My thanks to Tony Brooks for the information on the Californian
stamps at South Crofty Mill.
The visit I made in 1950 was on a day off from a couple of weeks
spent at Holman's test quarry. I went with two companions, one
of whom was the late Geoff Cox who later owned Ecton Mine in
Staffordshire and ran educational courses there. Geoff had done
a summer vacation stint at Crofty the previous year, and hoped we
could have a trip underground. However, it was not long after the
beam bearing had broken on the pump in Robinson's(?) shaft, and
the manager had said we could look round the surface but not go
down the mine.
He told us that the pump broke when they were hoisting from an
upper level so, to get electric submersible pumps right down the
shaft to dewater it, they needed to open safety doors across the
shaft just below the level they had been hoisting from, but these
were themselves under water, so they called in a deep sea diver
from Penzance.
"He changed right here in my office" the manager told us, "and started
pulling on woollen jersey after woollen jersey"
"You won't need those here", I told him, "because the water in this mine
is 'ot!"
"You ain't never been divin' " he answered, as he pulled on the third jersey.
"So we let him go down, and kept him down till he'd finished. When
eventually we pulled him up, he was as wet with sweat as though he'd
never been wearing his diving suit!"
Tony Brewis
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