The Rat That Saved A Family

Life Saver

Curiosity in this title alone is quite the motivation for reading this.  I assure you that this incident is factual.  The story was told to me by my uncle, the same person this happened to.

My grandfather fought in the Russian Navy during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). 

Each of the three ships he served on were sunk by the Japanese.  He was lucky, surviving the sinkings, and after the third sinking he was able to swim safely to shore.  He saw a sign that read, “Free passage to the United States.”  The offer was sponsored by a coal company looking for miners.

My grandfather, Alexander, said, he was tired of wars and decided to take the offer.  That’s how my father’s side of my family came to the United States. Home was Northeast Pennsylvania, in the town of Larksville.

Soon after, other members of the family in Europe made their way here and like my grandfather, found work in the mines.

A coal miner leaves for work early in the morning before sun-up and returns at sun-down.  There is a quota a miner must dig in a day.  If a miner finishes his quota, he usually finds a “shelf” to lay on.  A shelf is a small hole that’s dug out in the wall of the shaft.

The elevator makes one trip down and one up.  Everyone must wait till the end of the shift to return to the surface. If you finish your quota quickly, you’ll still have to wait to the end of the shift.

Mines are dangerous places to work.  There are the gases: methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and nitrogen oxides, plus the occasional flooding and the ever-present possibility of the horror of a cave in.  

You often hear about when mines used canaries to detect the presence of those gases. If a bird dies suddenly, it’s caused by one of the gases and it’s a warning for the miners to vacate the mine.

What you hear less of, are the rats in the mines.  Rats are a living warning system of dangers too.   Like the canaries, they react to gas and the cracking of timber supporting the shafts. If the rats suddenly act wildly, get out quick. 

My uncle had a rat that always stayed near him while he was digging.  He considered the rat like a pet and would share his lunch with it, sometimes a half a sandwich! 

One day after completing his quota he took a nap on a shelf.  A few minutes later he woke to see his rat on his chest, he waved it off and continued his sleep.  Suddenly, the rat jumped on his face.  My uncle got angry, jumped off the shelf, and chased the rat through the shaft.  Then he heard a loud rumbling roar, he turned to see the mine collapsing behind him, at the very same place where he was sleeping.

My uncle and the workers in his immediate area made it to safety.  Unfortunately, a few didn’t.

Over the next few years, my uncle had three children.  Now, my three cousins, owe their existence to a grateful rat who saved their father from dying in the mine.

 To my knowledge, the rat, didn’t even have a name.