Vancouver Coal Company
As part of the Chinese Historical Wrongs Legacy Initiative, we’ve digitized a small selection of inquests and inquiries from 1872 to 1934, found in series GR-0431. These were chosen to reflect the experiences of early Chinese immigrants to B.C. – their living and working conditions, and their unfortunate accidental or unusual deaths. They range from a woman working in a brothel in Barkerville who died of natural causes to three sawmill workers who died from malnutrition. Learn more.
*All transcriptions are provided by volunteers, and the accuracy of the transcriptions is not guaranteed. Please be sure to verify the information by viewing the image record, or visiting the BC Archives in person.
*Please note that archival source materials are original historical documents that have not been censored, reviewed or otherwise altered by the Royal BC Museum. Some materials may contain content that is racist, sexist or otherwise offensive. The Royal BC Museum is only the custodian of archival materials; the content does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Royal BC Museum.
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14 down at the face
To Mr Drake [?][?] - I worked in the North of England in three or four different mines before I came here. In some of them they worked with safety lamps and in others they did not. In this mine here as long as the air kept travelling it was safe enough. There was no cross cut in my stall. I have worked up at the roof of my stall but have found no gas there; I have no idea as to the cause of this explosion. There appeared to be the usual quantity of air in the third of May. I have been down once in the mine [?] that day but not exactly with an exploring party. I went down in the company with the exploring company to get my tools in my stall. A good deal of coal had fallen and there were caves in there like in the other places. I found my tools in my stall. I could not judge [?of] or form any idea of the [?] of the explosion from what I saw there. I did not observe whether the stoppings were blown out or not.
To Mr Young - I do not know of anyone having been burned in that diagonal slope. I could not say exactly to a day as to when the dust was last watered down it was very shortly before the explosion Taken upon oath and acknowledged this 25th day of May in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight seven before me } Robert Hindmarsh [Whymm strathern?] Cormer