page_title: Deep Navigation Colliery
section_title: Ocean Colliery: 1893–1947
hierarchical_section_title: Deep Navigation Colliery / Ocean Colliery: 1893–1947
caption_attribution_description: English: Deep Navigation Colliery, Treharris One winding house and head gear photographed from the foot of the other head gear. I'm stood on a high stone wall that formed the lower level of the original winding house. Two compressed air rope changing winches are down out of sight in the foundations. To my annoyance we missed a third winch that was presumably near the foot of the other head gear (should have looked). Looking back, it's amazing how the colliers accepted strange people wandering around their pits carrying cameras.
context_page_description: Deep Navigation Colliery was a coal mine in South Wales, that operated from 1872 until 1991.
  Located next to the co-developed village of Treharris in the borough of Merthyr Tydfil, on development it was the deepest coalmine in South Wales Coalfield by some 200 yards. Producing the highest quality steam coal, it powered both the Cunard passenger steamers RMS Mauretania and RMS Lusitania in their successful attempts at the Blue Riband prize for the most rapid Atlantic Ocean passage. The mine is also thought to have been one of several locally that provided coal to the RMS Titanic; tests carried out on coal found in the ship's wreck have shown that most of the coal on board originated in South Wales. Amongst one of the first collieries in South Wales to have shafts wound by electricity, it was the first colliery in South Wales to have pit head baths for its miners. Profitable due to the quality of its coal, but financially degraded by huge volumes of water ingress throughout its working life, it was closed by British Coal on Good Friday, 1991.
context_section_description: Industrialist businessman David Davies of Llandinam, became interested in the Harris mine as early as 1890. By this time, almost 1million tonnes of coal had been raised, but by 1892 there was a dip in production. With debts rising, Harris allowed an inspection of the mine by Davies, whose engineers reported that   were good reserves of coal in a mine that required relatively little additional investment.
  Davies's Ocean Coal Company took ownership of the colliery on 17 January 1893, and renamed it Ocean Colliery. There was great competition at the time between colliery owners, with most trying to prove to potential purchasers that their coal was of the best quality. At the time this was signified by being selected by the Royal Navy, and the various transatlantic ocean liners, including the Cunard Line; hence the choice of the renaming.
  Davies invested in the colliery, including repairing the bases of the shafts. From 1897 onwards, the colliery was producing over 590,000 tons per year with a workforce of 2,500 miners. Ocean Company invested a further £500,000 in 1900 to make the collieries production more economic, so that by 1902, annual output was 327,000 tons by 2,000 men. The steam coal produced during this period was purchased for use by the Cunard steamers RMS Mauretania and RMS Lusitania, used in their successful attempts for the Blue Riband for the most rapid Atlantic passage.
  The South Wales Miners' Federation had been formed in 1894, and in 1910 and 1911 the Tonypandy riots had occurred to improve miners incomes and working conditions. By 1913, the workforce had shrunk to 1,846 men and boys. At this time Deep Navigation had an extensive underground 2 ft (610 mm) mine railway, with 10 miles (16 km) of underground railways. Over 100 pit ponies were being used at the colliery, mostly underground, but some on the surface.
caption: Treharris One winding house, Deep Navigation in July 1987
exif: {}