Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/218

Rh The tidal-wave passing beyond the houses reached first the boilers that worked the winding and pumping-engines at the shaft, extinguishing the fires, and then flowed down the pit with a fall of 100 feet. There was a ladder-way from the top to the bottom of the shaft, and by it, when the first force of the water had passed, one or two men who were in the bottom, managed to make their escape; one unfortunate man, after climbing the ladder for about half the height, was thrown back by the force of the water and killed.

Eighty-three men were imprisoned in the tunnel at the bottom of the shaft. As the water rose, they retreated before it up the gradient.

In the darkness, and with the whole of the shaft surrounded by water, it was extremely difficult for the two or three who were on the top to communicate with the works at Sudbrook; but at last one man made his way through the water and gave the alarm. The principal foreman of the works, with his brother and one or two of the assistant engineers and other employés, reached the shaft, not without difficulty—some following the line of the tramway, wading through more than 3 feet of water; some passing over the Great Western line, the rails of which were, opposite the shaft, at least 6 inches under water, and then wading through a shorter distance to the shaft. On reaching the pit-head, where by this time the tide was of course lower than it had been at the first rush of the wave, everything that could be