2 May 1818

Melancholy Accident – On the morning of Saturday last, the workmen in one of the coal pits belonging to Mr Houston of Johnston, at Quarleton, had unfortunately taken out the coal too near an old pit filled with water, when the water broke in and inundated the work, by which seven men, it is feared, have lost their lives; some having families. We understand, however, there is a possibility of the men being still alive. It is known they were above the level of the water, and, if there is a sufficiency of air for respiration, there was a horse in the same place on which they may have subsisted. From the exertions to empty the pit of water, it is supposed access may be had to them in less than two days. [Edinburgh Advertiser 8 May 1818]

Two of the men supposed to have been drowned in the coal-pit at Johnston, as mentioned in last Friday's Advertiser, were got out alive on Tuesday morning. Their only sustenance for ten days and ten nights, in total darkness, amidst bad air, was the impure water of the pit and three pieces of oat cake, which, by groping round the work, they found in the pockets of the clothes left by some of the men who escaped. Their light lasted only two hours after the breaking in of the water. The men saved were in a different part of the workings from the remaining five, whose fate, it is feared, is now certain, as it is found impracticable to enter the mine by which the other two got out, owing to the bad air, and it will be a number of weeks before the water is drawn from the pit. [Edinburgh Advertiser 15 May 1818]