Page 34 The T ragedy of Recovery over Rescue By Kevin V incent The closest thing that 999 of the Canadian population has ever come to being under ground is when they descend to a base ment to watch television or per haps manoeu vre their vehicle into a belowgrou nd parking lot at a highrise hotel Y et almost every one of us has ridden in an eleva tor W e do it in hospitals W e ride elevators in apartment complex es Who among us has never had the thought cross their mind of an unimaginable cable malfunction and a plunge to the bottom of the elevator shaft In February 1945 the unimagina ble happened in T immins It was a regul ar Friday shift for the underground miners employed by the Paymaster Mine The mine was one of the busiest and most proftable in the Porcupine Camp The mine enjoyed a relatively good safety record and by all ac counts sixteen men had no rea son to believe it would be their last day on earth And while the Por cupine District s mine rescue per sonnel were at the ready for any impending call to duty they were not prepared for what amounted to a recovery mission Stacked again st the Holling er Fire of 1928 it was the secondworst mining accide nt to hit the Porcu pine Camp in its 33year history Some of the men had ridden this cage underground for years They likely never had time to form a thought they were about to die Shortly after 8am February 2 1945 sixteen men were traveling to their work assignments in the company s main cage They car ried their lunch pails some were smoking most were joking with one another as they usual ly carry on The cage descended to the 1000 foot level Suddenly and without warning the steel cable connect ing the massive doubledeck steel cage snapped The cage plunged another 1500 feet roughly the equivalent of four city blocks The cable had been tested four months earlier in October of 1944 It was rated for a maximum pay load of 51 tons signifcant ly more than the weig ht of the men and the cage itself Maintenance records indicated that the cable had been inspected and tested regularly At the time engineers concluded the cable was identifed as having a safety factor of 65 meaning it could handle the weight of six and a half times its rated capacity So why did it break That ques tion and many more were left to a coroner s inquest that examined the reasons that led to the death of sixteen men Magistrate Ed T ucker who presid ed over the inquest convened his hearing at the mine He wanted to see for himself how the cable could snap so suddenly While it would be nearly impossible to pinpoint what happened hoist man C Dukeshire testifed that the cable likely snapped somewhere between the hoistroom and the headframe of the 5 shaft Duke shire was one of 15 witnesses who gave evidence at the inquest Legendary Crown Attorney Sam Caldbick conducted the question ing on behalf T ucker Did it seem to you that it broke inside the hoistroom Caldbick asked Just outside said Dukeshire How fast was the cage traveling From 1200 to 1400 feet a min ute replied Dukeshire Dukeshire testifed that he per formed routine checks on the cage that morning and everything seemed to be working properly In fact the cage was on its third trip down that morning Nothing ap peared out of the ordinary on the frst two The cage was heading for the 1050 foot level when the cable snapped He was just getting ready to bring the cage to a stop when all hell broke loose I got ready to slow up and reached Page 32 Contd on pg 34