It was summer 1955. We decided to meet up again the following Easter at Ingleton. So in 1956, after exploring a few caves around Ingleton and Clapham, we decided to form ourselves into a proper group. It was August-September 1956 we held a meeting in the Wheatsheaf Hotel, Ingleton.

The four cavers returned to their base at How Gill Nick shooting hut where they changed and made a meal. Having, at that time, no apparent cause for anxiety, three of the party then left for Ingleton leaving Morag at the hut. The rain continued to fall lightly and at about 19.30 hrs. Morag returned to the Scar and finding little apparent difference in the water conditions, she made her way back to the shooting hut; some

Note  * University of Leeds Speleological Association.
** Bradford Pothole Club.
*** Northern Cave Diving Group.
+ Happy Wanderers Cave and Pothole Club.

half hours walk over the moor. Shortly after this the rain began to fall heavily and being now concerned for the safety of the underground party, she again went to the Scar, arriving there at about 21.00 hrs.

Mossdale Beck had now risen to flood proportions, an extensive lake having formed in front of the Scar. The entrance was already under water. Realising the grave situation she ran to Gill House Farm (some three quarters of a mile) for help, but found it deserted, and went on to Yarnbury (a further one and a half miles) where she contacted a Mr. Riley who drove her down to call out the rescue organisations.

The call for assistance reached the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Team at 23.10 hrs. who at once sent a party up to the Scar, alerted the C.R.O. on a 'stand-by' basis and put in a request for Fire Brigade personnel and pumps. The advance party of the Upper Wharfedale team arrived at the Scar at 01.15 hrs. on Sunday June 25th and found conditions very serious with the 'New Entrance' under some 4ft. of water. By about 02.00 hrs. some attempt at stream diversion was under way, the Settle-Ingleton Team of C.R.O. had been called together with as many members of the Leeds University Club as could be found. A small dam constructed around the constricted New Entrance enabled a party of the Wharfedale Team to reach The Assembly Hall (just inside the cave) by 02.25 hrs., but they found the normally limited air space beyond Black Pool Sands, which provided the only way on into the cave completely submerged and impassable; the use of diving equipment at this stage would have been both futile and dangerous and therefore further progress was out of the question until the water level could be sufficiently reduced.

During this time the Fire Brigade had installed a number of portable pumps on the side of the beck, which were sending a stream of water past the Scar and on down to the sinks on Conistone Moor. By 03.30 hrs some 8-12 of these pumps were operating, but it was clear that this effort was having a negligible effect on the water levels despite the rain having stopped shortly after midnight. At about 05.00 hrs it had been decided that the only possible solution was to obtain the use of heavy digging equipment and divert the whole of Mossdale Beck down past the Scar. To do this required a trench some 130 yards long by 6-8 ft. Deep together with a substantial dam to divert the beck from the sinks at the foot of the Scar.

By about 08.00 hrs on the Sunday the level of the beck appeared to have fallen a little and a telephone connection had been established between the entrance and the Assembly Hall. It was now found that it was possible to pass the previously submerged sections of the cave, (The Drown or Glories and The Swim) and to penetrate as far as Rough Chamber. It was hoped that the missing party might have been trapped in this rather loftier section of the system and have been able to survive the flood in one of the avens or in Boulder Hall itself. However, no sign of the party was found, and at Rough Chamber a strong stream was still flowing onward down, the normally dry, Rough Passage. This situation only occurs when the restricted sump in Syphon Passage is unable to take all the Main Stream flow and the water will then back up and flow via Straightway to Rough Chamber and on through Rough Passage to Kneewrecker Junction where it will divide and flow in part down the Marathon and part into Kneewrecker. It was then felt that it would not be reasonable to proceed further through the restricted passages until the water flow could be reduced and the dam  (which was then under construction) was operational. At this time it became clear to those of us who knew the cave that the chances of survival of the missing men were slim; the signs in the cave were of a very extreme flood, and there were only a very limited number of places beyond Rough Chamber in which a party might be safe, and of these we were uncertain. Certainly an experienced and well equipped party, such as this was, would be perfectly capable of sitting out a flood for 12-24 hours and then of getting out of the cave under their own steam, but although by midday the proportion of the beck entering the cave had been reduced to a trickle there was no sign of the missing men.

At last the water diversion and dam were functional and thought to be sufficient to protect underground parties from further flooding and at 12.40 hrs a party of six were sent in to search the Marathon Passage. This team was supported by a further party of six who entered the cave at 13.25 hrs. The telephone line to Rough Chamber was now functioning rather erratically and more rain was forecast for the area.

At 17.40 hrs on Sunday 25th June it was reported that the first search party had found five bodies in the far part of Far Marathon West Passage a short distance upstream of the junction with the Far Marathon East which carries a small stream.

Until this time all of the official statements had reported that there were five men in the missing party, five names had been given and five bodies had now been found. The shock which had fallen on all of us was now broken by a report that there were in fact six men in the party. Some while was taken to establish this fact with certainty and to determine the names of all six men. By this time (18.00 hrs) the effort which had been expended had depleted the ranks of the rescue party. It was decided that, in view of the extremely remote chance of the sixth man having survived, further efforts to locate him and to identify the bodies would be postponed until Monday. It began to rain lightly.

Monday proved to be a bad day. Heavy rain overnight had weakened the dam, the weather forecast was bad, and underground telephone communications had broken down. Eventually, when parties did get underground it was found that there was an acute shortage of men who had any real knowledge of the far parts of the cave which resulted in wastage of manpower. Finally, renewed rain caused a dangerous rise in water level behind the dam (the diversion channel presumably being of insufficient depth and width to cope with the increased flow) and all parties were withdrawn from the system by 17.00 hrs.

Tuesday June 27th saw a further effort to strengthen the diversion dam, and the 3 excavators worked at this task throughout the morning producing a structure which was about 6 feet high. More work was carried out on the secondary dams around the entrance enclosure. There was now no thought of the operation being one of rescue, but rather one to determine the fate of the sixth man, to establish the identity of the bodies that had been found, to do what we could to either bring them out, or bury them as well as we could underground within the cavern.