The Mine Disaster UNDER The Ocean

This is the Levant Mine. Also nicknamed the mine under the sea. It was first opened in 1820, and would eventually reach 2000 feet deep into the earth. But also a full mile underneath the Atlantic Ocean. I’m sure you can imagine what might happen if one of the tunnels were to fail. Incredibly, that isn’t even the worst of the conditions within. This is the story of the Levant Mine Disaster. As always, viewer discretion is advised.
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Attributions/Special Thanks for Photographs:
Chris Lovelock, James St. John, Please cite DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Zzyzx, Director-General of the Ordnance Survey, UK, shirokazan, John Charles Burrow
Writing and research by Jordan Gottschick
www.youtube.com/@DerpsWithWol...
This video contains light dramatic reenactment but no actual footage or pictures of anyone being harmed or who has been harmed.
And a huge thank you to the Scary Interesting team of writers, editors, captioners, and everyone else who make this channel possible.
DISCLAIMER: The pictures, audio, and video used in the videos on this channel are a mix of paid stock, by attribution, royalty-free, public domain, or otherwise fall under the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement is intended. All rights belong to their respective owners. If you are or represent the copyright owner of materials used in this video and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to [e-mail]. I will respond immediately.

[@hellyeah_ellajane]

Hearing that the men who had finally made it out of the nightmare were willing to immediately jump back into the fray to try to rescue their friends is one of the most heartening things I’ve ever heard.

[@Bigjuicydumbdumb]

The true horror is having that life. Generation after generation.

[@hx5525]

Hearing that the insurance company paid up despite not required to do so is just as heartening. I can’t imagine something like that happening today.

[@TrueReal-de6ee]

America!!!

[@FordPrefect-sx5zn]

People back then were real people. Nowadays, no way. Maybe a few people. Of course you'd never get anyone to do that job these days in the first place.

[@Medic6581]

It's what makes life worth living

[@lwalker8785]

It's striking how much effort was put into saving workers after the disaster, yet simply maintaining equipment was out of the question.

[@tyler7711]

1820 logic

[@easternrebel1061]

​@tyler7711 oh trust me, many places in America still operate that way. In management's eyes, it's only a problem once enough people die, and even then they only really care once it affects their bottom/people raise a fuss about it. Over a 100 years later and the people up top still see the working class as nothing more than wage slaves and peasants.

[@weeveferrelaine6973]

The workers were the ones putting all the effort in- the management were the ones neglecting a much needed upgrade to a new system, with replacements just being to fix stuff after it broke. One cared, the other couldn't "afford" to care.

[@Findecommie]

@@tyler7711 now we half-ass both the maintenance and the inevitable rescue efforts! (I don't disagree with modern protocols that offer more protection to first responders on principle, but combined with the rampant negligence for most workers' safety it does say something about whose lives get valued)

[@b.thomas8926]

@@Findecommie Aww come on now, how can a mine make money by spending it?? I'm an old oil and gas guy, and yeah, I get the mentality of these companies. The whole 'we care about your safety!' is BS. What they really mean is, 'don't fall into that vat, you'll ruin the batch and it will cost us millions in lost product and court fees.'

[@TheNobility]

Fun fact: If the concept of a manlift interests you from an enginerring standpoint, there us a fully functional one called Fahrkunsten that is demonstrated to tourists in the Silver mines in Kongsberg, Norway. This one originally went down over 900 feet, and was in partial operation until the 1930's. If you visit these mines, you can take a mining train in to some 1000 feet under ground, to visit machinery, Fahrkunsten, shafts and holes, fairly large mountain halls used for mine workers living under ground for weeks at a time, and have a glimpse down the largest of the shafts, that is as deep as 3000 feet from surface to bottom. The Silver mines themselves sprawl across a whole mountain with a multitude of large and deep day openings. There's also a mining museum that is well worth the visit. I'm not certain if its the only remaining manlift, but I'm sure its one of few in the world. It really is a sight as the guides step onto a small platform not much larger than a chair seat, holding on to a steel handlebar, then see the whole massive linked wood beam lift into the air, then step over to a meeting platform on the twin manlift and so forth. Nothing below them but a few hundred feet of shaft. Gives you a certain respect for those who worked the mines. The Kongsberg Silver mines operated for over 300 years.

[@karal_the_crazy]

Sounds like Moria

[@kingkoopa7376]

I've been there and it was really cool.

[@christianbottger493]

You can see "Fahrkunst" in Germany as well: Museum Grube Samson, St. Andreasberg, Harz Mountains and Bergbaumuseum „Lautenthals Glück“, Langelsheim , for example

[@heatherlee4366]

I live in Cornwall, it was a huge part of our heritage, I have nothing but admiration for these miners. Gevor Mine has a brilliant exhibition with genuine tools, machinery, and tunnels to explore, well worth a visit

[@Torriotorres]

I don't. Anyone from slave times, is racists.

[@diatonicdelirium1743]

And a perfect display for the current wokies talking about 'white privilege'; most western countries were built on the blood, sweat and tears of backbreaking work like this, and our forefathers fought hard to improve those conditions.

[@laughingbeast4481]

@@diatonicdelirium1743 Oh Jesus fucking Christ...

[@xdeep_freeze3684]

@@laughingbeast4481 please say what you want to say im curious

[@PorkBoy69]

@@laughingbeast4481 He isn't wrong lmao

[@efnissien]

Hearing that several miners had survived WW1 only to be embroiled in this reminds me of a story of one of my great-great uncles. He'd been conscripted from the slate quarries in North wales to fight in the war. However, due to his literacy level he was made a company / battalion clerk - one day his company commander, a young Lieutenant, was making conversation and asked my uncle what he was going to do when the war was over. "I'll probably go back to the quarries sir." he replied. "Ah, the offices?" said the officer. "No sir, the quarry face." The officer then turned to my Great, great uncle and told him, that he was a bright chap and that if my great great uncle wanted, he could get in touch with his family and arrange a job for him in the family business's offices. At the end of the war, both men survived unscathed, my great great uncle returned to the quarry face. However, about a week later a letter arrived from his former company commander. He apologised for taking so long to get in touch but it had been tricky to find him and that the job offer was still open if he wanted it. My Uncle did take up the position and rose through the ranks. Looking at the list of deaths & injuries in the quarry, it looks like that officer probably saved his life.

[@potatofly2967]

wow your great great uncle dodged a bullet twice

[@jacksonlee6760]

​@@potatofly2967One literally, the other metaphorically!

[@j_m_b_1914]

That is a super interesting story! I noticed as I got older (into my 30s and 40s) my heritage and where I came from became a more interesting topic to pursue. I don't know how old you are, but it is never too late to start. It would be really interesting to find out who this officer was because you might not be here typing had he not looked up your greatie greats. It is wild to think about and fully comprehend all the wild stuff that had to have taken place for you to be here, but your greatie great definitely sounds like a man who lived a very full life. PS: Ahhh your greatie great uncles ... So perhaps you'd still be here regardless. Still interesting though!

[@j_m_b_1914]

Beautiful!@@potatofly2967

[@BlorkTDork]

Remember the U.S.S. Sultana ✝

[@matbroomfield]

This is exactly how modern corporations would treat everyone if they could still get away with it. They are ruthless, reckless, and utterly without morals. Bravo on the insurance company for being uncharacteristically decent and paying out.

[@doggodoggo3000]

yes. and there are actually people in these comments saying "kids these days" type bs. lmao

[@matbroomfield]

@@doggodoggo3000 Hear hear!

[@matbroomfield]

@@apocratos0174The conversation is far more nuanced than that, but companies that have a fiscal responsibility to return profit to shareholders, are structurally designed to behave in a way that is parasitic, deleterious to employees, and bad for society at large. As for socialism, when you're spending other people's money - taken under force of law, accountability is low, bureaucracy, waste and corruption are high. But they are polar extremes, not the only choices. But I'm sure that you already considered all that?

[@locklear308]

Halon's Razor

[@matbroomfield]

@@locklear308 No, it's not about stupidity - it's about absolute amorality. Green is king.

[@n0one555]

I need to congratulate you for the visual aspect of this documentary. The choice of images, editing and color matching makes everything much more immersive. Very good job!

[@finnbilodeau4898]

This is why we unionize.

[@AedanTheGrey]

🎵Which side are you on, which side are you on 🎵

[@jeffnoble4002]

Nope….

[@BM-rm9zy]

cringe lmao. Unions were not even legal back then, at least not in the same context they are today, nor was there any legislation regarding it. You have probably not even worked in a union environment

[@Epyriel]

@@BM-rm9zyActually unions were legalized in 1871 in England and were the driving force behind shorter working hours and improved safety standards (as well as improved pay) throughout the end of the 1800s and afterwards.

[@jaydaddy2445]

So your dues can go to socialist political parties to make your kids make up genders? Yeah no.

[@Nonayabizness360]

My great grandfather worked in the Red Jacket mine in Calumet Michigan in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s . He testified before the Michigan Supreme Court and helped change laws to allow better conditions for miners and all working people after he watched his friend be crushed to death. I read the transcripts. My great grandparents were also there at the Italian Hall Disaster in 1913. They were Serbian but there were many other ethnicities there because it was going on during the strike and many people were killed. Horrific things happened back then and they are going to happen again. Learn your family history so you never forget where you came from and who you are.

[@dr4d1s]

Hey fellow Michigander!

[@QUEEFSWEAT]

My great grandfather was a lazy asshole. MISS YOU GRAMPS, MISS YOU EVERY DAY!

[@jamesfehr2071]

Why does it matter?

[@QUEEFSWEAT]

So lemme see if I got this right: Anywhere your family is, something disastrous happens?

[@ognightrider8730]

Your grandpa was a snitch.

[@user-co2gc6dj1l]

4:51 This guy is at an arsenic works. His job was to shovel the white arsenic oxide which crystallized from smelter smoke in special flues for transport and sale. The white stuff in his nose is cotton to protect him from the deadly dust. This was the worst job in the Cornish mines. I don’t know what their life expectancy was after starting this job but it probably wasn’t long

[@stemartin6671]

At rookhope, weardale, there was a long flue carrying fumes from the lead smelters. There used to be gangs of children employed to go in and scrape the co densed lead from the walls of the flue, which as you can imagine was a deadly job. Many wouldn't live long enough to become adults

[@mickenoss]

They used to teach us about the Cornish mines in school when I was a kid, we even had a school trip to Morwellham Quay which was pretty cool. They told us a story about one of these mines where they had mined into a cavity about a mile out to sea, so large their most powerfull lamps couldn't see any surface inside. Most of these mines have been left to nature now, but you can still see the ruins all along the southwest coastal paths.

[@xitheris1758]

"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."

[@inc2000glw]

I hear this passage more and more (mostly online)

[@xitheris1758]

@@inc2000glw As the upper class lose their ethics and continue to keep more and more of the pie for themselves, many people find themselves having to choose between doing evil or having evil done to them. In a world of globalized big business, being a do-gooder often means being poor. For many people, gone are the days when one could make a decent living while being honest. Such was the case in the days of Jesus. He and the Apostles spent a lot of their time comforting those who suffered at the hands of the rich or went hungry because they refused to do evil. This scripture chain shows the message clearly: "Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." "If ye love me, keep my commandments." "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

[@xitheris1758]

@@inc2000glw I mostly post it to help remind other people that this life isn't everything. All societies reach a point in which Good is punished or goes unrewarded while Evil is rewarded or goes unpunished. Yet, the core laws of God don't change. Those who spend this life doing and becoming evil will be compensated, and those who spend this life doing and becoming good will be compensated. It's tempting to throw up our arms in exasperation and stop resisting the pressures of the rat race. Yet, God expects more of us, and thru Him, we're capable of doing and becoming good without getting worn down. You don't need to have been rich to not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; you just need to have the mentality typical of those who are rich.

[@scistorm17]

@@xitheris1758 I agree with everything you said, but I'll add the two verses that follow since yours usually gets posted by others in "eat the rich" contexts by people who are equally materialistic but just worse at it. The disciples ask "Who then can be saved?" to which Jesus replies "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Understanding our dependence on God transcends the material provision He gives us to steward (and it's always a gift we neither earned nor deserved much like salvation itself).

[@ohsarcasm]

​@@scistorm17 Dawg what do you mean "eat the rich people contexts by people who are equally materialistic but worse at it"?? Have you actually ever talked to anyone that follows that ideology? Like actually talked, not just had a discussion looking for a gotcha. Because I have, and they're usually people living paycheck to paycheck disillusioned that working ends up being all there is to life if you want to even afford to live.

[@petermilburn1214]

From 1975 until 1984 I worked in the last deep coal mine in west cumbria in the uk. Haig colliery in Whitehaven on the west cumbrian coast was 1200 feet deep and went several miles under the solway firth to wards the Isle of man. It also stretched several miles south under the village of St Bees South of Whitehaven. There are workers still entombed in the mine because it was deemed to dangerous to retrieve their bodies. The mine finally closed in 1986 ending several hundred years of coal mining history in Cumbria. Iwas the nineth generation coal miner in my family.

[@martywestywood6004]

Peter. Some of my relatives were coal miners,I've met a few ex miners through my work, and been down some deep mines as a tourist. Question for you, if you could reverse time, would you do it again ? Its a tough life, but the stories I hear suggest there was a great comarade with the miners.

[@petermilburn1214]

@@martywestywood6004 If I could turn back time to the 1970s yes, but I would not work in a private coal mine!

[@aftersexhighfives]

You're the last of your breed, sir. Bet you can open a walnut one handed.

[@Dreadnacht715]

Both sides of my family came to Pennsylvania from the carpathians back in the late 1800s to work in the anthracite mines here. My great great grandfather was killed when a collapse pinned him down and water flooded the tunnel. A few years ago the cap on one of the slopes to the mine broke open and I took a journey down. It was flooded at the bottom of the slope and just eery to think he’s still down there somewhere.

[@guthrie_1]

@@Dreadnacht715 I lived in Pottsville PA for a few years. It’s amazing how the closing of coal mines economically screwed the entire area. It was so vital. When I lived there the only people who made a decent living commuted to Reading every day.

[@TessyBoi.-]

In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan there were two sister mines separated by a basin. they were connected by a tunnel. Blasting occurred regularly, and one day in the Barnes-Hecker mine, a blast poked the basin open, causing insane pressure change followed by instantaneous flooding. The mine was 600 feet deep, and like the mine in this video, the only way up was by a ladder. Two men scrambled as fast as they could up the ladder as rushing water licked at their feet. The sounds of screams and crashing below them. Wilfred Willis, a 23 year-old man was able to scale all 600 feet in 15 minutes. The man underneath him on the ladder was not so lucky. Willis would be the only survivor of the accident and had to be revived using smelling salts when he collapsed on the surface. 52 men died in that mine. The sister mine adjacent to Barnes-Hecker received knee-deep water through the tunnel that connected the two. Bodies could be seen washing into the mine through that tunnel. It is now sealed and fenced off, serving as an underground tomb to the lives lost. There are also heartbreaking stories of some those who died. Men on their last day, others on their first. The surviving families still don't like to talk about it to this day.

[@nickkohlmann]

When did this happen?

[@TimeSurfer206]

@@nickkohlmann I highlighted "Barnes-Hecker mine," right clicked, and selected "Search google." November 3rd, 1926. This kind of shi* is altogether too common in human history, and many of the very people who would pay these prices for profit seem to be eager to return to those days.

[@malendil]

@@nickkohlmann Google search says Nov. 3, 1926. I search term I used is "barnes-hecker mine disaster", you can find articles about it with that.

[@ianeons9278]

R. I. P. To all the lives lost in that disaster and condolences to their families 🕊️

[@aftersexhighfives]

Some of them knew immediately they were done for even though they hadn't actually taken their last breath yet. Terrible only one soul survived. The guilt. The terrible terrible guilt.

[@snowcycle7]

I like how you gave so many specific examples sharing the names of individuals and telling their stories. Great video

[@sppl623]

god you are so freaking good at telling these stories, perfect pronunciation and enunciation. but most importantly you tell these stories of the past with so much respect, knowing full well that all those affected were fully human with dreams, families, and its just so refreshing to see someone cover these disasters as they really are: horrific.

[@Cychr]

My great great grandfather was one of the victims of the Levant man engine disaster. It’s absolutely true that everyone knew someone that was killed or affected, even 100 years later. This is taught to students in local schools during the local history section of the syllabus. You can still go just below the surface and up to the shaft where the man engine used to be. It is of course sealed by bars now but you can see through them still. It’s beautiful place to have grown up and lived, I guessed right away from the thumbnail that it would be Levant in Cornwall.

[@timphillips2902]

I went to Penpol School in Hayle and can remember going on a school trip there in the 80s. My great grandfather was a miner who emigrated to Arizona, he was employed in the states as a mine captain. Not so long ago I worked in Alberta, Canada. I learned that there was a former Cornish mining community in Montana just south of the border, I drove there with my family and bought a pasty in a local cafe. I was a proud Cornishman on that day 😊

[@zen4men]

I guessed too! My grandmother was a Bolitho, and her cousin, Simon Bolitho - only 3 years old in 1919 - was on the Disaster Committee paying out to those affected around 60 years later. Mining is in Cornwall's blood! /

[@franciasii2435]

I thought it was Lebanon or something, since that's the REAL Levant, but I've noticed English country's have a weird Habbit of outright stealing names from the middle east. Probably has something do with the prevalence of Christianity in english countries, and its origins in the middle east.

[@zen4men]

@@franciasii2435 The Cornish language has place names such as LELANT, but I can find no info on the meaning of LEVANT. Or why the mine was named LEVANT. / My family were involved with Levant Mine, as they were the Bolitho banking family - tin is practically in my blood! / "Stealing" is a bit harsh, but Cornwall has long been connected with the sea - the Phoneicians came to Cornwall some 2,000 years ago!

[@johnyoung3511]

As I mining engineer I've worked the gold and platinum in South Africa and the coal in Northumberland. The Levant disaster, bad as it was, wasn't the worst by a long chalk. The New Hartley disaster took 204 men, some only 10 years old - and set mining law to insist on two points of egress from underground workings. The Levant miners benefited from this. Senghenydd coal mine in Wales took 439 men after methane ignition followed by coal dust explosion. Accidents in the mines are always nasty because you're remote, and its dark. Pulling dead bodies out of confined spaces is something I can't recommend, but men still do it.

[@paulhaynes8045]

Heroes, who suffered and died so that we could live the easy, safe lives we have today. And they were labelled by the owners and right-wing politicians as trouble makers and commies. And even today, people like Elon Musk would do away with many of these regulations because it hinders productivity and profits...

[@SoupMagoosh]

I live a five minute walk from the burial ground of the Hartley pit disaster. It’s absolutely devastating and gut wrenching reading the names of those children who died in the disaster. My ancestors also worked in the coal pits, it’s important to remember them and their sacrifice

[@mariuszmoraw3571]

And the worst is not the fact they die, it's fact some survive it and now you need to find super fast way to get them out of entrapment...

[@Catalyst8487]

I definitely expected this video to be about the mines being flooded with ocean water after those first few minutes.

[@dis8791]

I did kinda roll my eyes every time that was brought up, because, they're working under the ocean. It's nicknamed 'the mine under the sea'. Obviously everyone's first priority and the first danger they think of is going to be the ocean. There would be plenty of precautions taken against that, and way less against other, less obvious dangers.

[@robhamper6001]

Donkin Mine in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia is currently the only operating sub-sea coal mine in the world. The area is no stranger to sub- sea mines (or disasters!) having had many over the 250+ years of coal extraction. The longest was nearly 8 km from shore! Thanks for this episode. Very informative.

[@Anonymous1995]

It got labeled an "accident" to remove liability from the company--of course it did. What a joke. And people thought companies cared about them back then. They never did and they never will. It's really sad that worker protection laws primarily exist because of events like this. :/

[@nightlightabcd]

Sounds a lot like in the US!

[@andronatroncoulomb9299]

MSHA is written in blood.

[@Michael-bn1oi]

​@@nightlightabcd turns out people are people. Who knew?

[@akivaweil5066]

It got labeled an accident by whom? Do you really believe any company can simply label all injuries as accidents? Are you nuts?

[@x66Hawk66x]

Of course they did not care. A good example are the candles. Back then candles were made of animal fat, and when times were tough, miners when starving, would start eating the candles. When the companies got wind of this, they started poisoning the candles to stop them eating them.

[@ashleybrooke2087]

Even in modern times, the mining industry is pretty intense. Never mind the claustrophobia or the imminent threat of being buried alive or crushed to death. Something as simple as bad air can prove deadly & then, after years toiling in the mines, workers are constantly at risk for various ailments given the exposure to chemicals & other contaminants. God bless the miners.

[@MrHorkster]

God bless the unions and the wars they waged against these corporations.

[@obd3256]

Women are underrepresented in the mining business. Obviously, this due to the patriarchy. More efforts should be taken so that 50% of miners are women, or identify as women. Same with wars, firefighters and crab fishers. 😂

[@charlesforrest7678]

​@@MrHorkster#1 movie in West Virginia to this day is "MATAWAN".

[@System-zu7np]

The worst part is that the thing that kills often isn't even toxic or some chemical. It's just years of dust that do you in.

[@guthrie_1]

@@MrHorkster And after 20 to 30 years of unionization they move their operations across the border or overseas. To make things worse the EPA makes it almost impossible to open a new mine. We traded corporate greed for Union leadership greed… and then the jobs disappear. In the end what did we accomplish? I don’t know what the answer is.

[@velessachan]

This truly was fascinating! Very well done, and I appreciate all of the great visuals. This is why you're one of my favorite channels!

[@CharlesStearman]

One of the worst mining disasters in Britain occurred in 1862 at the New Hartley coalmine in Northumberland, when the beam of the pumping engine snapped and fell down the mine's single shaft, completely blocking it. 204 mineworkers (some as young as 10) were trapped underground and died before rescuers could reach them. This video reminded me of it because in many mines (though not New Hartley) the pumping rod also carried the man-engine platforms.

[@HellHazAtTheZoo]

To go through mustard gas, shell shock, killing newly-made friends (Belleau Wood), trench warfare, fighting a gentleman’s war with vicious new war tech…just to be killed by bad management. It broke my heart to hear the death toll, even though it wasn’t as high as I was expecting. It was great to hear that the initial survivors that climbed their way up with some of the injured were willing to jump into the rescue effort to save more of their friends and family. The Lost Generation was so badly mistreated by their time as well as history.

[@riveness]

A gentleman's war. Huh. The royal family killed them at war and then back at the mine.

[@WaveForceful]

And Gen Z don’t know how good they have it.

[@namedrop721]

@@WaveForcefulthe Boomers didn’t know either lol they killed the world

[@riveness]

@WaveForceful well that is rather the point. Or so you want something else.....

[@nickkohlmann]

​@WaveForceful We do. And we are glad. Because that was the big takeaway from all this, wasn't it? That each generation has to try improve the conditions for their children? I feel like the last few generations really missed some parts of that, given that the world we are left with will battle and already does battle serious and continuously mounting problems caused by those who will not be around anymore to reap the worst of what they've sown. Yet, my goal is to try my best to leave a world worth living in to my children, and I will do all I can to make sure they'll have it easier than me. That's what it is about, isn't it?

[@blushslice]

My uncle took me to an abandoned mine in BC once and we looked up a crack in the rock to see all the floor levels above - it’s truly mind bending how massive some mines can be

[@funonvancouverisland]

Was it on the island?

[@blushslice]

@@funonvancouverisland naw, was near Kaslo & we trekked a ways out to find it, I’ll ask him if he remembers ..

[@funonvancouverisland]

@@blushslice epic. Nanaimo is a city here that is built on top of old mines it's pretty wild

[@planterstoner1918]

@@funonvancouverisland I lived in Cumberland for a while. That place is swiss cheese underground.

[@PaulRudd1941]

​@@funonvancouverisland second deadliest mine explosion in Canada too unfortunately, No. 1 Esplanade mine explosion. 150 men lost their lives back when Nanaimo had like 3,000 people. There are almost no videos about it.

[@freddiemillington9256]

I live in Cornwall and I have been to Levant and this story I have heard so many times, she's 1 the 4 main mines, the others, Geevor, Botallack and Crofty. Keep up your amazing work 😁

[@delroyclarke1989]

I also live in Cornwall and me and my old housemate went last year to visit it, my old housemate worked as a miner in Crofty as a driller and he told me that there was a disaster at levant but I didn't know it was this, which costed so many lives 😢

[@griffin8er845]

I love the thought of something being ridiculously unsafe or coming close to breaking and management is just like “nah too expensive” only for the damages and lost work when it breaks to be way more expensive in the end.

[@FantomMisfit]

It wasn't as expensive as it should've been it was ruled an accident so they weren't liable they more or less got away with it

[@Armageddon2k]

as horrifying as these incidents are, the fact that so many people are willing to drop everything to put themselves in danger to try and save the lives of strangers brings a tear to my eye. restores little hope in humanity.

[@mrdelaney4440]

These days they would just film your death so they can make money off the video.

[@EmpressOfExile206]

He _literally_ made a point of describing how they were *not* strangers and this was a small town where "everyone knew everyone"... 🤦

[@Kragith]

"restores little hope in humanity." Today's humanity? Are you fucking serious rofl!

[@paranoidpanzerpenguin5262]

@@EmpressOfExile206 No, he said hundreds came from nearby towns and other mines to help with the rescue. Are you dumb? The East Pool Mine is 25 miles away which back then would've taken an entire day just to travel

[@user-co8uy5rb2s]

Thats how MEN are.

[@TenMarks.]

Being all the way in the bottom of that mine would have to be terrifying

[@Broccoliboiii1996]

Hell yeah! Can you imagine being there!

[@ScaryInteresting]

Definitely nightmare fuel!

[@garyacker7388]

I couldn't even imagine going down there 😢

[@PeopleOverProfits777]

You think these jobs still don’t exist? Our wonderful Godly western countries just moved these “jobs” to poorer countries and use them as slaves for our benefit. That is how capitalism actually operates. At the end of the day, it’s about maximizing profits, no matter the cost of life. That is why capitalist love de-regulating everything. Hurts us while making them billions. Very demonic.

[@Matt.P.]

No.

[@kellerc.7278]

Amazing hook. Love this type of high quality, high effort videos. Had me from the start.

[@johnmayer3433]

We must not forget that greed was responible for the death of all those miners.

[@thedistantone1]

I live down the road from Levant Mine, in Cornwall. This county has an old and very ancient mining history, and the legacy from these mines are still to this day causing many issues to the public, and local flora and fauna. I work as an aerial survey engineer and have been in the past tasked with mapping and modelling surface expressions of the mining legacy, such as collapsed shafts and instability issues with former mine workings. It's really great to see this on youtube!! Add: I have been very lucky to have accessed an old abandoned Cornish mine still in its original state prior to its abandonment. I tell you this, its cramped and very sketchy maneuvering around the mine. It's nothing like your modern mines.

[@darrenhitchcox6345]

As a mine explorer, I know what you are up against, with many mines closed before 1880's and never to grace a map. The Cornish Great Flat Lode has thousands of shafts trying to extract the minerals.

[@user-nd5ud7bh3j]

Anyone interested in this story might like the pitston coal mine disaster in here in Pennsylvania. They ignored laws and mined to close to susquehanna river and it breached the mine. Something like 12 men never recovered even after mine was drained and emptied. It flooded entire mine and then exited entrances to flood the entire valley below. Many homes and part of town were underwater and they used train cars, tractors and all sorts of debris and equipment to plug hole. Just pushing them into river and watching one after another sink into the abyss. Eventually stopping water... very interesting history. Also not far from centralia.

[@chendaforest]

I think there was one there which caught fire and is still burning underground?

[@TrueReal-de6ee]

​@@chendaforest, in Centralia, it's still burning. In the piston coal mine, not so much

[@oneoflokis]

All these companies should be made liable..

[@darksu6947]

My grandfather worked for Pittston down here in Virgina. He was a paratrooper in the Korean War. Before he died of black lung he was running The Screamin' Eagle mine, named after the 82nd Airborne which he was a member of. He received a bronze star and a purple heart for his service in Korea. He caught a piece of shrapnel in his left butt cheek, lol. He gave me quite a few old belt buckles from Pittston coal company 😊

[@chendaforest]

@@darksu6947 cool! Well not about the black lung but he must have had some stories.

[@tdawg719]

Its wonderful when creators like you use attributions in the description bravo!

[@wc8246]

I was so surprised to see somewhere so close on a video here! So used to far away places. My dad and his brother would go down into the mines near thier house and explore them, they think it was insanely stupid now. Tin mining was rough back then, I heard a story about a miner who died shortly after starting his job there. They made you buy/rent your gear, and pay it off with you initial work. He died so soon after he started that he didn't pay off his gear which was all lost in the collapse, so they made his teenage son work it off instead.

[@SamFirthDesigner]

Cornishman here. Good content, and thanks for bringing this to the worlds attention again. I think a little more mention of the solidarity of the Cornish Miners and their caring and social attitude would have offset the description of the work conditions, but its true it was very hard work. Kernow bys vyken, glory to the Cornish hard rock Miners, past and future ;)

[@leigha2814]

As you told this story, I slowly realized where it was going. Not a normal mine collapse, but the damned man-engine. I'm not scared of heights or claustrophobic, but something about the concept of the man-engine is exceptionally terrifying. Maybe it's the same thing that makes me scared of escalators. Maybe it's because I learned about man-engines from this disaster. Well done, truly scary interesting!

[@Jolis_Parsec]

If it had been properly maintained or if the mine owners had sprung for a more modern means of conveyance to begin with, this likely could have been avoided. In the end, trying to save a buck ultimately cost multiple lives and hastened the inevitable closure of the mine.

[@leigha2814]

@@Jolis_Parsec if it was properly maintained it would still be scary af

[@Jolis_Parsec]

@@leigha2814 Oh, no doubt about it. I got flashbacks to the girl that got crushed between the rotating stage and the wall at Disneyworld in the 70s upon hearing how it worked.

[@diturner7247]

It is a rich man's business and almost feels to me a Premeditated, crime. 😢

[@felixfelix8940]

Ever notice how every elevator you enter, everyone gets quiet? I think it's learned and passed down from the first ones, when people were apprehensive or scared if they were safe. In other temporary close quarters situations, people keep chatting with their companions.

[@Avioptrix]

I've been here!! It's a national trust site and you can have guided tours of the surface buildings and a tiny bit of the mine! Guided tours are free for people related to those lost in the accident. You even get to see the machinery working and moving, it's super loud but really cool, the horse buckets are what threw me the most I think. The guide I had had himself worked in the mine industry and had some pretty gnarly stories about his work with explosives in Africa. Would absolutely reccommend visiting. We also got to hold some chunks of the ore and they were super heavy.

[@josephnolan8217]

Absolutely incredible documentary. It is amazing to see how this small instance can showcase how life was like.

[@ShaneEstabrooks]

In my 35 years of Mining I saw a huge shift in safety but the attitude to work safe has not changed, tools, engineering and planning makes a huge difference.

[@darrenhitchcox6345]

I was the possibly the last person to visit the underground in Levant. The working were linked in to Geevor mine underground, which closed in 1987 and as a member of a local mining group, we were given permission to enter the mine via ropes. The mine was flooding at at a rate of 6ft per day, so we have a window of a few month to get down to the 40 Backs before it was lost forever. I still vividly remember the haul train that was left in situ, with no way to recover it. The 40 Backs was a very scary place, where you could here the sea above, knowing there was hundreds of feet of water above. When we left the mine, I was last to climb the rope, making me potentially the last person down the mine. I visited the shaft a few years back and this flooded right up. This was the shaft in the sea cliff, not the engine shaft with the beam engine, which has now restored by the Nstional Trust.

[@emmahealy4863]

Insanely jealous you got to visit the bits that are flooded now!

[@darrenhitchcox6345]

@@emmahealy4863 One of the best mines I have ever seen. Modern (1985) and old Victorian all the same place. Spent 8 hours down there

[@curtisss]

Wasn't the restoration of the engine featured in that guy Martin show? I may be confused with another one but I have always been fascinated by them

[@user-dm9gy5sd4z]

I’m assuming it was called 40backs because the backs were 40 feet from the ocean floor?

[@davidwhitaker6516]

My dad and grandad were both employed at geevor mine. They were there when it sadly closed

[@Fastbikkel]

The pictures along with the explanation make a wonderful documentary here. But wow, the conditions of those people. When i see those pictures, it all comes to life and gives real context to what it was like. The story of them climbing up ladders and seeing the pictures with it, so dramatic. How dangerous it already was when they had even an elevator, i feel a lot of sympathy for those guys. Their faces seem like have come to terms with their destiny in life, so sad. People should realise in many countries around the world that conditions have improved for many, although there is plenty of work left to help others.

[@drmarkadufrene8153]

Amazing history, thanks for posting this.

[@miss_mush5533]

The little history lesson before the talk about the disaster was as interesting, if not more than the actual disaster. I really enjoyed learning about the conditions people worked in back then. This was a great video, very well put together.

[@felixfelix8940]

Right? And what great photos people took back then!

[@sarahecho]

An entire branch of my family tree is from Cornwall, and knowing that tin mining was the dominant industry, it's horrifying to think about how many of my ancestors endured these conditions.

[@theshed3641]

Do you want reparations?

[@manz7860]

​@@theshed3641dudes sounding like they sent his ass to the mines 😂

[@theshed3641]

@@manz7860 it’s todays victim climate. Not his fault I suppose

[@hushpuppi3]

@@theshed3641 You're the only one talking about reparations. YOU'RE the one being the problem smh

[@urmum3773]

@@hushpuppi3What

[@2514ben88]

thanks for the video and the knowledge

[@louneissen1603]

What a surprise that management got away with it.

[@LD-xt1vo]

😢

[@snarwhal2408]

19th century mining companies be like “let us just create manmade horrors beyond comprehension real quick”

[@simontay4851]

ReaLLY quickLY

[@CountScarlioni]

Indeed! Even if you didn't meet with an accident, miners also had a particularly low life expectancy (50 in 1900), had bodies riddled with disfigurements and deformities, suffered from horrific pulmonary/cardiovascular diseases and cancers. Oh, and frequently displayed signs of premature ageing with men looking 70 by the time they were 45. A surprising aspect of the mining industry was that there was seldom ever a shortage of men willing to work in it. Although pay differed depending on where, when and what you were mining for, the danger and difficulty of the profession meant it was a particularly well paid job for the times. Miners' homes tended to look a lot nicer than the homes of those who worked in the mills, fields, factories and warehouses. Not that they would get much time to enjoy much of it.

[@KeitieKalopsia]

I’m glad that you addressed the mental wounds of the survivors as well. Those can also ruin lives.

[@jackjeffery1536]

Tragedy happens to all at some point or another in life, it's how you respond to it that makes a difference. This life is but a breath, eternity is forever.

[@punbug4721]

@@jackjeffery1536 Everyone has mental limits. Some extraordinary circumstances push people beyond them, and they snap or break down. Literature that has survived for thousands of years accounts for modern things like PTSD, for instance Assyrian soldiers diagnosed with "the ghosts of your enemies haunting you" or the biblical story of Elijah who suffered from depression and suicidal ideation.

[@jackjeffery1536]

@@punbug4721 God is able to heal all who turn to Him.

[@punbug4721]

@@jackjeffery1536 The Bible also records Paul telling Timothy to "take a little wine for thy stomach's sake," which tells us that God approves of human-made medicines and cures. The Psalms often make reference to healing balms, usually comparing them to Scripture, which would imply that both are good things. Now, if the stomach is one organ of the body, and the brain is also an organ of the body, reason follows that using medicine for the brain would be not only permitted but _encouraged_ by Scripture. Furthermore, regarding mental health, I specifically mentioned Elijah above because in that passage God tells Elijah to 1) "rise up," and 2) "eat and drink," which are two things that people diagnosed with chronic depression tend not to do, and this sedentary behavior tends to become a cycle which worsens the depression. All of the above can be described simply as knowing that "your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost," and being a good steward of that temple.

[@Dav1Gv]

I hadn't heard of this disaster. You might look at the Sengenydd Mine disaster in Wales just before WW1 - an excellent example of companies saving money because they didn't care about safety. In the UK casualties on the railways were, proportionally, something like the 'daily wastage' in the trenches. Excellent video.

[@pinkenbajedi2119]

Haven’t watched a vid since I binged your backlog about a year ago, as soon as that music starts my heart rate increased and I got sweaty hands 😂😂

[@Peeta-wn4hh]

There’s a saying: Regulations are written in blood. It means regulations are usually only implemented after something terrible (e.g., an accident) has happened. It seems to be human nature to only deal with something afterwards, not before.

[@denisecastellanos4866]

Having to work a job like this, out of desperation that otherwise you would not be able to feed yourself and your family, is truly one of the greatest injustices of humankind. The tragic disaster is just the cherry on top of a far greater tragedy: the fact that they felt they needed to be there in the first place, because that is how society is/was ordered.

[@sweatyeti]

So, I know we just lost our elevator into the shaft, but you're still coming in to work tomorrow right?

[@ithinkdoyou]

If you don't come to work, we will dock your pay for the week

[@karenc4544]

It frankly amazes me when people talk about “the burden of regulation” and “too much oversight ”…if corporations could be trusted to do the right things, we wouldn’t have had to enact laws in the first place. These videos will give people an idea of what it was like when businesses were able to do what they pleased.

[@middleagedrenegade9178]

I'm from the UK, and have never heard of this incident. The one I think most people here remember is the Aberfan disaster, which was above ground, but the direct result of coal mining.

[@dfuher968]

Yeah, I think, most think of Aberfan, coz A. its more recent, and B. most of the victims were children.

[@Azraelleah]

I feel bad for the victims, but morbid curiosity has me running back to these videos every time. 😭

[@zuttoaragi8349]

For me, it's a weird sort of comfort watching videos like these.

[@lastofmygeneration]

Look up Schadenfreude... it's basically a universal feeling of relief or a thrill one gets from seeing someone else encounter misfortune.

[@mauricedavis2160]

All of us subscriber's are guilty, we are curious humans, it's in all of our DNA, I don't apologize for being a human being, The Judge above all Judges made us this way, the brain, common earthly sense, the gift of knowing right from wrong, that's how we evolve and learn to get to Sit With That Judge Above All Judges...it's that simple, just like the books it comes from!!!🙏🐲🌅🥰

[@Corpsman01]

Humans are naturally scared of death cause no one can tell us how it ends just how it begins and unfortunately, it’s like this! Even with walking next to Jesus it can be scary! We are taking the word of a book that is over 2000 years old. Written by poor people that were also scared of death…

[@ozymandiasultor9480]

@@zuttoaragi8349 That feeling, there are words in German and some Slavic languages..."schadenfreude" and "zluradost".

[@slehar]

Great history! Thanks!

[@ymgve]

There's a working man engine in the Kongsberg Silver Mine in Norway, and the tour guides have a short demo how it works. Most of the mine is flooded, though, so it doesn't go more than a few floors down before it hits water.

[@shogun2215]

These are the kinds of conditions that bosses would love us to work under if they thought they could get away with it.

[@mikezebike]

Guess what, they can and they do.

[@margarinesnatcher]

@@mikezebike Nice third world country you live in boy.

[@andycap6786]

And yet the media only see the unions as the bad guy!

[@grmpEqweer]

...Unions help some. That's why we get propagandized against them.

[@jonnytheboy7338]

Yep, I've been in the union my whole career , 33 years so far. The only negative basically about unions is that eventually they get a little out of control and too demanding, losing sight of the core reasons that unions were created in the first place...

[@timphillips2902]

I originate from a few miles away from Botallack (Levant). I remember going on a school trip there and learning about the 'man engine'. One of my Dad's friends worked in South Crofty before it was closed down, he mentioned that when working in the tunnels that extended under the sea, that you could hear the waves breaking above.

[@Madeleinewith3Es]

From the thumbnail, I knew this had to be in Cornwall. When I lived there (in Falmouth, on the map) we visited the Geevor Tin Mine Museum, near Penzance, and the full mine map looked similar. The whole landscape is dotted with chimneys that had been old tin mines, but this one, on a hillside over the ocean, stretched down with centuries of works and rubble. The bottom tunnels and shafts are underwater now, but we got a tour of the old, hand-dug section and my 5' 5" self could slide in mostly easily, but the taller guys could barely get through. It was dark and cramped and *cold*, like this rocky hillside was so chilly it must have been a shock to come up from the sweltering mine pits. I can't imagine what it was like down there while it was actually in operation. (also if anyone's in the area I check them out, the folks when I went in 2019 were super nice)

[@crownless4925]

Aw man the mine diagram out under the sea was SUCH a tease. But the story of the heroics and outpouring of support is heartwarming

[@edjones7709]

If you have never been down a mine - or cave - you have no real idea of something like this. It is not just dark - you can see NOTHING. No light AT ALL. Yes, if there is any accident or worse, miners will stop to help out and rescue where they can. They know it may be their turn next.

[@Nylon_riot]

Perpetual darkness. I have been there. Only complete blindness is a close comparison.

[@Sunkensunn]

I work in the mining industry and we always say that rules and regulations are written in blood. Its dark but true. We can work safely today because we learn from events like this, tragic as they are. Wild to see how far things have come.

[@lio.p]

Same here. What type of mine? I have worked for 2 years in an underground iron mine in northern Sweden. It is like a small city there about 1,6 km under the mountain.

[@Sunkensunn]

@@lio.p Similar actually! Iron ore in australia! Im on conveyor maintenance so i jump between a bunch of different sites though.

[@MrMan-sy4ev]

Wow, this mine combined basically every possible safety hazard you can face in mining

[@aroundhedleybc7483]

In 1919 my grandfather was a coal miner at the Bond’s Main colliery in Temple Normanton, Derbyshire. He was 31. By 1919 he had already been working underground for 19 years. He was buried in cave-ins three times and by the time he was 51, he was so badly crippled he was pensioned off by the company. To make up for the loss of wages to the family, my father, at 15, quit school and went to work at Holmewood Colliery. And people wonder why there are unions! Your vid is excellent and does a very good job of illustrating the conditions these men worked in. Things have much improved since the time of this accident but everyday workers are killed on the job. There is still much to be done.

[@JRE-ut2tb]

Crazy that the disaster happened almost 100 years after the mine originally opened in 1820! Generations of miners performing probably the most dangerous work on the planet yet their safety was so neglected. Thank you for bringing this story to light.

[@ninab.4540]

It was a lit fuse with a long, long rope. When it reached the top, everything came falling down.

[@proxcess4946]

I’ve visited the site many times on family holidays to Cornwall as a kid and never knew about this. Although it’s a tragic accident it’s nice to learn something new about a place I’ve been to often!

[@julierobinson3633]

I've been to both the Levant Mine and the Wheal Roots ('Poldark') mine and one of them does have information boards about this disaster - including a little video animation showing how a man engine worked. I assumed it was at this one but it may possibly have been at the Poldark mine. I do tend to be someone who reads EVERYTHING (much to my family's annoyance) when I go round museums though, so you may just have missed it.

[@bristolfashion4421]

Great vid. Thanks. I have friends who live that way - I must tell ‘em about this.

[@Bugsy-dq2en]

Ah! The Levant Mine! I've actually been there :) I visited on an extremely atmospheric and foggy day - you could barely see your hand in front of your face, or the cliff edges being ravaged by vicious waves. I was going to recommend you cover it, but you got there first. Such a tragic piece of Cornish history and yet another example of mining disasters occurring due to a lack of safety procedures, funding, accountability and no duty of care for the men at work. Those poor families.

[@Mike-O-Sullivan]

This is the best channel I've stumbled across in YEARS. Been steadily binging the content. All wonderfully done, with the emphasis on interesting!

[@xenomar9417]

Ive been following this channel for 3 years now and you're by far my favorite storyteller. You don't add too much fluff and convey scary parts of the stories you tell in a matter of fact way that makes it both easy to understand and getting the direness across in these stories. Keep up the good work.

[@peterfreegard]

I pass this mine every Monday at work. Its nice and also sad to know the history. thank you for the video

[@agermangineer]

This type of safety negligence on behalf of the owner/management/exploiter is truly infuriating.

[@tim.trewartha]

I've been told that Richard Trevithick is my great, great, great grandfather or something like that. He was a mining engineer in Cornwall and worked on the first steam powered locomotives for transporting ore. Thanks for the eye opening video! For those interested the series Poldark is a great watch, and an insight into Cornwall and mining back in the day.

[@ZentaBon]

I am glad you emphasize the importance of legislation for the safety of things. It scares me how people genuinely want to remove it instead of addressing flaws because they weren't around before legislation to live with the risk and watch family members die of easily preventable disasters.

[@bradjohnson482]

Corporation propagandists spend millions to make the common folks believe that accountants have their best interests at heart. Boeing? The trains? Sometimes, I wish that being able to vote came with an IQ test that the person wishing to vote must score a minimum upon completion. At the very least, check to see how many conspiracy theories they subscribe to.

[@jdhenge]

Usually technological innovation makes things safer, and then governments make it mandatory after the fact as a way of earning brownie points for "doing something" that was already being done anyways

[@evanw5572]

​@jdhenge No, governments usually pass good safety legislation when unions & labour movements demand it, giving them no choice. Also when liability issues for businesses incentivize it, but those regulations usually aren't as good.

[@staszewaM]

@@jdhenge Technological innovation makes things safer, but also costs money and takes time to implement. Without the legislation due to the pressure of unions etc, noth8ing was 'being done anyways', as companies don''t want to spend a penny unless forced to.

[@akivaweil5066]

Why is legislation needed? If you claim all the corporations care about is money, how is a) losing mining time to this whole fiasco b) being sued for millions of dollars, good for them? Remember, everything in life has tradeoffs, and you quite literally know nothing about what it takes to operate a mine.

[@blaskoxx4954]

Great diorama idea, thank you. Very creepy.

[@BarryChumbles]

Thanks for an informative and well made video. Makes you realise just how easy we have it now.

[@edwardp7725]

I cant believe that people actually worked like that. It really puts into perspective what "hard work" really means. And this is NOT the disaster I was expecting to happen to these people. I for sure thought the ocean was going to pour in or something lol

[@pjeaton58]

I would like to see the politicians of today give it a try !!!!!!!!!!

[@user-nq2oz8tf2l]

And what drives them to do it? Is it a virtue to work yourself to death for a pittance and the sake of powerful people? To push society in a never ending spiral of industrial greed? The problem is we turned this sort of behavior into a virtue, and all that has happened is their exploitation.

[@RyansRandomRanch]

"The good old days!" - where every day is about survival and being disposable to the owners and stockholders. Good lord, sure, it builds character, but why are some people so obsessed with getting rid of safety regulations and osha and the EPA?!

[@yamihikarilightdark9]

“Because these lazy new generations have it too good, despite the fact that I also lived under the protection of these regulations”

[@edwardp7725]

There is a middleground and we have passed it. @@yamihikarilightdark9

[@SilverDawnArrow]

I visited a Cornish mining museum when I was younger and we had the opportunity to go down to a mine that went out under the sea but I was too scared so my family left me on the surface museum. There was a 3D scale model of the mine shafts and it's incredible how far they reach in each direction. Terrifying!

[@jeremyroberts39]

Love your vids......made so great by the soundtrack. Wow 😲

[@JasonJason210]

Excellent short documentary.

[@AbandonedandForgottenPlaces]

“Gly”: As an abandoned mine explorer that documents abandoned mines for KZbins “Abandoned and Forgotten Places”, I can attest to the difficulty of climbing ladders up and down vertical shafts. It is an exhausting and grueling task and I can’t imagine climbing 600 - 1000 feet of ladders before and after your work shift prior to the invention of elevators. These men were tough as nails and deserve all the respect history can give them.

[@paulhaynes8045]

And miners had to go on strike to get paid for their time getting to and from the face. Here in Kent, we had mines up to 1,000m deep, with workings that went out under the sea for a mile or more, and the men weren't paid for all the time it took then to get to and from the face.

[@MashaRistova]

It’s not too often these videos give me chills, but this one did… can you imagine surviving WWI only to die in such a tragedy. Regulations are written in blood and those who refuse to learn history are doomed to repeat it. I can’t believe how many politicians and billionaires think we need LESS regulations. Ugh

[@eadweard.]

All regulation is good regulation.

[@ninab.4540]

We need to put billionare in mines and take all their money

[@keithcrandall1369]

not necessarily....a lot of new regulation these days is done for political purposes and actually serves no actual purpose....look at all the "green energy" regulations....some of them are written just because of corruption and greed....like everything else, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle@@eadweard.

[@mrroams5812]

There is a difference between worker's rights regulations and the regulations most people talk about. You realize a lot of regulations are lobbied for BY THE BILLIONAIRES to decrease competition for their own businesses and further build their wealth? Most regulations are not for the people.

[@Unknown_Genius]

@@mrroams5812 Not to mention that billionaires (not all, but a lot) obviously want less worker rights to gain and save more money, some politicians follow that as well - and even tho, as dumb as it sounds, and no one in their right of mind should want that, too many people want to vote that. There are way people that'd love monarchies and dictatorships back because for some reason they think that the world would be better if someone could just take away all your rights and send the military to shoot you down if you'd say anything against that - fully believing somehow that a change back would never backfire for them personally, like all of them could be of importance while a machine would need to be kept running.

[@tyg1434]

More reasons unions are important

[@JooDawg]

😂 the government wrote the laws and enforced them

[@pronumeral1446]

​@JooDawg the government only made workplace safety laws because unions lobbied for it, and used mass strikes to force the government to act.

[@danos74]

?

[@d.b.cooper1]

I recall going to the national coal mining museum on a school trip in yorkshire. Even as a kid I was blown away with just how long the lift took to reach the bottom. Even the torch & lamps they gave us were heavy af. My grandad worked in the mines & had some horror stories despite the saftey imrpovements,

[@BigArt1970]

Such amazing photos taken in a hellish landscape. Thanks Sean, for a piece of history that shouldn't be forgotten. 👍

[@GetOwnedInc]

So good its almost sus

[@firebear369]

I absolutely love your presentations. You're respectful of those involved and obviously take great care during your research process.

[@Treekicker]

And some people romanticize the working conditions of this age....

[@1414141x]

I cannot imagine how awful it must have been to work in these conditions. It defies belief that people had to work like this in order to just make a simple living.

[@robertrigby-jones2805]

Woo! You've finally covered Cornwall! My home county! There's 3 fields between my house and a 600ft vertical cliff, the coast paths are great, there's some great stories you could cover from around here! lots of ships going down over the centuries, families getting stuck in caves when the tide comes in. A couple years ago twice I had to climb up and down "high cliff" 735ft Cornwall's highest vertical drop (it's not, I've considered dropping in on my MTB) as my cousin dislocated his shoulder at the bottom, I called coastguard and said they'd need a helo, they sent a CG team to the top of the cliff and a RNLI rib to meet me on the rocks, they still had to helo lift him out in the end as the rocks and sea were too treacherous for the rib to get close and stable enough, it was actually a very calm day, and no way for the CG rope teams to get down easily, It was quite difficult to convince everyone I was okay to carry on but they were all cool in the end, I could of had a winch up in the helo too but would of had to leave all my gear with the RNLI for later collection miiiles away, my cousin was all good in the end has several bolts in his shoulder now

[@crakhaed]

What is RNLI? Glad you and your cousin made it out okay!

[@chrisnorman1902]

​@@crakhaedlifeboats

[@crakhaed]

@@chrisnorman1902 thanks!

[@jimenagamiz4135]

It's crazy to think that companies wouldn't be held liable as long as it was an accident. So many families loosing not only a loced one, but also the economic stability they brought. And the company acting like their life was worthless

[@PeopleOverProfits777]

Wealthy Capitalist never get held accountable. It is better today but we still have a two tiered justice system everyone.

[@mikezebike]

It's basically the corner stone of capitalism, nothing to worry about.

[@Treekicker]

Miners should of "personally" held the managers accountable.

[@adamperkins3125]

I've been to visit a few times, live in St just 5 mins away. Sends chills down my spine each time, may they RIP each and every one of them.

[@aftersexhighfives]

My ancestors before the great wars were miners, I love caving personally. I understand them jumping back in for their work brothers. You don't work in those conditions without becoming a brotherhood.

[@origami83]

Its criminal that management got away with this as they were clearly to blame.

[@ninab.4540]

As long as capitalism hides their owners behind faceless companies, they'll always manage to evade justice.

[@ASMRShanny]

My family has a history of miners. And just hearing how bad and hard the conditions are is crazy 😢

[@christubrett6597]

I come from Cape Breton ns. Home to one of the world’s largest sub sea coal seams. We have been mining beneath the ocean since the 1700s to supply the fort at louisbourg. We had hundreds of mines on this little island. We had 12 mines reaching deep and far under the Atlantic Ocean in my community alone. The last one closed its doors in 2023 with much protest to reopen.

[@christubrett6597]

The explosion at the number 12 colliery killed 65 men. A bump killed 22 men at the princess mine below the sea, an explosion killed a dozen men in a sub sea mine in 1979 at the 26 colliery here, the phalen mine partially collapsed and filled in with sea water which leaked into the adjacent 1b mine. And then there was the massive disaster at westray where an explosion shook the entire town and killed every single person left in the shaft. If you want some horror stories about down below look up our little island, or listen to the “men of the deeps”. They are a local men’s choir composed entirely of former coal miners who sing about their woes of labor working 800 feet deep a mile out under the ocean listening to the singing of the canaries in cages. They kept birds down in the mines because the birds would start to pass out from the toxic gasses coming out of the rock before the people would. They all knew that if they heard the birds go quiet to grab the cages and make their way up because they would all either suffocate or set off a massive methane explosion if they didn’t. Most of our mines didn’t have a “shaft” to go down, but a “slope” a long tilted corridor going deep down into the rock. We had a bunch of mining cars linked together and at the end of shift the men would hop in the cars and get winched up the slope instead of coal or rock. Well one day at the end of shift while the men were being winched up, the winch cable snapped. The mine cars flew down the slope and derailed. The winch cable was what ended up killing most men as it chaotically whipped from floor to ceiling and side to side mashing everything and everyone in its path. Some people survived with limbs torn off. Some people were unfortunately shorn in half. You can learn about mining, mining history, the advancements in mining and technology, as well as how mining disasters have shaped our modern day safety standards and labor boards at the glace bay miners museum