Sixteen Tons

July 24, 2013

Cape Breton Miners' Museum
Glacé Bay, Nova Scotia

"Sixteen tons and what do you get?
Another day over and deeper in debt.
St, Peter don't you call me cause I can't go,
I owe my soul to the company store."

I thought the helmet and cape given out at the beginning of the coal mine tour was for looks, but it turns out I was wrong. In the wet mine shaft our helmets banged against steel beams and low overhangs in the mine, some only 48" high.
.

The Miners' Museum included a tour of the Ocean Deeps Colliery, an underground coal mine.

That's me in the second car.

Here we dress for the tour. The museum is next to the Atlantic Ocean; at one time the mine extended 9 miles out under the sea about 2/3 mile deep. It would take over an hour riding in a car with fellow miners to arrive at work. They were not paid for this transportation time.

There were several seams of coal layered overhead. If the seam were 4 ft. High then you would bend over to get the coal out. You couldn't stand up straight, just like us on the tour for a very uncomfortable half hour.

Wish, our guide, would weave personal tales with the history of the mine for 1 hr. 20 minutes.

Wish's grandfather started working the coal mine at age ten (before child labor laws). For 50 cents a 10 hour day, a boy called a trapper would sit in the dark until a door opened and then he would shut it tight behind the men.

Our guide was a retired miner who took us into a 1932 "room and pillar" mine where coal was extracted by manual labor.

At it's height 36,000 people lived in Glacé Bay for the purpose of producing coal.

He turned out the electric lights to show what it was really like for the miners going down into the mine. The grade of our path was 18 degrees but the miners actually descended at a 36 degree grade.

We ducked to avoid banging our heads overhead.

He turned on a heavy, handheld, loud machine machine that was used to replace the pick and knock the coal out of the wall. He said the noise damaged hearing but if the miner plugged his ears he could not hear if the overhead boards were breaking or a big rock might rolling down.

He showed a canary cage on a long stick. The bird inside would be poked up into an area where methane gas might be. If the bird jumped around nervously that meant there was barely enough air; if the bird fell over then the gas was dangerously potent. Wish said they lost a lot of birds and men in the mines. approximately 25,000 miners have died in the mines since the early 1800s.

Paul and I agreed that being down in the mine felt like hell- sometimes hard to breath, damp, dirty,
dark. Imagine heavy physical labor on top of that with rats running all around trying to get your lunch.

In the museum up top there were interesting videos mostly describing the exploitation of the miners by rich coal barons in England. The United Mine Workers in America were involved in creating unions in Nova Scotia.

Presently there are no operating coal mines in Canada but there is talk of opening coal mines next year because the price paid by China, Japan and India would be high enough.

Coal is used in lots of products, even substitute sugar. Yuck!

We walked behind the Museum to see the coal seams in the sea cliffs.

Before underground mining, workers would pick the coal out of cliffs in the 18th century. Can you see the coal seams in this photo?

"Sixteen Tons"

Some people say a man is made outta mud
a poor man's made outta muscle and blood
muscle and blood and skin and bones
a mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong
you load sixteen tons, what do you get?
another day older and deeper in debt
saint peter don't you call me 'cause i can't go
i owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
i picked up my shovel and i walked to the mine
i loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
and the straw boss said "well, a-bless my soul"
you load sixteen tons, what do you get?
another day older and deeper in debt
saint peter don't you call me 'cause i can't go
i owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
fightin' and trouble are my middle name
i was raised in the canebrake* by an ol' mama lion
cain't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line
you load sixteen tons, what do you get?
another day older and deeper in debt
saint peter don't you call me 'cause i can't go
i owe my soul to the company store

If you see me comin', better step aside
a lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
one fist of iron, the other of steel
if the right one don't a-get you, then the left one will
you load sixteen tons, what do you get?
another day older and deeper in debt
saint peter don't you call me 'cause i can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

Music and lyrics by Merle Travis