Document - HUSTLERS REEF MINE - JOHN M'CAVISTON'S WONDERFUL ESCAPE

Physical description

Ten page typed copy titled The Flooded Mine - John M'Caviston's Wonderful Escape by G. Mackay. The shift boss, John M'Caviston went to let water in the old workings of Latham and Watson's mine run more freely. He used the pick and removed a boulder. No sooner had he done this, the water burst in on him with a tremendous roar, blew his candle out and pushed him away. He escaped and warned the men as he ran. He then remembered four men at the bottom level and he went down to warn them. He descended the ladder and found them gone. He tried to get back up the ladder but could not. He went to a place where the floor had been built up. On the surface they thought he had been lost, but they started pumping and also baling. When the water level had dropped, men went down and on reaching the level one of them, Richard Williams, thought he heard a noise, and called out 'Jack'. They had found him alive.

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