Melancholy Accident – 3 Lives Lost - An accident of a melancholy and fatal nature occurred on Wednesday about noon, in No 9 Pit, Caprington Colliery, situated near Laputta, whereby three men lost their lives.

The estates of Caprington and Treesbank are separated at the place by the high way between Kilmarnock and Ayr. On the Treesbank estate a pit had been wrought by Mr Whitfield a number of years ago, and was standing waste.

The pit on Caprington is situated within a short distance of the road; and while the workman were engaged at work in one of the rooms, Francis Raeside observed the water bubbling through the coal; he called his two sons, who are but boys, to run and he would follow. In doing so, a little distance from the pit bottom, a rush of wind came and knocked one of the boys down. On rising he looked back and saw his father just as he was overwhelmed by the water which had broken through from the waste pit, and his lamp became extinguished.

The boys ran on till they arrived at the pit bottom, and the alarm was speedily conveyed to all the workings.

Other two men, named Robert Cunningham and William Sim, wrought at the dip where the water came out and were also overcome.

The other men in the pit were speedily conveyed to the pit-mouth; and after a short time the pit was again descended, and the body of Cunningham found within five or six yards from the place he had been working. The other two men, Raeside and Sim, are supposed to have been carried with the water to the dip, where the pit is full, as they have not yet been found.

In examining the room where Raeside wrought, it was found the water had broken through the solid coal, making an aperture of from five to six feet wide. It is supposed the seam of blind coal on Treesbank estate had been wrought considerable beyond the march, as the workmen considered that there was still some distance to work before coming to the march.

Robert Cunningham has left a widow and eight children, Francis Raeside a widow and eight children and William Sim a widow and five children to lament their loss.