RESCUE DRAMA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22402, 24 April 1936, Page 15

RESCUE DRAMA

ENTOMBED MEN NOVA SCOTIAN MINE TERRIBLE ORDEAL ENDED RECOVERY ASSURED By Te'.t-'graph—Press Association —Copyright (Received April 2'i, T.!5 p.m.) VANCOUVER, April 22 A message from Moose River, Nova Scotia, states that Dr. E. D. Robertson and Mr. Alfred Scadding, who had been entombed since Easter Sunday in an abandoned goldmine which they had bought in conjunction with another partner, Mr. Herman Magill, who died two days ago in the mine, were rescued to-day. The efforts of the rescuers ended dramatically. They suddenly came upon an old pipe line, and, tapping on it. brought an unexpected response from Dr. Robertson. This was the first time the shaft where the men were entombed was definitely located. An hour's drilling broke through to them. Dr. F. R. Davis, Minister of Health, was the first man in. He administered restoratives with hypodermic needles and gave the men stimulants. The removal of the men to the surface was delayed until the medicine had a strengthening effect. The rescuers had been talking to the entombed men through the walls, and Dr. Robertson and Mr. Scadding heard them distinctly. Amid resounding cheers the rescued men, still conscious on the 11th day of their ordeal, were brought tenderly and tortuously from the pit's mouth on canvas stretchers at midnight. In order to reach the entombed men through a fallen timber barrier 20ft. wide at the foot of the shaft, which could not be moved for fear of another cave-in, two miners had crawled through a hole 18in. in circumference and dragged out the men on stretchers like toboggans. A waiting ambulance rushed the rescued men to hospital. Both' were suffering from colds and trench feet, but their recovery is assured.