Featured Image Credit: David Webb/James Lovelock collection
Topics: UK News
Joe Harker
The body of a British student who died in a caving accident was never recovered after his family asked that they seal him up so nobody else would die trying to get him out.
On 22 March, 1959, Oscar Hackett Neil Moss was venturing into an unexplored shaft in the Peak Cavern cave system in Derbyshire when he became stuck.
The 20-year-old went into the cave system with seven others with the goal of trying to get through a particularly narrow passage which had just been discovered.
Around 300 metres away from the cave entrance, it was decided that Moss would be the first one into the unexplored shaft, which would make him the first person to venture into this unknown passage and see where it led.
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However, things went horribly wrong as he ended up getting stuck after he tried to navigate the narrow space and could not get back out again.
The exact circumstances of how he became stuck were never confirmed, but it is thought that the 20-year-old attempted to move a boulder out of his way which ended up blocking rescue from reaching him.
Moss was able to attach himself to a line but his fellow spelunkers could not pull him out and their ropes snapped several times.
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The student eventually fell unconscious due to a lack of air in the tight confines on the cave where he was trapped and could no longer attach himself to ropes that were sent his way after stronger ones were found.
His own body was blocking the airflow and his own breathing was producing carbon dioxide that built up in the base of the shaft.
On the second day of him being trapped in a cave system, help was sought from other experienced cave divers, but they too were unable to reach Moss as they were 'driven back by foul air' and could not get close to the man.
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He was declared dead on the morning of the following day (24 March) after he did not regain consciousness even though doctors could not see his body.
The student's father Eric had been waiting at the mouth of the cave for news of his son but after Neil was declared dead, he asked that nobody try and recover the body so they wouldn't come to harm.
Instead, the entrance to the narrow shaft where the 20-year-old had died was sealed up with rocks and an inscription paying tribute to the student's memory was carved nearby.
A section of Peak Cavern which had been referred to as 'Stalagmite Chamber' was renamed 'Moss Chamber' in his memory.