VICTORIA. Nithshill, Renfrewshire. 15th. March, 1851.

The colliery was the property of Messrs. Coates and the explosion left sixty one dead. The colliery had a good upcast and downcast shaft fitted with a tube from a furnace. The manager thought the ventilation so good that the furnace had been stopped for several months. Many of the principle stoppings were constructed of brick and others of deal. There were no sheath stoppings in the waste. The working occupied about 50 acres and the coal was worked by passages about 18 feet wide crossing each other at right angles leaving pillars of coal about 18 by 11 yards. The part of the coal that was being worked was in the north of the pit. The air was carried along the face to these workings by wooden brattices and the old workings were closed by brick stoppings.

Fifty to sixty men had gone down the pit about 3 a.m. and worked as usual until about 5 a.m. when there was a sudden explosion which blew the headgear down and dense clouds of smoke came from the pit which was 120 to 130 fathoms deep. Early attempts to get down the pit failed and engineers were summoned from Glasgow.

Mr. Peter Niven, the overseer, said that he thought the explosion had occurred as there had been a fall which had interrupted the ventilation The seam was known to be fiery and the local papers commented that it was remarkable that the colliers used naked lights and not Davy safety lamps.

Efforts to explore the pit and look for possible survivors went on day and night but the work was very difficult because the cage was stuck in the shaft but voices could be heard from below. At last one man, John Cochran, was brought on the surface, alive. He told those at the top that there was another survivor below.

One of the two men who were saved David Coleville described the explosion. He said:

At the moment of the catastrophe, I was working with three others, stone cutting at the extremity of the West level. The explosion was indicated by a treacherous rush of air which was driven in advance of the fire-blast and looking forward, we saw an immense mass of flame roaring and advancing towards us. It fortunately took the first “open” which it met in the direction of the Victoria shaft which was fifty to sixty yards from us. The flame and vapour rushed up this shaft with incredible fury but it partially rushed on and met the men who were going for the shaft. Maxwell and Mahan, after half the distance, were fairly overpowered and full down but Coleville and Cochrane, while in a staggering state, happily got a “puff” of fresh air which revived them and they were able to reach the bottom of the shaft. At this spot after the fiery blast had ascended upwards a full current of air rushed consequently downwards. We suffered, however from the excessive cold but more from the agonising suspense endured by us by the forty-five hours we were imprisoned in the bowels of the earth. Our hope was excited when he heard goings on in the shaft above us.

When the explorers got into the pit, they found the body of the manager at the pit bottom.

The “North British Mail” printed a list of 63 men who were believed to be in the pit. Sixty-one of these men and boys died in the disaster:

  • Barney Martin.
  • Patrick O’Neill.
  • Thomas Campbell.
  • Thomas Scott.
  • William Scott.
  • Michael Smith.
  • Andrew Carson.
  • Felix O’Neill.
  • Neil Buchanan, married.
  • Neil Buchanan, single.
  • Thomas Samson.
  • Matthew Spiers.
  • James Buchanan.
  • James Lochlan.
  • Thomas Hughes.
  • Frank Hughes.
  • Henry Gibbs.
  • John Muhollen.
  • Robert Black.
  • Patrick Keenan.
  • James Baxter.
  • Neil Catlin.
  • Richard Smith.
  • John McMahon.
  • John Williamson.
  • James Poole.
  • C. Kerr.
  • Charles Schiells.
  • James Schiells.
  • Patrick Crossman.
  • Dennis Crossman.
  • Robert Whiteside.
  • George Whiteside, Robert’s son.
  • William McMillan.
  • Peter Haminpool and his two sons.
  • Peter White and his son.
  • Andrew Gebitas and his two sons.
  • James Kerr and his two sons.
  • David Colvin.
  • James Dodds.
  • John Connelly.
  • John Bed.
  • Joseph McIlwain and his two nephews,
  • Samuel and James McIlwain.
  • Joseph Baxter.
  • John McMillah.
  • John Smith.
  • John Cochran.
  • Felix Connelly.
  • Joseph Brighton.
  • John Schiells.
  • John Maxwell.
  • Sam McDowell.
  • John Campbell.
  • Michael Irvine, a boy whose father was lost in a previous explosion at the pit.

The funerals took place at Speedy Church at Barrhead. A reporter from the “Glasgow Herald” said:

We beg to express our fervent hope that the public will not forget that these poor men, summoned to the account without a moments warning, have left widows and children in a state of total destitution. Poverty is added to the distress of losing the bread-winner and head of the family by a sudden and violent death.

Messrs. Coates gave £500 to the Disaster Fund and £100 to those who took part in the rescue operations.

The accident was attributed to the damage to one of the stoppings which allowed air to pass straight to the upcast shaft and as the men were permitted to work without the examination of an overman, the gas discharged from the waste fired at their naked lights.

The system of ventilation was defective with the downcast air carried in one unbroken current round all the workings while the interior waste, an area of about seventy-five acres, was not ventilated at all. Firedamp was liable to come from falls in the waste. The air current was maintained by a single line of brick stoppings which leaked constantly and were entirely destroyed in the explosion. The Report commented:

It was inevitable that the ventilation of a pit by such a system should be restricted in its volume, for not only was this restriction produced by the air circulating in it being confined to a single, unbroken current, but it was not possible for the men engaged in working the districts could bear a large circulation of air when directed on them in one current.

 

REFERENCES
The Mines Inspector’s Report, 1951. Mathias Dunn.
The Glasgow Herald.
The North British Mail, 17th March 1851.
The Illustrated London News, 22nd March, 5th April 1851.
The Report of the Select Committee on Accidents in Coal Mines, 1853.
The Illustrated London News, 5th April, 1851.

Information supplied by Ian Winstanley and the Coal Mining History Resource Centre.

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