history, of mining. A their equipment, the terrifying desperale race for life had be size of the task ahead was only too clear. At any moment there could be a further sub sidenco,
Only cou hope remisned: Somehow, 118 mon had to be thrusting back the daily #1:
the dozen and a half breathing get to safety In time,
to a safe distance. thousands At the plhead,
Bul even now, the voluntzera sets the trapped men had willi hacking the them.. Along the .. depenal walted, praying and singing dared not risk
shaft, the clos hymns The disaster was big tunnel from their side for fear excupo
begun. The er canded' 110, telephone, news. From the Scottish Area of Bae.
and of the National hungry
exhausted after tin-roofed Headquarters
14-hour shift Conl Board, every new report their
ordeal, would foreman Andrew Houston about on the eltuation was relayed to have to do it from inside their in relays, bore him by stretcher
King and Queen a fall in No. 5 Hending, it had the
at, dark prison, Balmoral.
Argiler 13 tours Bol rounded ton bird,
14
But when -the thrilling in the office, had first warned
I As dark as a modern plane?
(B).
2 Gees round the room without
moving (8).
3 Realty moved (4),
5 Talk about lumbago! (8).
6 One who stands
(8).
and wall
Thy hold water (5).
The
They brought the sick young-!
Nearly 30 min. ster out first,
Unlucky 13
went by along two and a half miles of Hurrying beley. he found The hour dragged by. Early before they managed it, and air black tunneis to safely.
the sturge welling through. the on Friday morning, a party of went rusting through walls. Then the discovery of technical
surfaced. bordhole that was the road to experts the small depression in Farmer Their report was gloomy. They freedom.
as hopes roared- ¡ Wilson's field had confirmed had hoped it would be possible But then,
Then, in small batches, the he fears.
to turine quickly through a another disappointment,
apparatus.! Trking very precaution, he 24-foot coal-face to the trapped ale was forcing gas towards the rest in turn, each donned the ordered the erection of the men from an adjacent dirused as der told way euld dis precious breathing.
As each man cleared the danger fence. Cont for the mine mineshaft, but they had not pel it. manager, asd hurried back be- been able to get far enough Dejectedly, the weary prison- aren, he peeled off his set and low to warn the men,
along the old shaft. They had ers plugged the hole and sat it was rushed back for further his way He was on
to the met gas. It was to be slow down to wait again, trete
the Arst of when 11fe big fall came. A rush of air threw him off his feet; the ground rumbled and shook; the walis
Cust WHY everywhere. A tidal wave of
cave-in work,
Desperation
Urgency became desperation, dvorcing mud sweat pil-props Only une mon below, as the bad and whole units of machinery news was telephoned to them,
with it.
avmained cheerful,
use,
The operation Look Бечеп At the old pithead; emergency
were hours. But by midnight on meals and medical ald waiting. And for the -time Saturday, 53 hours after the fall,
waiting. being, would go
the last man-Andrew Houston 30 was out, The 118 were safe-} By Saturdily morning, hours after the fall, things look the unlucky 13 who could not be ed really black. There was gas found' died,
But the big rescue was only in the mineshaft only 5 yara
just in time, from the trapped men.-
Almo:1
immediately
Biter- Struggling with others to an
One young inner had already men the night Throughout
if wards, a new collapse sent more underground telephone point, toiled, hauling heavy ventila collapsed from weariness. Houston found more men tien équirement along the two there was a further subsidence, Budge cherring down into the waith him there.*.
and the gas surged towards the worldings. The poisonous gas miles of old tunnels. By 9 am
ranched the evacuated poleca at Meanwhile, above ground, on Friday, fans were purring, men....
last, thị pan still beat an inexor able tatico on the colllery office Loof. But al was swift, pur great poseful activity now, as rescue
11 Those who' pay their way?
(b).
12 Once an outcast (5).
13 in a legal teun it is
amusement (8).
14 Rat (8).
18 Like a deadly poison (8), 22 Egy Tottenhẩm ơn! (4).
volunteers, first-ald attendants and police were geared up for Fone of the tricklost mine rescue operatums ever tackled. After two hours, eight men YESTERDAY'S CROSSWORD—Acrossi 3 Retraced, Bhat struggled through somehow That left 129 Halled, 9 Pi, adors, 11 Radiator., 12 Seas, 13 Error, 18 Sinus, 19 to the surface,
dead? Tea-urn, 26 Thorefor,still trapped. Alive or Runi, 22 Rat-free, 24 Requital, 25 Down: Shark, 2 Wilde, 3 Repairs, 4 Edli, 5 Real. & Closed. 7 No one knew.
Out in the blackness of the Desist, 10 Colon, 14 Rivet, 15 Rustler, 15 Dry-rot, 17 Unique, 20 Trout, 21 Meant, 22 Ripe, 23 NATO.
ifeld, saturated -plimen das-
SANG FROID
.BY. THE · WAY .
by Beachcomber
growing craze for new You may reply that one can't notes forces me to point out blow a false nosu, How true!| that it is for cheaper and much But it is detachable. At a party more fun to buy a false nose recently a lady was heard to say her hostess, "Don't then to go to Harley-street for nekdly lo
into poke either of your noses an operation.
my business." Next day the offended hostess discarded her sham fit-on nose, and asked a surgeon for an aquiline version of her present proboscis, What should A do?
"Is that the Koolyu Air Conditioner Company? Well, I've got a sort of complaint to make
"A
BALD head," says my paper, **19 no longer treated with respect by the young," Nor by anyone dise, eg, the absent-minded bishop who, at a Confirmation, mur- mured over the head of na agoing man, "I declare this stone to be well and truly laid." Ritsole Mio
TODAY Marine Ilouse becomes Rissole Mio. Mrs McGurgle warned her, boarders that they must, ho! expect her establish- ment to become Italianised, and that the change of name will be-| no excuse for goings-on-From her place at the head of the table Mrs. McGurgle rebuked with a disapproving frown the lodger who cried facetiously;; "Rosli beof ́and due veggi, con poudini de Yorkshirene."
Here, there, and
AN
everywhere
N EGG dropped over a 198ft. cliff landed in an egg-cup on the beach where 'the Gridstone family.
from Sheffeld wag having a plenie, "The chances against this happening,” said an actuary, "are 1397818 to 1."
A MAN was ojccted from Muckhurst Public Library for shelling prawna on Vol. fr of Maffin'a "Desicontion of the Kashmir Lakos."
A LITTLEHAMPTON grocer's grandmother has trafod a fer- ret to fetch ber spectacles,
now
Striking testimony MRS WOOLGRABS writes:
"Before taking the Balibo weight-reducing labinis I had to go into my house sideways, edging, my way's in inch by inch, and pushed and pullot by kindly neighbours, Today I can oven" aquease through our tiny larder window, and when I trip about the house the plaster ho” Songer filta" from the veilings, arid when, Litread, on our cat. Meistard, it purrTS with delight."*"
={London Express Services...
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