Tom Flannery - The Knox Mine Disaster 1959 lyrics

My name is Orloski and I'm employed by the Knox company And I'll lay my hands on the table for all to see I come from miners whose ghosts they follow me down And watch my back when the roof turns into the ground Big city has been calling says the coal is gonna end up dead Wife says if that don't happen then it's gonna be me instead But they say it's in the blood more than the lungs as the years go by And every breath I take I catch a glimpse of my fathers eye Port Griffith will remember the day back in 1959 When the fearsome Susquehanna smashed through the Knox company mine The Pittston vein just blinded the men above the ground And they just washed their hands when twelve men were never found Eighty seven men descended in the January chill They were scattered through the workings the cars they'd fill and fill Inspectors had drawn the red line 35 feet from the rivers rage But now it was down to 19 inches to force a miner to make a decent wage Frank Hanley and his 11 were working near the shaft And when he heard that rumble old Haney acted fast He called for the cage as the water lapped his arm And the cage rose above the river and his men spread the alarm Break: Susquehanna has a will of her own Chills a coal man to the bone Fear can spread the word through a quiet little town And soon all eyes were frozen on the water bearing down The iced river was pouring in she was gonna have her way But they had to try and stop her before she washed the valley away So they tried to plug the hole by dropping coal gondolas in But they were s**ed right through like a man led into sin They knew the mines were all connected and lay helplessly alone The anthracite in the valley would drown in its own home The men inside were running the old men falling behind Foreman Myron Thomas tried to keep on the upper side Water sounded like a train bearing down on him So he told his men to pray barely heard above the din (break) Joe Stella had stayed behind with some of the older men And as they stumbled through the water he felt the breath of air hit them The abandoned Eagle shaft pointed up towards the sky And Amedo Pancotti lifted himself on high Now Amedo spoke little english but he rushed across the land And made himself understood the way only an Italian can Soon a rope was dropped on down to the surface they made their way Said he didn't deserve the Carnegie medal they pinned it on him anyway Now Thomas was still crawling with 25 men in tow Holding their breath beneath the timbers that were neglected years ago He ordered every other man to extinguish his lamp To preserve the fading light like the hope in the cold and damp (break) They came upon a rotted door and somehow knocked it down And a wisp of air barely made its way but no one made a sound Some feared if they squeezed through they'd never make it home But Thomas said it's now or never boys at least we won't die alone That old eagle shaft stayed open so the Lord could peer on through And soon the men heard voices and the fresh air grew As the rope was tied around his waist Thomas took a last look around And thanked the men who sunk the old eagle shaft and his feet they left the ground Twelve men still lay in the Old Knox Mine with nothing to light their way How many have walked over their graves no one can ever say Most have forgotten the way things were back in 1959 When the Susquehanna river smashed through the Knox Company Mine (break)