Brave Men of the Deep

About the Book

These writings cover some of the interesting events that I remember during my years while working in the coal mines in Springhill and have listed them as follows: 1. The mine disasters and rescue operations from 1956–1958. 2. Poems about working in the coal mines, which gives a walk through about a coal miner’s experience as well as other poems that I have written. 3. The history of the Liars Bench and some of the stories that I have heard from those renowned gentlemen. 4. A history of coal mining in Springhill. 5. Springhill’s connection with the Moose River Gold Mining disaster and rescue operations in 1936.

About the Author

I was born in a farmhouse on the Gulf Shore below Pugwash, the third out of six children in our family, on March 8, 1928. My mother was a school teacher from Springhill, who was teaching in the country when she met my father, and when I was one year old, they moved to Springhill. As on my mother's side, they were coal miners, and they thought that our family would have a better quality of life by moving there, with my father working in the mines. In my early years, while growing up, my father never talked about his work in the mines, but I spent a lot of time around my grandfather, who was in charge of the ventilation at the mines. And on Saturday afternoons, some of the men who worked with him would gather at his house to enjoy a glass of beer and talk about what was happening at the mines, and I would listen with keen interest—and it helped me to develop a desire to become a miner.

We were brought up during the hungry thirties; money was scarce, there was no such thing as getting an allowance from your parents, so we were anxious to have money to spend, which meant going to work. In order to work in the mines, you had to be sixteen years old, so at fifteen years of age, I started working at the Springhill Dairy, with the agreement with my mother that I would go to night school to finish my education. It was a job that paid S3.00 a day, seven days a week. The day started at 6:30 a.m., and you worked until all the milk was processed and the equipment was cleaned and ready for the next day.

At age sixteen, I reached my goal of working in the coal mines. I was getting $3.74 a day, with weekends off. At age eighteen, I enlisted in the RCAF; my home base was Edmonton, Alberta. I was with the North West Command as a heavy equipment operator. I spent two winters in the North, clearing runways. But the call of returning to the coal mines was too strong to keep me away, so l received my discharge from the air force and went back to the Springhill coal mines. On returning, l started going to night school to study mining and attained my Mine Examiner and Shot Fires papers. As time passed, I realized that coal mining in Springhill was coming to an end, so I started back to night school, studying stationary engineering, and by the time the mines closed following the 1958 disaster, I had obtained my third-class certificate and had the offer of three different jobs, so I choose to work at the Dorchester Penitentiary in the boiler room, and that would allow me to remain in Springhill while driving back and forth to work.

I continued my studies in stationary engineering through correspondence and eventually obtained my first-class papers, and when Springhill Institution was built, I was appointed as the chief engineer. After that, I studied mechanical drafting and obtained my certificate in that trade. In 1971, I was appointed as the plant superintendent at the Springhill Institution, a position I held until I retired, and I also taught stationary engineering at night school for a number of years.

In those days, the Springhill High school night classes made it a beehive of activity five nights a week, offering many courses and trades. This was the forerunner of trade schools later to be called vocational schools / community colleges.

In conclusion, I must say that Springhill has always been good to me, leaving me with many fond memories.