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Speaker 1: With Unexplained on a short break, We're dipping into the

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Speaker 1: archives again. This week's story is a true ghost of

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Speaker 1: Christmas past, reaching out to us from almost one hundred

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Speaker 1: and twenty four years to the day. It was late

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Speaker 1: one night on December twenty sixth, nineteen hundred when a

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Speaker 1: telegram was received by the Northern Lighthouse Board. It was

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Speaker 1: sent by a member of a rescue crew dispatched to

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Speaker 1: the Flannan Isles, the site of the UK's most remote lighthouse,

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Speaker 1: located way out in the Atlantic, beyond any sign of civilization.

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Speaker 1: They were sent to investigate why the light was no

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Speaker 1: longer shining. The telegram read, A dreadful accident has happened

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Speaker 1: at the Flannins. The keepers have disappeared from the island.

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Speaker 1: This is Unexplained, Season one, episode eight, when the Light fades.

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Speaker 1: When I'm considering what stories to feature on the show,

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Speaker 1: there are really only a few criteria that must be met. Firstly,

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Speaker 1: it has to be more than just an event. There

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Speaker 1: must be a story, a set of events with which

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Speaker 1: to thread and weave our way through. Secondly, that there

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Speaker 1: be something ultimately very human in the tales. And last,

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Speaker 1: but by no means least that the peculiarity of the

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Speaker 1: story has yet to be satisfactorily explained. Of all the

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Speaker 1: unexplained mysteries I have come across so far, there is

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Speaker 1: one that for me has left the most indelible impression.

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Speaker 1: As far as mysteries go, you couldn't invent a better story.

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Speaker 1: A story that has over time led to some of

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Speaker 1: the most extraordinary of speculations, and has since evolved a

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Speaker 1: folklore all of its own. This is that story you're

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Speaker 1: listening to, unexplained, and I'm Richard McLean Smith. The Flannan Isles,

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Speaker 1: also known as the Seven Hunters, are located at the

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Speaker 1: farthest reaches of the Scottish Outer Hebrides, a collection of

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Speaker 1: seven rocky islands, they form a small but majestic archipelago

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Speaker 1: of startling isolation. To the east, approximately seventy miles away,

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Speaker 1: lies the Isle of Lewis. To the south, by forty

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Speaker 1: miles the deserted Isle of Saint Kilda, and if you

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Speaker 1: were to venture west, you would need to travel more

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Speaker 1: than two thousand miles of uninterrupted ocean before hitting the

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Speaker 1: coastline of North America. The Flannan Isles are named after

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Speaker 1: an Irish priest known as Saint Flannan, who is believed

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Speaker 1: to have made his home on the islands as far

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Speaker 1: back as the seventh century. The remains the chapel in

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Speaker 1: which Saint Flannan is thought to have lived can still

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Speaker 1: be found on eilean Moore, the groups Its largest island,

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Speaker 1: translated from Gallic to mean simply big island Islean Moore

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Speaker 1: rears out of the sea, a vast hulk of gray

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Speaker 1: black rock, topped by a rugged grassy plateau, its sheer

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Speaker 1: cliffs measuring well over one hundred feet, with its highest

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Speaker 1: point reaching almost three hundred feet. Although uninhabited, many crofters

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Speaker 1: from nearby Lewis would regularly visit the islands in the

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Speaker 1: summer months to graze their sheep. Others would arrived to

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Speaker 1: pill for eggs and feathers from the island's bountiful population

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Speaker 1: of sea birds. Over time, due in no small part

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Speaker 1: to the association with Saint Flannan, the island developed a

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Speaker 1: strange mystique all of its own, becoming a place of

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Speaker 1: inherent sanctity to many of those who visited. To view

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Speaker 1: the island in its isolation, it is easy to understand

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Speaker 1: the ore with which it would have filled those early visitors.

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Speaker 1: There were many who believed, and some still do, that

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Speaker 1: the Isles were a place of great otherworldly magic, home

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Speaker 1: to a host of fairies and nature spirits, and not

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Speaker 1: all of them good, an attitude borne out in the

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Speaker 1: customs and superstitions of any person daring to set foot

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Speaker 1: on one of the Seven Hunters. If, when approaching the

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Speaker 1: islands on an easterly wind, the gust were to suddenly switch,

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Speaker 1: you wouldn't think twice before turning the boat around and

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Speaker 1: heading straight back home. For any that arrived successfully, it

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Speaker 1: was customary to immediately uncover the head before performing a

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Speaker 1: complete turn clockwise while thanking God for your safety. So

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Speaker 1: you can imagine the sense of trepidation many would have

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Speaker 1: felt when it was announced that a lighthouse would be

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Speaker 1: erected on the especially sacred Eileen More, a sense of

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Speaker 1: trepidation that was somewhat justified when barely more than a

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Speaker 1: year after opening, the lighthouse was to become the tragic

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Speaker 1: scene of one of the UK's most enduring of mysteries.

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Speaker 1: What exactly happened on the island some time in December

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Speaker 1: in the year nineteen hundred has never been fully accounted.

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Speaker 1: For it is quite simply a mystery that remains to

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Speaker 1: this day unexplained. In seventeen eighty two, a series of

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Speaker 1: ferocious storms batted the Scottish coast, resulting in the deaths

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Speaker 1: of many seamen, including those of two herring boats that

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Speaker 1: were smashed on the rocks of the Kintyre Peninsula on

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Speaker 1: the West coast. As a result, the Northern Lighthouse Board

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Speaker 1: was established to oversee the construction of a number of

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Speaker 1: lighthouses to be stationed on the most treacherous of Scottish coastlands. Although,

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Speaker 1: as ever initially motivated by trade, the ensuing feat of

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Speaker 1: engineering was driven by a genuine desire characteristic of the

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Speaker 1: Scottish Enlightenment, to work not for individual prestige, but for

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Speaker 1: the greater good of mankind. Leading the team of engineers

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Speaker 1: was Thomas Smith, the great grandfather of none other than

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Speaker 1: famed Scottish author Robert Louis Stephenson. Although the family profession

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Speaker 1: would prove ultimately unfitting for Robert, it was nonetheless his

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Speaker 1: uncle David who oversaw the construction of the lighthouse on

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Speaker 1: Island Moor. However, it would be some time before such

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Speaker 1: a plan would come to fruition. Maybe it was concern

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Speaker 1: over the exposure of such a location to the harshest

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Speaker 1: of the Atlantic's uncompromising weather, or perhaps it was a

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Speaker 1: reluctance to build on such mystical ground. But finally, after

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Speaker 1: forty years of pleading, the Lighthouse Board agreed to the construction.

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Speaker 1: The build began in eighteen ninety four and was due

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Speaker 1: to take two years, but was beset by the tumultuous

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Speaker 1: weather and even rougher seas characteristic of the area. The

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Speaker 1: lighthouse was to be built on the south side of

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Speaker 1: the island, where the rock reaches its highest point, surrounded

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Speaker 1: on both sides by sheer cliffs, none of which were

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Speaker 1: less than one hundred fifty feet in height, meaning that

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Speaker 1: all supplies had to be hauled by hand up the

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Speaker 1: cliff side. A perilous set of steps were carved into

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Speaker 1: the rock leading to the building. At the top for support,

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Speaker 1: there was only a modest iron railing to remind you

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Speaker 1: of the rocky peril that lay in weight for anyone

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Speaker 1: foolish enough to deviate from the path. Such was the

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Speaker 1: steep incline of the steps. A small service railway was installed,

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Speaker 1: where a cable supported railcar could be used to transport

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Speaker 1: heavy goods to and from the landing platform. Shortly before

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Speaker 1: the build was completed, the foreman, Mister D's died suddenly,

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Speaker 1: an event that in hindsight could be considered a disturbing

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Speaker 1: portent of what was to come. It certainly wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: been lost on many of the construction workers, well accustomed

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Speaker 1: with the superstitions related to the island. Nevertheless, a full

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Speaker 1: two years after construction was due to complete, on the

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Speaker 1: first of December eighteen ninety nine, the one hundred forty

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Speaker 1: thousand candle power lamp, perched atop a majestic white tower

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Speaker 1: two hundred seventy five feet above sea level, was lit

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Speaker 1: for the first time as the rotation device kicked into life.

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Speaker 1: Out of the darkness shone a beam of light, illuminating

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Speaker 1: the black North Atlantic waters for miles around. Though were

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Speaker 1: fore keepers required to operate the newly opened lighthouse as

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Speaker 1: a psychological necessity, there would only be three men on

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Speaker 1: the island at any given time, while the fourth took

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Speaker 1: a fortnight's leave. The first man to be stationed on

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Speaker 1: the island was forty three year old principal keeper and

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Speaker 1: married father of four, James Duckett, a seasoned lighthouse practitioner

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Speaker 1: with over twenty years of experience. James hailed from ar

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Speaker 1: Broth on the east coast of Scotland. He would later

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Speaker 1: be joined by first assistant keeper William Ross and twenty

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Speaker 1: eight year old second assistant keeper Thomas Marshall. As the

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Speaker 1: first Christmas of the New century approached, Ross was forced

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Speaker 1: off the island due to ill health, with regular light

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Speaker 1: keeper Joseph Moore not due for a further two weeks.

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Speaker 1: Ross was replaced by forty year old occasional keeper and

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Speaker 1: ex soldier Donald MacArthur. Donald, who was also married with children,

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Speaker 1: hailed from the nearby town of Breiscleet on the Isle

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Speaker 1: of Lewis. I often wonder how it might have felt

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Speaker 1: for the men returning to the lighthouse after their regulatory

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Speaker 1: breaks at that moment, having stepped off the delivery boat,

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Speaker 1: watching the last contact with civilization disappear from view. Perhaps

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Speaker 1: there was some relief at returning to the quiet sanctuary

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Speaker 1: away from the daily hassles of life. Or perhaps it

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Speaker 1: was more with great sadness that they found themselves again

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Speaker 1: alone on a distant rock, far away from their wives

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Speaker 1: and children. With the switch over completed on eleventh of December,

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Speaker 1: MacArthur promptly banished all thoughts of home and quickly settled

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Speaker 1: into his role. As the night approached, the men set

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Speaker 1: about doing what they did best, duly noting the day's

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Speaker 1: observations in the lighthouse log book. At the end of

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Speaker 1: the day, with the familiar sounds of a North Atlantic

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Speaker 1: storm rattling around the island, the men settled in for

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Speaker 1: the night as a waning moon appeared in the sky above.

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Speaker 1: Down below the island, moor light shone far and wide,

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Speaker 1: as it had done for every other night of its

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Speaker 1: year long life. The first sign of trouble came at

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Speaker 1: midday on Tuesday, December fifteenth, Roughly one hundred and twenty

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Speaker 1: miles to the northwest of the Seven Hunters, a cargo

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Speaker 1: ship named S s Arch Tour was making steady progress

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Speaker 1: on her route toward the port of Leith in Edinburgh.

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Speaker 1: The steamship, captained by Thomas John Holman, had left the

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Speaker 1: American city of Philadelphia on the twenty eighth of November

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Speaker 1: carrying over four and a half thousand tons of cargo.

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Speaker 1: Although most of the voyage had been beset by stormy

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Speaker 1: weather by late afternoon on the fifteenth, the storm had

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Speaker 1: abated somewhat, leaving fine, clear skies above a few hours later,

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Speaker 1: and the ship was fast approaching the Flannan Isles. On

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Speaker 1: deck stood a greatly perturbed Captain Holman. By his estimation,

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Speaker 1: they should have been no more than five miles from

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Speaker 1: Eileen Moore, But as he stood under the vast expansive sky,

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Speaker 1: surrounded by only the darkest of seas, he could not

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Speaker 1: make out any sign of the lighthouse, or, more precisely,

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Speaker 1: its light, the beam of which on a night such

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Speaker 1: as this, would have been visible for over twenty miles.

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Speaker 1: Assuming a miscalculation on his part, Captain Holman continued to

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Speaker 1: steer the vessel on its course towards Edinburgh. The following day, however,

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Speaker 1: the ship appeared clearly to be plotting a correct course.

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Speaker 1: The captain resolved to uncover the discrepancy of the night before,

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Speaker 1: but was almost surprised to find nothing wrong with his calculations.

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Speaker 1: The ship had indeed passed by the lighthouse, so where

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Speaker 1: then was the light disturbed by the apparent blackout of

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Speaker 1: the lighthouse, Captain Holman planned to report the matter to

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Speaker 1: the relevant authorities on arrival to Leith. Unfortunately, that message

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Speaker 1: never arrived. Two days later, Captain Holman and the SS

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Speaker 1: arch Tour ran aground on the approach to Leith Port.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps it was the shock of the event that had

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Speaker 1: dislodged the Flanninisles from Captain Holman's mind, or perhaps with

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Speaker 1: his navigation skills now under heavy scrutiny, he was reluctant

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Speaker 1: to bring up the possible miscalculation from the two nights before.

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Speaker 1: With no news to the contrary, the lighthouse board would

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Speaker 1: have no reason to think anything strange had taken place

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Speaker 1: on Eileen Moore. But with the next rotation of keepers

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Speaker 1: due a few days later, all that was about to change.

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Speaker 1: On the twenty sixth of December nineteen hundred, the lighthouse

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Speaker 1: tender boat, a long steamer named the Hespiras, made its

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Speaker 1: way towards the largest of the Flannan Isles. The ship

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Speaker 1: had been due to arrive the previous day, but severe

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Speaker 1: storms in the area had delayed its departure. On board

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Speaker 1: was regular keeper Joseph Moore, who was scheduled to start

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Speaker 1: his latest shift that day, But as Captain James Harvey

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Speaker 1: brought the ship closer to land, it was clear that

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Speaker 1: something wasn't right. It was common practice for the keepers

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Speaker 1: to raise a flag in preparation for the next rotation,

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Speaker 1: but as Captain Harvey scoured the island, he could see

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Speaker 1: no sign of the flag. His concern turned to alarm

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Speaker 1: when several blasts from the ship's horn brought no response

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Speaker 1: from the three light keepers. The subsequent firing of a

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Speaker 1: distress rocket again failed to yield any response. Greatly unnerved,

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Speaker 1: the captain ordered the rowboat into the water and sent

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Speaker 1: Joseph Moore to investigate. It is difficult to imagine just

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Speaker 1: what was going through Moore's mind as the small boat

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Speaker 1: pulled up below those towering cliffs, the gray, murky waters,

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Speaker 1: seeming unusually calm for the bitterly cold December day, Moore

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00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:55,200
Speaker 1: stepped off the boat and cautiously made his way up

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Speaker 1: the steep stone steps. As he approached the summit, the

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Speaker 1: top of the light house came into view. Passing the

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Speaker 1: ruins of the ancient chapel. He called out to the men,

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Speaker 1: but again there was no reply, no familiar faces to

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Speaker 1: greet him. Something was deeply wrong. A short time later,

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Speaker 1: Moore arrived outside the lighthouse and slowly opened the front door.

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Speaker 1: What he discovered has formed the basis for one of

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Speaker 1: the greatest maritime mysteries of modern times. After entering the lighthouse,

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Speaker 1: he found the inside door also closed, but curiously, the

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00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:37,280
Speaker 1: kitchen door was wide open. The fireplace was cold, indicating

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Speaker 1: it had not been lit for some days. One of

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Speaker 1: the chairs appeared to have been pushed away from the table,

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Speaker 1: perhaps in a hurry. The rest of the room was

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Speaker 1: spotlessly clean. When he entered the bedrooms, he found them empty,

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Speaker 1: left as they would have been since the morning. In fact,

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Speaker 1: everything was in perfect order. The lamp for the light

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Speaker 1: was clean, the foundation was full, and the blinds on

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Speaker 1: the windows correctly orientated. The only thing that was missing

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Speaker 1: was the men. They had simply vanished from the face

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Speaker 1: of the earth. As if to add a further twist,

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Speaker 1: Moore also noticed that every clock in the building had stopped.

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Speaker 1: The thoroughly spooke Moore returned to the row boat and

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Speaker 1: requested the help of second mate McCormack, who, along with

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Speaker 1: another seaman, followed Moore back to the lighthouse to renew

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Speaker 1: the search of the area. Unable to find any clues

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Speaker 1: as to what had happened, the three men promptly returned

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Speaker 1: to the boat and made their way back to the Herspiris. Ever,

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Speaker 1: the professional Captain Harvey's first instinct was to make sure

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Speaker 1: that the light would be up and running again. That night.

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Speaker 1: Moore was ordered to return to the island along with

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Speaker 1: three volunteers, the boy Master Alan MacDonald and two seamen,

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Speaker 1: Messrs Campbell and Lamont. Having dropped the men off again,

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Speaker 1: Captain Harvey set off immediately for Braiscleet in Lewis. Later

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Speaker 1: that day, Harvey sent his now infamous telegram to the

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Speaker 1: Secretary of the Northern Lighthouse Board in Edinburgh, the immortal

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Speaker 1: first line, reading, A dreadful accident has happened at Flannet's,

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Speaker 1: but the mystery had only just begun that first night.

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Speaker 1: Taking over from the missing lighthouse keepers would not have

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Speaker 1: been easy for the four volunteers, having no doubt been

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Speaker 1: upset by the turn of events. It would have taken

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00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:42,600
Speaker 1: some strength to stop their minds from wondering as to

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Speaker 1: what exactly had taken place. It would have been a

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Speaker 1: very somber night. Indeed, the following day, Moore and his

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00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:53,600
Speaker 1: companions renewed their search of the island, but found no

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Speaker 1: clues to help with their investigation. That was until they

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00:16:57,280 --> 00:17:01,760
Speaker 1: came across the western landing point. Approaching the landing, the

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00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:04,040
Speaker 1: men found that a number of iron railings of the

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Speaker 1: tramway had been ripped from their foundations and mangled out

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00:17:07,600 --> 00:17:12,040
Speaker 1: of shape. A box containing mooring ropes had vanished despite

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00:17:12,080 --> 00:17:15,040
Speaker 1: having been firmly wedged into a crevice and then anchored.

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Speaker 1: Despite some of the more fanciful thoughts that may have

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Speaker 1: sprung to mind, the first assumptions of the replacement crew

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00:17:22,359 --> 00:17:24,960
Speaker 1: centered on some kind of freak storm that may have

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Speaker 1: blown the men from the island. However, when Moore submitted

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00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:32,360
Speaker 1: his report at the events two days later, it contained

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Speaker 1: one startling detail. All men stationed at Eilean Moor had

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Speaker 1: a set of wet weather were to cope with the

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00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:43,040
Speaker 1: extreme conditions. In the case of Ducket and Marshal, this

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00:17:43,160 --> 00:17:47,760
Speaker 1: took the form of weather proof boots and oil skin coats. MacArthur, however,

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00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:51,040
Speaker 1: only being an occasional keeper, was not so well equipped

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Speaker 1: and had only what he called his wearing coat at

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00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:58,600
Speaker 1: his disposal. When Moore searched the lighthouse, he discovered Duckett

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Speaker 1: and Marshall's gear was missing, but MacArthur's coat was still

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00:18:02,080 --> 00:18:05,800
Speaker 1: on its peg, which could only mean that whatever had happened,

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00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:09,480
Speaker 1: MacArthur had left the lighthouse in his shirt sleeves, a

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00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:12,320
Speaker 1: strange fact if you consider just how severe the weather

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00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:14,680
Speaker 1: must have been to blow the men from the island.

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Speaker 1: What could possibly have happened that would send MacArthur running

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00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:23,240
Speaker 1: out into a severe storm without his jacket. A few

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00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:27,480
Speaker 1: days later, the Northern Lighthouse Board sent Superintendent Robert Muirhead

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00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:33,040
Speaker 1: to investigate further. Muwhead confirmed More's initial findings and pointed

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00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:35,720
Speaker 1: to a particularly heavy storm front that was believed to

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00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:37,640
Speaker 1: have hit the island during the time of the men's

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00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:42,080
Speaker 1: disappearance as the most likely culprit. A boy that had

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00:18:42,119 --> 00:18:44,320
Speaker 1: been fastened to the railings one hundred and ten feet

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00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:47,760
Speaker 1: up had vanished as well. A large block of stone

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00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:50,720
Speaker 1: weighing upwards of a ton had been clearly dislodged by

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00:18:50,720 --> 00:18:56,199
Speaker 1: something before falling onto the path below. In conclusion, it

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00:18:56,280 --> 00:18:58,480
Speaker 1: was his belief that a freak wave had hit the

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00:18:58,480 --> 00:19:01,360
Speaker 1: island and somehow whisked the men clean from the rock.

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00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:04,760
Speaker 1: The report was published a few weeks later, and the

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00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:15,440
Speaker 1: case was officially closed. There have been many falsehoods surrounding

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00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:18,639
Speaker 1: the Flannenile's mystery, most often to do with reports of

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00:19:18,680 --> 00:19:21,879
Speaker 1: strange recordings apparently found written in the log book shortly

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00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:25,760
Speaker 1: before the men disappeared. They speak of something dark brewing

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00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:30,080
Speaker 1: and the fracturing of the men's mental states. One log

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00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:33,879
Speaker 1: had supposedly noted that all had been calm, suggesting initial

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00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:37,480
Speaker 1: reports of bad weather to have been mistaken in truth.

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00:19:37,840 --> 00:19:40,240
Speaker 1: Thanks to an exhaustive study on the subject by writer

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00:19:40,359 --> 00:19:43,280
Speaker 1: Mike Dash, it appears this part of the story and

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00:19:43,359 --> 00:19:47,280
Speaker 1: some other questionable elements, were in fact fabricated some years

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Speaker 1: after the event. What is known is that the last

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00:19:51,119 --> 00:19:53,920
Speaker 1: recorded log entry seems to have been made on Tuesday,

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00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:58,600
Speaker 1: the fifteenth of December. Needless to say, in the absence

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00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:01,720
Speaker 1: of a satisfactory explanation for the event, many are only

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00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:04,359
Speaker 1: too keen to fill in the vacuum, with theories ranging

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00:20:04,359 --> 00:20:09,840
Speaker 1: from the workings of malicious spirits to straight out alien abduction. Certainly,

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00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:12,880
Speaker 1: at the time of Muwhead's original report, there weren't many

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00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:15,600
Speaker 1: willing to believe the conclusion that a mere wave could

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00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:19,480
Speaker 1: be responsible. After all, such a thing was widely held

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00:20:19,520 --> 00:20:22,720
Speaker 1: to be nothing but a myth itself, or at least

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00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:26,720
Speaker 1: it was. On the first of January nineteen ninety five

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00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:29,840
Speaker 1: measuring equipment located on the Dropner oil rig in the

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00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:32,840
Speaker 1: North Sea, just off the coast of Norway, recorded what

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00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:35,920
Speaker 1: is now considered the first official evidence of a freak wave,

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00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:39,760
Speaker 1: crashing into the platform at a staggering sixty one feet

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00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:45,439
Speaker 1: at peak height. And yet, in twenty thirteen, author and

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00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:49,120
Speaker 1: historian Keith McCloskey conducted his own research into the incident.

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00:20:50,440 --> 00:20:53,280
Speaker 1: Enlisting the help of Eddie Graham, a meteorologist from the

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00:20:53,359 --> 00:20:57,679
Speaker 1: University of Highlands and Islands in Invernesse, McCluskey reanalyzed the

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00:20:57,680 --> 00:20:59,960
Speaker 1: weather patterns for the flann And Isles around the time

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00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:03,840
Speaker 1: of the fifteenth of December nineteen hundred. What he discovered

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00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:08,320
Speaker 1: was startling. Although the weather appears to have indeed been rough,

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00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:11,199
Speaker 1: it certainly wouldn't have been anything that the three seasoned

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00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:16,320
Speaker 1: light keepers hadn't experienced before. What's more, with windspeed estimated

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00:21:16,359 --> 00:21:19,080
Speaker 1: to have peaked at roughly sixty miles per hour, any

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00:21:19,119 --> 00:21:21,960
Speaker 1: waves generated by such a storm would barely have made

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00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:25,679
Speaker 1: it above thirty feet, a fact all the more incredible

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00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:29,720
Speaker 1: when you consider that McCluskey's own findings and Superintendent Murehead's

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00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:32,679
Speaker 1: earlier report suggests that the men would have been at

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00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:35,479
Speaker 1: well over one hundred feet when they were supposedly taken.

340
00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:40,520
Speaker 1: The largest freak wave ever accorded was ninety five feet high,

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00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:43,119
Speaker 1: so if it was a freak wave, it would have

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00:21:43,160 --> 00:21:46,720
Speaker 1: to have been the largest wave ever known. And what

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00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:51,119
Speaker 1: of the strange case of MacArthur's jacket. A senior keeper

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00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:55,119
Speaker 1: of the Northern Lighthouse Board, Alistair Henderson, is insistent that

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00:21:55,240 --> 00:21:58,439
Speaker 1: under any normal circumstances, the lighthouse would never have been

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00:21:58,520 --> 00:22:01,959
Speaker 1: left unattended. It is a fairly standard rule followed by

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00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:05,920
Speaker 1: all lighthouse keepers, let alone one so experienced as Duckett,

348
00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:11,679
Speaker 1: Marshall and MacArthur. Perhaps more disturbingly, referring to the Muwhead report,

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00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:14,439
Speaker 1: it is Henderson's belief that the true events were in

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00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:18,560
Speaker 1: fact covered up. After all, Murehead's was the only official

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00:22:18,600 --> 00:22:21,399
Speaker 1: report to emerge from the incident. There was no fatal

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00:22:21,440 --> 00:22:24,200
Speaker 1: accident report that would have been standard for such an event.

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00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:29,560
Speaker 1: Even more alarmingly, key documentation that contained evidence of everything

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00:22:29,560 --> 00:22:33,600
Speaker 1: that happened on the island disappeared mysteriously after Muhead left

355
00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:39,080
Speaker 1: the island. If MacArthur never left the lighthouse, where exactly

356
00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:42,160
Speaker 1: did he go, or if he did indeed leave the building.

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00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:45,480
Speaker 1: What possible reason could he have had for breaking such

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00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:50,080
Speaker 1: a fundamental convention. Might ultimately MacArthur hold the key to

359
00:22:50,119 --> 00:23:00,720
Speaker 1: the mystery. In an age well before social media and smartphones,

360
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:03,320
Speaker 1: working on the rock in the year nineteen hundred would

361
00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:06,120
Speaker 1: have meant a complete and utter cutoff from all communication

362
00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:10,400
Speaker 1: with the world, a state of affairs comparable to astronauts

363
00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:13,800
Speaker 1: traveling through the isolation of space, who even then are

364
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:16,600
Speaker 1: able to communicate with others on the ground to alleviate

365
00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:21,719
Speaker 1: the psychological confinement. Furthermore, it is a condition that astronauts

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00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:26,240
Speaker 1: today will spend months preparing for under constant psychological analysis,

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00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:29,920
Speaker 1: as scientists seek to determine their capability to endure such

368
00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:34,600
Speaker 1: a situation. Is it possible that MacArthur, who it is reported,

369
00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:37,439
Speaker 1: had worked almost consistently without a break for two and

370
00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:40,760
Speaker 1: a half months leading up to December the fifteenth, had

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00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:46,040
Speaker 1: simply snapped, having been cooped up on what must have

372
00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:48,479
Speaker 1: at times felt like the very edge of the world,

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00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:52,440
Speaker 1: miles from civilisation, with gale force winds battering the coast

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00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:57,760
Speaker 1: all around. The circumstances were certainly ripe. Perhaps with the

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00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:00,240
Speaker 1: other two men having left the building to undertake some

376
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:04,399
Speaker 1: routine operations. MacArthur had simply lost his mind and wandered

377
00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:08,520
Speaker 1: coatless into the storm, bludgeoning his companions to death before

378
00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:12,399
Speaker 1: throwing himself into the waters below. It wouldn't be the

379
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:15,920
Speaker 1: first time that such conditions had driven somebody to madness.

380
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:22,439
Speaker 1: On Thursday, eighteenth of August nineteen sixty, eighteen year old

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00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:25,159
Speaker 1: David Colin and his father had decided to take a

382
00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:28,040
Speaker 1: day trip to visit Ross Island, off the southwest coast

383
00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:32,000
Speaker 1: of Scotland. On the island stood a lighthouse that had

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00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:35,320
Speaker 1: been built in eighteen forty three by Alan Stephenson, another

385
00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:39,920
Speaker 1: uncle of Robert Louis Stephenson. David and his father set

386
00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:42,199
Speaker 1: off from the local sailing club and arrived at the

387
00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:46,919
Speaker 1: island shortly before lunch. As a courtesy, David thought it

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00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:49,560
Speaker 1: right that they should inform the lighthouse keepers that they

389
00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:54,040
Speaker 1: were there. After knocking on the door, David received no response,

390
00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:57,520
Speaker 1: except from a rather over enthusiastic dog that he assumed

391
00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:02,040
Speaker 1: must have belonged to one of the keepers. Unperturbed, David

392
00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:05,280
Speaker 1: and his father returned to their walk, but as the

393
00:25:05,359 --> 00:25:08,760
Speaker 1: day wore on, the keepers had still not returned. The

394
00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:11,240
Speaker 1: only sign of life being the ominous ringing of an

395
00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:17,359
Speaker 1: unanswered telephone coming from inside the lighthouse. Eventually, David's father

396
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:20,959
Speaker 1: plucked up the courage to enter the building. Inside, he

397
00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:25,160
Speaker 1: found lighthouse keeper Hugh Clark dead, with fellow keeper Robert

398
00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:30,560
Speaker 1: Dixon nowhere to be seen. After an extensive manhunt, the

399
00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:33,720
Speaker 1: twenty four year old Dixon was eventually apprehended and brought

400
00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:37,760
Speaker 1: to trial for the murder of Hugh Clark. The trial

401
00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:41,800
Speaker 1: was no less dramatic, as David himself recounts. As Lord

402
00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:45,120
Speaker 1: Cameron donned the hideous black cap and prepared to pronounce

403
00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:48,120
Speaker 1: a sentence of death by hanging, the court room grew

404
00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:52,359
Speaker 1: darker and darker until coinciding with the judge's awful words,

405
00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:55,040
Speaker 1: the court room was shaken by an enormous flash of

406
00:25:55,160 --> 00:26:01,159
Speaker 1: lightning and a colossal peal of thunder. Dixon's execution was

407
00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:05,240
Speaker 1: set for the twenty first of December nineteen sixty. However,

408
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:09,320
Speaker 1: five days prior to the fateful day, Dixon was reprieved

409
00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:11,720
Speaker 1: on account of what was judged to be his unstable

410
00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:15,720
Speaker 1: mental condition at the time of the crime. Robert Dixon's

411
00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:18,880
Speaker 1: apparent moment of psychopathy was thought to have been stimulated

412
00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 1: in no small part by the stress of working in

413
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:24,480
Speaker 1: such close proximity with others in a state of such

414
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:28,959
Speaker 1: intense isolation. Was it a similar fate that befell the

415
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:32,920
Speaker 1: island more keepers? Or was it something even more sinister

416
00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:43,159
Speaker 1: at play? In nineteen o four, four years after the

417
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:47,240
Speaker 1: disappearance of the men, newly installed lighthouse keeper John McLachlan

418
00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:49,960
Speaker 1: was cleaning the glass casing of the light when he

419
00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:53,720
Speaker 1: slipped and fell to his death. Counting the foreman who

420
00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:57,240
Speaker 1: died shortly before the lighthouse opened, five people had died

421
00:26:57,240 --> 00:26:59,480
Speaker 1: on the island in less than five years since the

422
00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:03,600
Speaker 1: lighthouse was constructed. No other lighthouse in the UK has

423
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:07,880
Speaker 1: been beset by such tragedy. Was the island simply cursed

424
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:10,879
Speaker 1: by what locals sometimes refer to as the phantom of

425
00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,600
Speaker 1: the hunters taking its revenge for the careless invasion of

426
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 1: its unearthly realm. In the memoirs written by relief keeper

427
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:23,040
Speaker 1: Joseph Moore many years later, it is clear that the

428
00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:27,159
Speaker 1: event had affected him profoundly. Thinking back on that chilly

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Speaker 1: December day in nineteen hundred that he first came upon

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Speaker 1: the empty lighthouse, he writes of a mysterious event from

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00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:37,639
Speaker 1: the night before. That night, he hadn't been sleeping well,

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Speaker 1: and for some reason had been drawn to the window

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00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:43,399
Speaker 1: looking out. He thought that he saw the boat house

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Speaker 1: on fire, but when he investigated further, he found it

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00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:50,400
Speaker 1: to be just a figment of his imagination. He knew

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00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:54,760
Speaker 1: instantly that it was a portent for something awful, detailing

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00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:57,960
Speaker 1: again the event, which he described as very strange. Indeed,

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Speaker 1: he believed as all to be cast in some way.

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Speaker 1: In truth, we will never know exactly what happened on

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Speaker 1: that cold December day in nineteen hundred. On September twenty eighth,

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00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:15,879
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one, the eileen More Lighthouse became fully automated

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00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:20,720
Speaker 1: and continues to guide ships through the dark North Atlantic nights.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps what appeals most about this story is the sheer

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00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:29,239
Speaker 1: improbability of the most rational explanation. But might there be

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Speaker 1: something else, something that strikes at the very heart of

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Speaker 1: all of us? For aren't we all, in a way

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00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:39,040
Speaker 1: keepers of the light, isolated on a rock forever on

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00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:41,880
Speaker 1: the verge of being swept from existence by a giant

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00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:46,760
Speaker 1: mythical wave. And for what it's worth, my own view

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Speaker 1: as intriguing the notion is that the men were the

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00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:53,200
Speaker 1: unfortunate victims of some other worldly event. I believe what

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00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:56,840
Speaker 1: occurred was a little more prosaic, but no less extraordinary.

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00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:01,320
Speaker 1: For is there anything more incredible than the notion that MacArthur,

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Speaker 1: having watched his colleagues become endangered by some unfathomable storm,

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00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:08,840
Speaker 1: had rushed from the safety of the lighthouse to help them,

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Speaker 1: and in so doing had lost his own life in

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00:29:11,400 --> 00:29:15,440
Speaker 1: the process. That ultimately it was in trying to protect

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00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:18,120
Speaker 1: the lives of each other and the many others passing

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00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:22,000
Speaker 1: by on the stormy seas that these ordinary folk, doing

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00:29:22,040 --> 00:29:26,040
Speaker 1: a job that was far from ordinary, lost their lives.

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Speaker 1: When I think about this story, i'm reminded of Cormack

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00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:40,000
Speaker 1: McCarthy's incredible post apocalyptic novel The Road, And forgive me

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00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:42,200
Speaker 1: for those who haven't read it, as this will contain

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00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:46,600
Speaker 1: a spoiler. The Road details a terminal, obleaqu journey of

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Speaker 1: survival as one man and his son try to reach

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00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:51,800
Speaker 1: the south coast of America in the aftermath of a

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00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:56,480
Speaker 1: catastrophic event. As they grow increasingly weak and the journey

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00:29:56,480 --> 00:30:00,040
Speaker 1: becomes more and more dangerous, the father fights desperately to

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00:29:59,840 --> 00:30:03,120
Speaker 1: g keep his son from harm. He tells him they

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Speaker 1: must survive because they are the good guys who are

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00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:10,320
Speaker 1: carrying the fire. The phrase seems glib, but it's enough

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00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:12,800
Speaker 1: to keep the boy going, even though he doesn't quite

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00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:16,960
Speaker 1: get it, and nor do we really, that is until

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00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:19,760
Speaker 1: the novel's fateful end, when both we and the boy

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00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:28,720
Speaker 1: finally understand the fire was him.

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Speaker 2: Those three men dwell on flattered isle. It's a kihi

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00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:47,680
Speaker 2: the lamp lie as westd under the lee. We can't

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00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:54,920
Speaker 2: no glimmer through the night. A passing ship at dawn

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00:30:55,280 --> 00:31:05,479
Speaker 2: had bra the news, and we said, saying, to find

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Speaker 2: out what strange thing? Why all the keepers of the

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Speaker 2: deep sea life? The winter day broke blue.

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Speaker 1: And fry.

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Speaker 2: With a glancing sun and a glancing spray. As for

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00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:39,960
Speaker 2: the swell above made way as gallant has a goal

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00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:50,480
Speaker 2: in flight, But as we need the lonely I looked

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00:31:50,640 --> 00:32:00,400
Speaker 2: up at the naked high saw the lighthouse towering, why

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00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:07,560
Speaker 2: with blind de lanter that all night had never share

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00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:10,880
Speaker 2: a spar of comfort through the.

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Speaker 1: Doll Unexplained is an Avy Club Productions podcast created by

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00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:43,280
Speaker 1: Richard McClain Smith. All other elements of the podcast, including

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00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:48,680
Speaker 1: the music, were also produced by me Richard McClean smith Unexplained.

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00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:52,200
Speaker 1: The book and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide.

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00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:56,640
Speaker 1: You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and

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00:32:56,720 --> 00:33:01,080
Speaker 1: other bookstores. Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever

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00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:03,680
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, and feel free to get in

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00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:07,280
Speaker 1: touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've

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00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:10,000
Speaker 1: heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of

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00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:12,760
Speaker 1: your own you'd like to share. You can find out

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00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:16,560
Speaker 1: more at Unexplained podcast dot com and reach us online

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Speaker 1: Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast