Wellington Coal Mine
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*Please note that archival source materials are original historical documents that have not been censored, reviewed or otherwise altered by the Royal BC Museum.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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2nd Witness
10
Frank Little having been duly sworn states, Before Mr. Sawes [?] arrived at the Mine on Tuesday evening Wednesday Morning I was called up by the alarm of fire & went down to No. 10 level, I found a great many men there before me & amongst them Churchhill & Dixon. We have have one or two fires in No. 10 level before, occasioned by a shot and we had never much trouble in ex- -tinguishing them, as soon as we saw this fire Dixon went to the furnace & put on a good fire for the purpose of drawing the smoke off, he found there we could not get near for smoke & we turned in the air from No. 9. & No. 7 level, we still found we could not get up to where the fire was. after about half an hour trying to get into the fire we found we could not do it*
'*&Changed the air back to its proper course
& then awaited the arrival of Messrs Nobut * Sawer Dunsmuir. they arrived about 3 O.Clock on Wednesday morning what was done subr[?]gheatly to their mine is in accordance with the statement of Mr. Sawer Dunsmuir, I went down the mine with the Messrs Dunsmuir. the last time before the explosion I was down the Mine, was
between
BC Archives GR-0431 BRITISH COLUMBIA. ATTORNEY GENERAL. Box 2 File 6 Inquisitions/inquests conducted by coroners in British Columbia.