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.

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

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.

[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.

[lwalker]

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

[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.

[heatherlee]

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

[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.

[cogcdjl]

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

[Catalyst]

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

[GabrielTobing]

Should be a requirement that management be forced to endure the same conditions so they understand just how unsafe it is

[Nonayabizness]

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.

[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.

[sppl]

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.

[none]

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!

[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.

[petermilburn]

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.

[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.

[ashleybrooke]

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.

[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.

[robhamper]

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.

[xitheris]

"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."

[johnyoung]

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.