Damburst : The Birkenhead Dock Disaster March 6, 1909

Tom McCarthy reconstructs the horror and anguished aftermath of a Birkenhead Dock disaster.

Just after midnight on Saturday, March 6, 1909, amid a blinding snowstorm, disaster struck the Birkenhead docks.

Without warning, a massive temporary dam holding back millions of gallons of water in the East Float suddenly collapsed, killing 14 laborers who were working in a pit below the dam, building the entrance channel to the new Vittoria Dock.

It was a communal catastrophe for Birkenhead, whose stunned people rallied magnificently to help the widows and orphans while for four agonizing weeks the grim search for bodies went on.

But when it came to finding the cause of the disaster, matters were not so straightforward.The Government refused to hold an inquiry.

Even in death, the 14 victims were shabbily treated by their wealthy employer, who had them buried in three mass graves.

In "Damburst", Tom McCarthy - whose uncle was one of three survivors of the disaster - compellingly reconstructs the events of that night of horror and its anguished aftermath, intertwining poignant human stories with the technical and legal controversies. He tells how, almost a century on, hope and redemption have sprung from one of the darkest hours in Birkenhead's history.