TIMMINS - For many years, the eerie, abandoned, big black buildings belonging to the Paymaster Mine hung along a hillside on the “Back Road” between South Porcupine and Timmins, part of a cluster of gold producers that helped make this region one of the richest in the world.
The Paymaster operated from 1915 until 1966. The miners who worked there moved 5.6 million tons of ore and dragged out over 1.2 million ounces of gold from the depths.
But we don’t really remember the mine for that. For many of us, we know that it will be 80 years ago, on Sunday, Feb. 2, that the Porcupine suffered a tragic mine accident that took the lives of 16 men.
The Porcupine Advance painted a picture of what happened. It reported “one of the worst accidents in the Porcupine Camp occurred on Friday morning last at the Paymaster Mine when the cage in which sixteen men were riding to their regular day’s work, crashed to the bottom of the shaft, a distance of 1,500 feet, every man in the cage losing his life.”
The cable broke at about the 1,000-foot level, sending the cage through the bottom of the shaft. The “dogs” (clamps used to grip the guide rails) failed, no doubt because of the speed at which the cage travelled (some estimates it was travelling at 240 km per hour).
The reporter continued: “Immediately after the accident happened, rescue crews were organized and went to work with great earnestness and interest. Owing to the fact that the accident made it impossible to use the hoist to descend to the bottom of the shaft, it was necessary for rescue workers to go down by means of ladders down the side of the shafts. The broken cable had coiled up on top of the cage and it took some time to remove this.”
Then they used acetylene torches to cut their way into the crumpled two-level cage, all the while hoping to find some of the men alive. When they finally reached the group in the upper cage, one man was barely alive; he soon perished when he was brought up to the surface, so grave were his injuries. After they extricated the bodies from the upper level, they then went to work on the lower part of the cage. It was grizzly work as they quickly realized the bottom of the cage was compressed and most of the men would have died instantly.
An investigation was launched by mining inspector E. Beverley Weir immediately after the accident. An inquest was called by the Department of Mines and held on Feb. 26 and 27, 1945, at the Tisdale Township Hall in South Porcupine. Evidence was heard from over 30 witnesses; the jury started deliberations just before the lunch hour on the second day. It took them only 90 minutes to complete their work and pronounce the verdict.
The jury made a finding for 25-year-old miner Russell Dillon and that finding would apply to the remaining deceased miners:
"We find that Russell Dillon came to his death at 8:00 a.m. on February 2, 1945, in No. 5 shaft of the Paymaster Mine, in the Township of Tisdale, through first, by the breaking of the rope and secondly through the failure of the safety dogs to function properly and stop the cage. From the evidence submitted, the rope broke because of internal corrosion of which there was no indication from external examination. We consider the dogs faulty in design and operation and recommend that all safety dogs and attachments be approved by a competent authority appointed by the Department of Mines before permitting the use of the same. Also, that a study be made on the prevention of internal deterioration of hoisting ropes by a Commission appointed by the Provincial Government and every effort be made to prevent it. We strongly recommend that there be no delay by the said Commission in making investigation of all cables, safety devices and hoisting equipment to prevent a recurrence of this serious and deplorable accident. We find that no blame can be attached to anyone through carelessness or neglect."
Charlie Angus, in his book Mirrors of Stone, stated that “None of these investigators blamed Charlie Cook, the mine manager at the time, or the Paymaster management for the corrosion on the cable. Death in the mines was part of the price of doing business.” And while no blame was ever assigned, Charlie Cook took his life two years later, still haunted by that day’s tragedy.