On May 10th, 1897, 35 miners started down the thousand-foot ladder to the depths of the Snaefelt mine.

Many of these men would never see the light of day again.

This is their horrifying story, and as always, viewer discretion is advised. At 6 o'clock on the morning of May 10th, 1897, 35 miners working the Snafell mine, assembled outside,

ready to begin the early shift.

The spring air was crisp and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, indicating a beautiful dayhead.

It was a shame the miners would miss it, but the village of Laxie on the Isle of Man had an economy built by mining,

the miners had families to support.

For those unfamiliar, the Isle of Man is a small island in the Irish Sea between Ireland and Great Britain,

but despite its size, the mines there were loaded with valuable metals.

Mining in an area known as Snanafell Mountain began in 1856 and by 1897, the mine had more

than 10 levels branching off its 1,026 foot or 313-meter main shaft.

Traditionally, the mining industry used a unit of measure called a fathom.

A fathom is 6 feet, so the Snafell mine was 171 fathoms deep.

It was one of the smaller mines there, employing just 50 men, but it produced more than

enough ore to impact the worldwide metal industry.

After a briefing by mine Captain John Cooley, the men entered the mine and began to send

the ladder to their assigned levels. Snaefell mine had just one way in and one way out, and that was the main shaft.

It was essentially a large rectangle divided into three compartments, one for the ladder, one for buckets called kibbles, and the last for the compressed air pipes that ran the boring drills.

Each level also had a platform, and each platform had a hole in the floor smaller than the opening of a front loading wash machine for the ladder and the boring drills. Each level also had a platform, and each platform had a hole in the floor smaller than the opening of a front loading wash machine for the ladder and the men to pass through.

Interestingly, unlike other mines, Snaefel was warmer inside than outside, and since warmer air is less dense and easier to move than cold air, the mine had a natural ventilation system.

So the current of fresh outside air

actually circulated down the main shaft to each of the levels. Most of these tunnels were

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