RESCUED ALIVE after 12 Days in Mine

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 111, 23 April 1936, Page 5

RESCUED ALIVE after 12 Days in Mine

DRAMATIC CLIMAX Rescuers Suddenly Locate Entombed Men ENDURANCE EXHAUSTED (By Telegraph—Press Assn., Copyright.) (Received 23, 11.30 a.m.) MOOSE RIVER, April 22. Dr, D. E. Robertson and Mr. Alfred Scadding - , two of the three men who were entombed by a cave-in in the Moose River gold mine on Easter Sunday, were suddenly and unexpectedly rescued alive to-day in almost the last stages of endurance. The third man, Mr. Herman Magill, a Toronto lawyer, died three days ago. The rescue work ended dramatically. After the workers had suddenly bared an old pipe-line, tapping on it brought an unexpected response from Dr. Robertson. For the first time since the men were entombed the shaft was definitely located. After an hour’s drilling the workers broke through.

Dr. F. R. Davis, Minister of Health, was the first man in. He administered hypodermic injections and stimulants. The removal of the victims to the surface was delayed until the medicine took a strengthening effect. Earlier the rescuers had reported talking to the entombed men through the walls. Dr. Robertson and Mr. Scadding reported on the telephone that they could hear the rescuers distinctly. The rescuers had broken through to the shaft where the men were entombed, but rotted cribwork ahead collapsed and blocked the passage, again delaying the rescue. The entombed men were at that time weaker and showing symptoms of hysteria and hallucinations. After the accident on Easter Sunday it was believed that the three men had been drowned, but after eight days working rescuers were startled to hear the entombed men shouting up a five-inch opening made by a diamond drill operated by the rescuers.

The men, who had been without food, water and light for eight days, begged for soup, coffee, food, flashlights, candles and a pocket microphone, and these were lowered to them. The wives of Dr. Robertson and Mr. Magill talked to them. Both said they could hold out for 10 hours more. Their wives shouted: “We will soon reach you.” An hour later Dr. Robertson communicated the news that Mr. Magill was dead. Workers led by skilled rock miners brought by aeroplane from Ontario, frantically continued digging, after the cave-in had led the Minister of Mines to order them out, within five feet of the 140 foot level where the men were entombed. The direction was miscalculated and they had to drive a crosscut.

In the meanwhile the food sent down was not taken. Dr. Robertson explained that he and Mr. Scadding had been forced aloft on ladders by the flood and were too weak to descend to the tube.

Dr. Robertson is famed for his surgery in the Toronto Children’s Hospital. Mr. Magill was a barriser and Mr. Scadding is an accountant. The three men had purchased the abandoned mine.