My Memories, As a Miner and Draegerman,

During the Rescue operations at the Time of the 1956 and 1958 Mine Disasters in Springhill, N.S.

I was a fourth generation coal miner. My great grandfather, Henry Swift, was the underground manager at the time of what has been referred to as "the great explosion", on Feb. 21, 1891. He was among the one hundred and twenty-five men and boys who lost their lives.

My grandfather, Jim Davis, started working in the coal mines at thirteen years of age, and continued there for fifty-seven years, retiring at age seventy, He was almost blind by that time.

My father, Ira Munroe, worked a large part of his life in the coal mines. He worked at the coal face until he retired at the age of sixty-eight.

I started working in # 2 mine when I was sixteen years old, working on the 10-2 wall (10200 feet below ground). I went to night school, studying mining, and later other courses. I was also trained as a draegerman.

1956 started off as if it would be a normal year but trouble for the coal industry in Springhill was on the horizon. # 1 seam was close to depletion as no further development was being carried out, and the tunnel that was being driven from the 5700 foot bottom that was to open up #3 seam was halted.

I was one of the shot-fires on that project. The problem facing the coal industry, especially for Springhill, was that the major customer, C.N.R. was switching from burning coal to diesel.

#1 seam closed in the summer and the miners were transferred to # 2, but some left the area to seek other employment. I was transferred as a relief supervisor on the main slope of # 2 but I could see that coal mining was coming to an end so I was taking courses at night school and through correspondence to prepare me to enter into a different line of work.

One old timer that I worked with at that time, told me that I was wasting my time upgrading my education as in his words, there'll always be a coal mine in Springhill, but he lived to see that he was wrong.

A good number of miners that I had worked with in # 1 seam and were transferred to # 2 lost their lives in the 1958 bump. My being transferred to the position on the main slope of #2 no doubt saved me from being a casualty also.

In May, my wife's half brother, William (Manny) Whittle, was killed in the 13 800 east side long wall from a fall of roof stone.

On Thursday, November 1st, 1956, my wife and I were deer hunting on the Lewis meadow, approximately five miles from Springhill, when shortly after 5:00 PM we heard a loud explosion. At first I thought that one of the large boilers at the mine site had blown up. Then, hearing the steam whistle being blown, I realized that there was a problem at the mines, so we headed for home as quickly as possible.

When we drove into our yard, our neighbour was waiting to tell me that I was wanted at the mines as soon as possible. I grabbed a towel for showering, packed my wife and seven and a half year old son in the car, and headed for the mines. Cars were parked everywhere, so when I got to where McGee and Lower Cowan Streets intersect, I got out of the car and told my wife to drive over to Morris Street to her parents and stay there until I could get back to them – that turned out to be four days!

I proceeded down lower Cowan Street to the wash house to change from my street clothes to pit clothes, and then reported to the draeger house. Frank Stevens, who was normally in charge of the draegermen, was deer hunting up in the Westchester area at the time of the explosion. At that time, he had not arrived back at the mine site, so Lloyd Murray, who was a mine official, was passing out our breathing apparatus machines. (These were McCaa breathing machines that, when activated, were good for approximately two hours, according to the working conditions.)

The first crew that had arrived at the mine site was sent over to the main slope of #4, where the explosion had torn off the top part of the bank head. There they were instructed to go down to the first cross over, stopping between the airway (fan way) and the main slope to see if it was still intact. They were in line for the full force of the deadly gas. While only several hundred feet down in the slope, two of the draegermen collapsed.

I was among those sent in the second team to rescue our comrades. This was my first exposure to the devastation that the explosion had caused on the surface. When we got to the slope there was mass confusion with ones telling us not to touch this or that as it might crumble. When I first looked down the slope and saw Alex Spence and Benny Roy down – draegermen with many more years' experience than I, it made me wonder what chance I had if I went down to rescue them. However, I reflected on the training that Frank Stevens had given us, that is, to make sure that all the fittings on our machines were tight. Neil Ross, who was our team leader, put his hand on my shoulder and said, "We can do it, Harry!" So away we went, with a rope so that those on the surface could help pull the men up.

The first thing we did when we got to them was to make sure that their mouth piece was in place and the nose clip was on. (The equipment then did not have a face mask, but only a mouth piece, much like a scuba divers' outfit, and a nose clip.) We fastened the rope around them, one at a time, and placed them on their backs on the rail, balancing them as they were hauled to the surface. This method was used because the casing over the back of the breathing machine was metal so they slid along quite easily as those on the surface pulled on the rope. I cannot remember which of the two was brought to the surface first due to the confusion at that time, as well as the number of years since the event.

While we were busy down the slope, another tragic event took place. Bill Ferguson, another draegerman, came on the scene and had just stood at the entrance of the slope when he collapsed. By the time they got him over to the fresh air, he was dead.

Meanwhile, Alex Spence, one of the two draegermen we had brought up to the surface, was rushed to the All Saints Hospital, but was dead on arrival. Benny Roy was worked on by the mine nurses and they were able to revive him. Of those who went down the slope to bring these men up, at this time I can only remember Neil Ross, Hilton McNutt, and myself. We headed back to the draeger house feeling very discouraged, having lost two of our fellow draegermen, and as yet we had not even entered...