I was not quite seventeen when Dunston Colliery was drowned.

The Gatton poured right in upon it, and they have not got the water out of it in places to this day.

It was always said that the pit was being worked too near the river; but that was little thought about by those as was most concerned, and it never disturbed the head of a lad like me, of course.

It was in the afternoon of the 12th of December, a date as I am not likely to forget, when the thing happened.

Two mates--one old man and a middle-aged one--and myself were at work in a heading together, when suddenly we heard a noise like thunder.