GREAT BRITAIN: The Man in the Shaft

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The Pennine range runs like a spine through the English Midlands. At Peak Cavern, which lies at its southern end, eight experienced "potholers," under the auspices of Britain's Speleological Association, last week began the exploration of a newly discovered underground passage. They first worked their way in by a series of up and down scrambles, then wriggled through a narrow tunnel with a mud floor and a roof that was sometimes no more than 10 in. above their heads. It took them two hours to progress 600 ft. The tunnel suddenly broadened into a fairly large chamber 1,000 ft. beneath the surface. Leading off from the chamber was a shaft measuring 2½ by 1½ ft. A young Oxford student, Neil Moss, 20, led the way but after a few moments' descent, his alarmed cry came back: "I'm stuck! I can't budge an inch."

Mud & Darkness. A lamp flashed down the shaft 40 ft. below showed that Moss was trapped by the breadth of his shoulders. Ropes were quickly lowered, but Moss was wedged so tightly that he could not move his arms. More serious, the air in the passage was foul. As hours passed, Moss alternately gritted his teeth and joked with the men trying to help him. An oxygen mask was lowered, but there was not even room enough to fit it over his face. After four hours he became delirious, finally drifted into unconsciousness.

The first radio broadcasts brought a response of British courage and skill reminiscent of the blitz. More than 200 potholers poured in from nearby towns. A clerk who had been refused time off to help in the rescue quit his job. An R.A.F. mountain rescue unit arrived, followed by crack rescue groups from the National Coal Board and the submarine base at Gosport. Hospitals sent cylinders of oxygen. The rescue workers struggled through the mud and darkness, slithered into waist-high pools. Fifty volunteers were spaced out at intervals in the tunnel to make a hand chain for passing on ropes, food, lamps, oxygen cylinders.

Another Go. Flight Lieut. John Carter, an R.A.F. medical officer, kept the unconscious Moss alive by pumping oxygen down a tube. One after the other, eight men were lowered down the shaft, but only three reached Moss, and all blacked out because of the motionless, foul air. None was able to make a head-first descent and keep an oxygen mask over his face. Finally a tiny (5 ft.) printer from Derby named Ron Peters, 25, got close enough to be able to touch the trapped man's shoulder but began to gasp for air, had to be pulled up fast. On being revived with oxygen, Peters said: "I'll have another go.'' This time he managed to tie a hemp rope around Moss's chest. Slowly but strongly the rope was pulled taut, and Neil Moss moved 18 in. upward, then got stuck fast again. His breathing stopped, and the rescuers had to slacken their chest hold until respiration started again. Another man, John Larson, spent 1½ hours unsuccessfully trying to budge Moss's right arm. "The carbon dioxide fumes make you lightheaded," he said, "and you think you see elephants and fairies."