Shaft Accident
In the thread on the shaft accident at Wheal Agar, Ken Brown wrote:
"The Tresavean engine subsequently went to Grenville United and
South Crofty. In both places the house was made for the extra long
beam. In 1950 this beam, too, broke, wrecking the engine..."
As an RSM mining student, in April 1951 I went on a fortnight's practical
course at Holman's test quarry near Camborne. Two colleagues (Mike
Stuart and the late Geoff Cox of Ecton Mine) and I took a day off with
the intention of spending a day looking round South Crofty, where Geoff
had done his vacation work the previous summer (we were staying in a
B&B just across the road from Crofty, so didn't have far to walk).
When we got to see the manager and asked to go underground, he shook
his head, and this is my recollection of the tale he told us:
"Not possible", he said, "we're still clearing up the mess after the Robinson's
shaft accident. The beam bearing broke, and the pump rods stayed down
while the engine knocked a hole in the side of the pump-house, wrecking it.
"Fortunately, we had water-tight doors between the shafts on every level, so
we were able to shut those and carry on with some work from Cook's shaft.
Eventually the Robinson's shaft flooded with over 300 foot of water in it, and
it was then we decided we'd better go over to submersible electric pumps.
"The problem was that at the time of the accident we had been hoisting from
the topmost production level, and had some steel doors shut across the shaft
at that level, so we couldn't lower any pumps past them. We had to get the
doors opened, but they were well under water.
"The answer, we decided, was to hire a deep-sea diver, and we got one up
from Plymouth. He got changed into his diving suit here in my office. As he
got dressed, he started pulling on a big thick woollen jersey. "You won't need
that here" I told him, "the water in this mine is 'ot". He looked at me and said
"You ain't never been divin" and he pulled on three of the things before he put
on his diving suit.
"Well, we lowered him down into the shaft, and we left him down there until he'd
opened the doors. When he came up he'd sweated that much he was as wet as
though he'd never been wearing his suit".
For Geoff, Mike and I the day wasn't wasted, as we had a good tour of the surface,
with the large stamp battery going full pelt, the vanners, tables and buddles streaming
away and the long snaking flues leaking white arsenic here and there. All very interesting!
Tony Brewis
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