Speaker 1: With Unexplained on a short break, We're dipping into the
Speaker 1: archives again. This week's story is a true ghost of
Speaker 1: Christmas past, reaching out to us from almost one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty four years to the day. It was late
Speaker 1: one night on December twenty sixth, nineteen hundred when a
Speaker 1: telegram was received by the Northern Lighthouse Board. It was
Speaker 1: sent by a member of a rescue crew dispatched to
Speaker 1: the Flannan Isles, the site of the UK's most remote lighthouse,
Speaker 1: located way out in the Atlantic, beyond any sign of civilization.
Speaker 1: They were sent to investigate why the light was no
Speaker 1: longer shining. The telegram read, A dreadful accident has happened
Speaker 1: at the Flannins. The keepers have disappeared from the island.
Speaker 1: This is Unexplained, Season one, episode eight, when the Light fades.
Speaker 1: When I'm considering what stories to feature on the show,
Speaker 1: there are really only a few criteria that must be met. Firstly,
Speaker 1: it has to be more than just an event. There
Speaker 1: must be a story, a set of events with which
Speaker 1: to thread and weave our way through. Secondly, that there
Speaker 1: be something ultimately very human in the tales. And last,
Speaker 1: but by no means least that the peculiarity of the
Speaker 1: story has yet to be satisfactorily explained. Of all the
Speaker 1: unexplained mysteries I have come across so far, there is
Speaker 1: one that for me has left the most indelible impression.
Speaker 1: As far as mysteries go, you couldn't invent a better story.
Speaker 1: A story that has over time led to some of
Speaker 1: the most extraordinary of speculations, and has since evolved a
Speaker 1: folklore all of its own. This is that story you're
Speaker 1: listening to, unexplained, and I'm Richard McLean Smith. The Flannan Isles,
Speaker 1: also known as the Seven Hunters, are located at the
Speaker 1: farthest reaches of the Scottish Outer Hebrides, a collection of
Speaker 1: seven rocky islands, they form a small but majestic archipelago
Speaker 1: of startling isolation. To the east, approximately seventy miles away,
Speaker 1: lies the Isle of Lewis. To the south, by forty
Speaker 1: miles the deserted Isle of Saint Kilda, and if you
Speaker 1: were to venture west, you would need to travel more
Speaker 1: than two thousand miles of uninterrupted ocean before hitting the
Speaker 1: coastline of North America. The Flannan Isles are named after
Speaker 1: an Irish priest known as Saint Flannan, who is believed
Speaker 1: to have made his home on the islands as far
Speaker 1: back as the seventh century. The remains the chapel in
Speaker 1: which Saint Flannan is thought to have lived can still
Speaker 1: be found on eilean Moore, the groups Its largest island,
Speaker 1: translated from Gallic to mean simply big island Islean Moore
Speaker 1: rears out of the sea, a vast hulk of gray
Speaker 1: black rock, topped by a rugged grassy plateau, its sheer
Speaker 1: cliffs measuring well over one hundred feet, with its highest
Speaker 1: point reaching almost three hundred feet. Although uninhabited, many crofters
Speaker 1: from nearby Lewis would regularly visit the islands in the
Speaker 1: summer months to graze their sheep. Others would arrived to
Speaker 1: pill for eggs and feathers from the island's bountiful population
Speaker 1: of sea birds. Over time, due in no small part
Speaker 1: to the association with Saint Flannan, the island developed a
Speaker 1: strange mystique all of its own, becoming a place of
Speaker 1: inherent sanctity to many of those who visited. To view
Speaker 1: the island in its isolation, it is easy to understand
Speaker 1: the ore with which it would have filled those early visitors.
Speaker 1: There were many who believed, and some still do, that
Speaker 1: the Isles were a place of great otherworldly magic, home
Speaker 1: to a host of fairies and nature spirits, and not
Speaker 1: all of them good, an attitude borne out in the
Speaker 1: customs and superstitions of any person daring to set foot
Speaker 1: on one of the Seven Hunters. If, when approaching the
Speaker 1: islands on an easterly wind, the gust were to suddenly switch,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't think twice before turning the boat around and
Speaker 1: heading straight back home. For any that arrived successfully, it
Speaker 1: was customary to immediately uncover the head before performing a
Speaker 1: complete turn clockwise while thanking God for your safety. So
Speaker 1: you can imagine the sense of trepidation many would have
Speaker 1: felt when it was announced that a lighthouse would be
Speaker 1: erected on the especially sacred Eileen More, a sense of
Speaker 1: trepidation that was somewhat justified when barely more than a
Speaker 1: year after opening, the lighthouse was to become the tragic
Speaker 1: scene of one of the UK's most enduring of mysteries.
Speaker 1: What exactly happened on the island some time in December
Speaker 1: in the year nineteen hundred has never been fully accounted.
Speaker 1: For it is quite simply a mystery that remains to
Speaker 1: this day unexplained. In seventeen eighty two, a series of
Speaker 1: ferocious storms batted the Scottish coast, resulting in the deaths
Speaker 1: of many seamen, including those of two herring boats that
Speaker 1: were smashed on the rocks of the Kintyre Peninsula on
Speaker 1: the West coast. As a result, the Northern Lighthouse Board
Speaker 1: was established to oversee the construction of a number of
Speaker 1: lighthouses to be stationed on the most treacherous of Scottish coastlands. Although,
Speaker 1: as ever initially motivated by trade, the ensuing feat of
Speaker 1: engineering was driven by a genuine desire characteristic of the
Speaker 1: Scottish Enlightenment, to work not for individual prestige, but for
Speaker 1: the greater good of mankind. Leading the team of engineers
Speaker 1: was Thomas Smith, the great grandfather of none other than
Speaker 1: famed Scottish author Robert Louis Stephenson. Although the family profession
Speaker 1: would prove ultimately unfitting for Robert, it was nonetheless his
Speaker 1: uncle David who oversaw the construction of the lighthouse on
Speaker 1: Island Moor. However, it would be some time before such
Speaker 1: a plan would come to fruition. Maybe it was concern
Speaker 1: over the exposure of such a location to the harshest
Speaker 1: of the Atlantic's uncompromising weather, or perhaps it was a
Speaker 1: reluctance to build on such mystical ground. But finally, after
Speaker 1: forty years of pleading, the Lighthouse Board agreed to the construction.
Speaker 1: The build began in eighteen ninety four and was due
Speaker 1: to take two years, but was beset by the tumultuous
Speaker 1: weather and even rougher seas characteristic of the area. The
Speaker 1: lighthouse was to be built on the south side of
Speaker 1: the island, where the rock reaches its highest point, surrounded
Speaker 1: on both sides by sheer cliffs, none of which were
Speaker 1: less than one hundred fifty feet in height, meaning that
Speaker 1: all supplies had to be hauled by hand up the
Speaker 1: cliff side. A perilous set of steps were carved into
Speaker 1: the rock leading to the building. At the top for support,
Speaker 1: there was only a modest iron railing to remind you
Speaker 1: of the rocky peril that lay in weight for anyone
Speaker 1: foolish enough to deviate from the path. Such was the
Speaker 1: steep incline of the steps. A small service railway was installed,
Speaker 1: where a cable supported railcar could be used to transport
Speaker 1: heavy goods to and from the landing platform. Shortly before
Speaker 1: the build was completed, the foreman, Mister D's died suddenly,
Speaker 1: an event that in hindsight could be considered a disturbing
Speaker 1: portent of what was to come. It certainly wouldn't have
Speaker 1: been lost on many of the construction workers, well accustomed
Speaker 1: with the superstitions related to the island. Nevertheless, a full
Speaker 1: two years after construction was due to complete, on the
Speaker 1: first of December eighteen ninety nine, the one hundred forty
Speaker 1: thousand candle power lamp, perched atop a majestic white tower
Speaker 1: two hundred seventy five feet above sea level, was lit
Speaker 1: for the first time as the rotation device kicked into life.
Speaker 1: Out of the darkness shone a beam of light, illuminating
Speaker 1: the black North Atlantic waters for miles around. Though were
Speaker 1: fore keepers required to operate the newly opened lighthouse as
Speaker 1: a psychological necessity, there would only be three men on
Speaker 1: the island at any given time, while the fourth took
Speaker 1: a fortnight's leave. The first man to be stationed on
Speaker 1: the island was forty three year old principal keeper and
Speaker 1: married father of four, James Duckett, a seasoned lighthouse practitioner
Speaker 1: with over twenty years of experience. James hailed from ar
Speaker 1: Broth on the east coast of Scotland. He would later
Speaker 1: be joined by first assistant keeper William Ross and twenty
Speaker 1: eight year old second assistant keeper Thomas Marshall. As the
Speaker 1: first Christmas of the New century approached, Ross was forced
Speaker 1: off the island due to ill health, with regular light
Speaker 1: keeper Joseph Moore not due for a further two weeks.
Speaker 1: Ross was replaced by forty year old occasional keeper and
Speaker 1: ex soldier Donald MacArthur. Donald, who was also married with children,
Speaker 1: hailed from the nearby town of Breiscleet on the Isle
Speaker 1: of Lewis. I often wonder how it might have felt
Speaker 1: for the men returning to the lighthouse after their regulatory
Speaker 1: breaks at that moment, having stepped off the delivery boat,
Speaker 1: watching the last contact with civilization disappear from view. Perhaps
Speaker 1: there was some relief at returning to the quiet sanctuary
Speaker 1: away from the daily hassles of life. Or perhaps it
Speaker 1: was more with great sadness that they found themselves again
Speaker 1: alone on a distant rock, far away from their wives
Speaker 1: and children. With the switch over completed on eleventh of December,
Speaker 1: MacArthur promptly banished all thoughts of home and quickly settled
Speaker 1: into his role. As the night approached, the men set
Speaker 1: about doing what they did best, duly noting the day's
Speaker 1: observations in the lighthouse log book. At the end of
Speaker 1: the day, with the familiar sounds of a North Atlantic
Speaker 1: storm rattling around the island, the men settled in for
Speaker 1: the night as a waning moon appeared in the sky above.
Speaker 1: Down below the island, moor light shone far and wide,
Speaker 1: as it had done for every other night of its
Speaker 1: year long life. The first sign of trouble came at
Speaker 1: midday on Tuesday, December fifteenth, Roughly one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: miles to the northwest of the Seven Hunters, a cargo
Speaker 1: ship named S s Arch Tour was making steady progress
Speaker 1: on her route toward the port of Leith in Edinburgh.
Speaker 1: The steamship, captained by Thomas John Holman, had left the
Speaker 1: American city of Philadelphia on the twenty eighth of November
Speaker 1: carrying over four and a half thousand tons of cargo.
Speaker 1: Although most of the voyage had been beset by stormy
Speaker 1: weather by late afternoon on the fifteenth, the storm had
Speaker 1: abated somewhat, leaving fine, clear skies above a few hours later,
Speaker 1: and the ship was fast approaching the Flannan Isles. On
Speaker 1: deck stood a greatly perturbed Captain Holman. By his estimation,
Speaker 1: they should have been no more than five miles from
Speaker 1: Eileen Moore, But as he stood under the vast expansive sky,
Speaker 1: surrounded by only the darkest of seas, he could not
Speaker 1: make out any sign of the lighthouse, or, more precisely,
Speaker 1: its light, the beam of which on a night such
Speaker 1: as this, would have been visible for over twenty miles.
Speaker 1: Assuming a miscalculation on his part, Captain Holman continued to
Speaker 1: steer the vessel on its course towards Edinburgh. The following day, however,
Speaker 1: the ship appeared clearly to be plotting a correct course.
Speaker 1: The captain resolved to uncover the discrepancy of the night before,
Speaker 1: but was almost surprised to find nothing wrong with his calculations.
Speaker 1: The ship had indeed passed by the lighthouse, so where
Speaker 1: then was the light disturbed by the apparent blackout of
Speaker 1: the lighthouse, Captain Holman planned to report the matter to
Speaker 1: the relevant authorities on arrival to Leith. Unfortunately, that message
Speaker 1: never arrived. Two days later, Captain Holman and the SS
Speaker 1: arch Tour ran aground on the approach to Leith Port.
Speaker 1: Perhaps it was the shock of the event that had
Speaker 1: dislodged the Flanninisles from Captain Holman's mind, or perhaps with
Speaker 1: his navigation skills now under heavy scrutiny, he was reluctant
Speaker 1: to bring up the possible miscalculation from the two nights before.
Speaker 1: With no news to the contrary, the lighthouse board would
Speaker 1: have no reason to think anything strange had taken place
Speaker 1: on Eileen Moore. But with the next rotation of keepers
Speaker 1: due a few days later, all that was about to change.
Speaker 1: On the twenty sixth of December nineteen hundred, the lighthouse
Speaker 1: tender boat, a long steamer named the Hespiras, made its
Speaker 1: way towards the largest of the Flannan Isles. The ship
Speaker 1: had been due to arrive the previous day, but severe
Speaker 1: storms in the area had delayed its departure. On board
Speaker 1: was regular keeper Joseph Moore, who was scheduled to start
Speaker 1: his latest shift that day, But as Captain James Harvey
Speaker 1: brought the ship closer to land, it was clear that
Speaker 1: something wasn't right. It was common practice for the keepers
Speaker 1: to raise a flag in preparation for the next rotation,
Speaker 1: but as Captain Harvey scoured the island, he could see
Speaker 1: no sign of the flag. His concern turned to alarm
Speaker 1: when several blasts from the ship's horn brought no response
Speaker 1: from the three light keepers. The subsequent firing of a
Speaker 1: distress rocket again failed to yield any response. Greatly unnerved,
Speaker 1: the captain ordered the rowboat into the water and sent
Speaker 1: Joseph Moore to investigate. It is difficult to imagine just
Speaker 1: what was going through Moore's mind as the small boat
Speaker 1: pulled up below those towering cliffs, the gray, murky waters,
Speaker 1: seeming unusually calm for the bitterly cold December day, Moore
Speaker 1: stepped off the boat and cautiously made his way up
Speaker 1: the steep stone steps. As he approached the summit, the
Speaker 1: top of the light house came into view. Passing the
Speaker 1: ruins of the ancient chapel. He called out to the men,
Speaker 1: but again there was no reply, no familiar faces to
Speaker 1: greet him. Something was deeply wrong. A short time later,
Speaker 1: Moore arrived outside the lighthouse and slowly opened the front door.
Speaker 1: What he discovered has formed the basis for one of
Speaker 1: the greatest maritime mysteries of modern times. After entering the lighthouse,
Speaker 1: he found the inside door also closed, but curiously, the
Speaker 1: kitchen door was wide open. The fireplace was cold, indicating
Speaker 1: it had not been lit for some days. One of
Speaker 1: the chairs appeared to have been pushed away from the table,
Speaker 1: perhaps in a hurry. The rest of the room was
Speaker 1: spotlessly clean. When he entered the bedrooms, he found them empty,
Speaker 1: left as they would have been since the morning. In fact,
Speaker 1: everything was in perfect order. The lamp for the light
Speaker 1: was clean, the foundation was full, and the blinds on
Speaker 1: the windows correctly orientated. The only thing that was missing
Speaker 1: was the men. They had simply vanished from the face
Speaker 1: of the earth. As if to add a further twist,
Speaker 1: Moore also noticed that every clock in the building had stopped.
Speaker 1: The thoroughly spooke Moore returned to the row boat and
Speaker 1: requested the help of second mate McCormack, who, along with
Speaker 1: another seaman, followed Moore back to the lighthouse to renew
Speaker 1: the search of the area. Unable to find any clues
Speaker 1: as to what had happened, the three men promptly returned
Speaker 1: to the boat and made their way back to the Herspiris. Ever,
Speaker 1: the professional Captain Harvey's first instinct was to make sure
Speaker 1: that the light would be up and running again. That night.
Speaker 1: Moore was ordered to return to the island along with
Speaker 1: three volunteers, the boy Master Alan MacDonald and two seamen,
Speaker 1: Messrs Campbell and Lamont. Having dropped the men off again,
Speaker 1: Captain Harvey set off immediately for Braiscleet in Lewis. Later
Speaker 1: that day, Harvey sent his now infamous telegram to the
Speaker 1: Secretary of the Northern Lighthouse Board in Edinburgh, the immortal
Speaker 1: first line, reading, A dreadful accident has happened at Flannet's,
Speaker 1: but the mystery had only just begun that first night.
Speaker 1: Taking over from the missing lighthouse keepers would not have
Speaker 1: been easy for the four volunteers, having no doubt been
Speaker 1: upset by the turn of events. It would have taken
Speaker 1: some strength to stop their minds from wondering as to
Speaker 1: what exactly had taken place. It would have been a
Speaker 1: very somber night. Indeed, the following day, Moore and his
Speaker 1: companions renewed their search of the island, but found no
Speaker 1: clues to help with their investigation. That was until they
Speaker 1: came across the western landing point. Approaching the landing, the
Speaker 1: men found that a number of iron railings of the
Speaker 1: tramway had been ripped from their foundations and mangled out
Speaker 1: of shape. A box containing mooring ropes had vanished despite
Speaker 1: having been firmly wedged into a crevice and then anchored.
Speaker 1: Despite some of the more fanciful thoughts that may have
Speaker 1: sprung to mind, the first assumptions of the replacement crew
Speaker 1: centered on some kind of freak storm that may have
Speaker 1: blown the men from the island. However, when Moore submitted
Speaker 1: his report at the events two days later, it contained
Speaker 1: one startling detail. All men stationed at Eilean Moor had
Speaker 1: a set of wet weather were to cope with the
Speaker 1: extreme conditions. In the case of Ducket and Marshal, this
Speaker 1: took the form of weather proof boots and oil skin coats. MacArthur, however,
Speaker 1: only being an occasional keeper, was not so well equipped
Speaker 1: and had only what he called his wearing coat at
Speaker 1: his disposal. When Moore searched the lighthouse, he discovered Duckett
Speaker 1: and Marshall's gear was missing, but MacArthur's coat was still
Speaker 1: on its peg, which could only mean that whatever had happened,
Speaker 1: MacArthur had left the lighthouse in his shirt sleeves, a
Speaker 1: strange fact if you consider just how severe the weather
Speaker 1: must have been to blow the men from the island.
Speaker 1: What could possibly have happened that would send MacArthur running
Speaker 1: out into a severe storm without his jacket. A few
Speaker 1: days later, the Northern Lighthouse Board sent Superintendent Robert Muirhead
Speaker 1: to investigate further. Muwhead confirmed More's initial findings and pointed
Speaker 1: to a particularly heavy storm front that was believed to
Speaker 1: have hit the island during the time of the men's
Speaker 1: disappearance as the most likely culprit. A boy that had
Speaker 1: been fastened to the railings one hundred and ten feet
Speaker 1: up had vanished as well. A large block of stone
Speaker 1: weighing upwards of a ton had been clearly dislodged by
Speaker 1: something before falling onto the path below. In conclusion, it
Speaker 1: was his belief that a freak wave had hit the
Speaker 1: island and somehow whisked the men clean from the rock.
Speaker 1: The report was published a few weeks later, and the
Speaker 1: case was officially closed. There have been many falsehoods surrounding
Speaker 1: the Flannenile's mystery, most often to do with reports of
Speaker 1: strange recordings apparently found written in the log book shortly
Speaker 1: before the men disappeared. They speak of something dark brewing
Speaker 1: and the fracturing of the men's mental states. One log
Speaker 1: had supposedly noted that all had been calm, suggesting initial
Speaker 1: reports of bad weather to have been mistaken in truth.
Speaker 1: Thanks to an exhaustive study on the subject by writer
Speaker 1: Mike Dash, it appears this part of the story and
Speaker 1: some other questionable elements, were in fact fabricated some years
Speaker 1: after the event. What is known is that the last
Speaker 1: recorded log entry seems to have been made on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: the fifteenth of December. Needless to say, in the absence
Speaker 1: of a satisfactory explanation for the event, many are only
Speaker 1: too keen to fill in the vacuum, with theories ranging
Speaker 1: from the workings of malicious spirits to straight out alien abduction. Certainly,
Speaker 1: at the time of Muwhead's original report, there weren't many
Speaker 1: willing to believe the conclusion that a mere wave could
Speaker 1: be responsible. After all, such a thing was widely held
Speaker 1: to be nothing but a myth itself, or at least
Speaker 1: it was. On the first of January nineteen ninety five
Speaker 1: measuring equipment located on the Dropner oil rig in the
Speaker 1: North Sea, just off the coast of Norway, recorded what
Speaker 1: is now considered the first official evidence of a freak wave,
Speaker 1: crashing into the platform at a staggering sixty one feet
Speaker 1: at peak height. And yet, in twenty thirteen, author and
Speaker 1: historian Keith McCloskey conducted his own research into the incident.
Speaker 1: Enlisting the help of Eddie Graham, a meteorologist from the
Speaker 1: University of Highlands and Islands in Invernesse, McCluskey reanalyzed the
Speaker 1: weather patterns for the flann And Isles around the time
Speaker 1: of the fifteenth of December nineteen hundred. What he discovered
Speaker 1: was startling. Although the weather appears to have indeed been rough,
Speaker 1: it certainly wouldn't have been anything that the three seasoned
Speaker 1: light keepers hadn't experienced before. What's more, with windspeed estimated
Speaker 1: to have peaked at roughly sixty miles per hour, any
Speaker 1: waves generated by such a storm would barely have made
Speaker 1: it above thirty feet, a fact all the more incredible
Speaker 1: when you consider that McCluskey's own findings and Superintendent Murehead's
Speaker 1: earlier report suggests that the men would have been at
Speaker 1: well over one hundred feet when they were supposedly taken.
Speaker 1: The largest freak wave ever accorded was ninety five feet high,
Speaker 1: so if it was a freak wave, it would have
Speaker 1: to have been the largest wave ever known. And what
Speaker 1: of the strange case of MacArthur's jacket. A senior keeper
Speaker 1: of the Northern Lighthouse Board, Alistair Henderson, is insistent that
Speaker 1: under any normal circumstances, the lighthouse would never have been
Speaker 1: left unattended. It is a fairly standard rule followed by
Speaker 1: all lighthouse keepers, let alone one so experienced as Duckett,
Speaker 1: Marshall and MacArthur. Perhaps more disturbingly, referring to the Muwhead report,
Speaker 1: it is Henderson's belief that the true events were in
Speaker 1: fact covered up. After all, Murehead's was the only official
Speaker 1: report to emerge from the incident. There was no fatal
Speaker 1: accident report that would have been standard for such an event.
Speaker 1: Even more alarmingly, key documentation that contained evidence of everything
Speaker 1: that happened on the island disappeared mysteriously after Muhead left
Speaker 1: the island. If MacArthur never left the lighthouse, where exactly
Speaker 1: did he go, or if he did indeed leave the building.
Speaker 1: What possible reason could he have had for breaking such
Speaker 1: a fundamental convention. Might ultimately MacArthur hold the key to
Speaker 1: the mystery. In an age well before social media and smartphones,
Speaker 1: working on the rock in the year nineteen hundred would
Speaker 1: have meant a complete and utter cutoff from all communication
Speaker 1: with the world, a state of affairs comparable to astronauts
Speaker 1: traveling through the isolation of space, who even then are
Speaker 1: able to communicate with others on the ground to alleviate
Speaker 1: the psychological confinement. Furthermore, it is a condition that astronauts
Speaker 1: today will spend months preparing for under constant psychological analysis,
Speaker 1: as scientists seek to determine their capability to endure such
Speaker 1: a situation. Is it possible that MacArthur, who it is reported,
Speaker 1: had worked almost consistently without a break for two and
Speaker 1: a half months leading up to December the fifteenth, had
Speaker 1: simply snapped, having been cooped up on what must have
Speaker 1: at times felt like the very edge of the world,
Speaker 1: miles from civilisation, with gale force winds battering the coast
Speaker 1: all around. The circumstances were certainly ripe. Perhaps with the
Speaker 1: other two men having left the building to undertake some
Speaker 1: routine operations. MacArthur had simply lost his mind and wandered
Speaker 1: coatless into the storm, bludgeoning his companions to death before
Speaker 1: throwing himself into the waters below. It wouldn't be the
Speaker 1: first time that such conditions had driven somebody to madness.
Speaker 1: On Thursday, eighteenth of August nineteen sixty, eighteen year old
Speaker 1: David Colin and his father had decided to take a
Speaker 1: day trip to visit Ross Island, off the southwest coast
Speaker 1: of Scotland. On the island stood a lighthouse that had
Speaker 1: been built in eighteen forty three by Alan Stephenson, another
Speaker 1: uncle of Robert Louis Stephenson. David and his father set
Speaker 1: off from the local sailing club and arrived at the
Speaker 1: island shortly before lunch. As a courtesy, David thought it
Speaker 1: right that they should inform the lighthouse keepers that they
Speaker 1: were there. After knocking on the door, David received no response,
Speaker 1: except from a rather over enthusiastic dog that he assumed
Speaker 1: must have belonged to one of the keepers. Unperturbed, David
Speaker 1: and his father returned to their walk, but as the
Speaker 1: day wore on, the keepers had still not returned. The
Speaker 1: only sign of life being the ominous ringing of an
Speaker 1: unanswered telephone coming from inside the lighthouse. Eventually, David's father
Speaker 1: plucked up the courage to enter the building. Inside, he
Speaker 1: found lighthouse keeper Hugh Clark dead, with fellow keeper Robert
Speaker 1: Dixon nowhere to be seen. After an extensive manhunt, the
Speaker 1: twenty four year old Dixon was eventually apprehended and brought
Speaker 1: to trial for the murder of Hugh Clark. The trial
Speaker 1: was no less dramatic, as David himself recounts. As Lord
Speaker 1: Cameron donned the hideous black cap and prepared to pronounce
Speaker 1: a sentence of death by hanging, the court room grew
Speaker 1: darker and darker until coinciding with the judge's awful words,
Speaker 1: the court room was shaken by an enormous flash of
Speaker 1: lightning and a colossal peal of thunder. Dixon's execution was
Speaker 1: set for the twenty first of December nineteen sixty. However,
Speaker 1: five days prior to the fateful day, Dixon was reprieved
Speaker 1: on account of what was judged to be his unstable
Speaker 1: mental condition at the time of the crime. Robert Dixon's
Speaker 1: apparent moment of psychopathy was thought to have been stimulated
Speaker 1: in no small part by the stress of working in
Speaker 1: such close proximity with others in a state of such
Speaker 1: intense isolation. Was it a similar fate that befell the
Speaker 1: island more keepers? Or was it something even more sinister
Speaker 1: at play? In nineteen o four, four years after the
Speaker 1: disappearance of the men, newly installed lighthouse keeper John McLachlan
Speaker 1: was cleaning the glass casing of the light when he
Speaker 1: slipped and fell to his death. Counting the foreman who
Speaker 1: died shortly before the lighthouse opened, five people had died
Speaker 1: on the island in less than five years since the
Speaker 1: lighthouse was constructed. No other lighthouse in the UK has
Speaker 1: been beset by such tragedy. Was the island simply cursed
Speaker 1: by what locals sometimes refer to as the phantom of
Speaker 1: the hunters taking its revenge for the careless invasion of
Speaker 1: its unearthly realm. In the memoirs written by relief keeper
Speaker 1: Joseph Moore many years later, it is clear that the
Speaker 1: event had affected him profoundly. Thinking back on that chilly
Speaker 1: December day in nineteen hundred that he first came upon
Speaker 1: the empty lighthouse, he writes of a mysterious event from
Speaker 1: the night before. That night, he hadn't been sleeping well,
Speaker 1: and for some reason had been drawn to the window
Speaker 1: looking out. He thought that he saw the boat house
Speaker 1: on fire, but when he investigated further, he found it
Speaker 1: to be just a figment of his imagination. He knew
Speaker 1: instantly that it was a portent for something awful, detailing
Speaker 1: again the event, which he described as very strange. Indeed,
Speaker 1: he believed as all to be cast in some way.
Speaker 1: In truth, we will never know exactly what happened on
Speaker 1: that cold December day in nineteen hundred. On September twenty eighth,
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one, the eileen More Lighthouse became fully automated
Speaker 1: and continues to guide ships through the dark North Atlantic nights.
Speaker 1: Perhaps what appeals most about this story is the sheer
Speaker 1: improbability of the most rational explanation. But might there be
Speaker 1: something else, something that strikes at the very heart of
Speaker 1: all of us? For aren't we all, in a way
Speaker 1: keepers of the light, isolated on a rock forever on
Speaker 1: the verge of being swept from existence by a giant
Speaker 1: mythical wave. And for what it's worth, my own view
Speaker 1: as intriguing the notion is that the men were the
Speaker 1: unfortunate victims of some other worldly event. I believe what
Speaker 1: occurred was a little more prosaic, but no less extraordinary.
Speaker 1: For is there anything more incredible than the notion that MacArthur,
Speaker 1: having watched his colleagues become endangered by some unfathomable storm,
Speaker 1: had rushed from the safety of the lighthouse to help them,
Speaker 1: and in so doing had lost his own life in
Speaker 1: the process. That ultimately it was in trying to protect
Speaker 1: the lives of each other and the many others passing
Speaker 1: by on the stormy seas that these ordinary folk, doing
Speaker 1: a job that was far from ordinary, lost their lives.
Speaker 1: When I think about this story, i'm reminded of Cormack
Speaker 1: McCarthy's incredible post apocalyptic novel The Road, And forgive me
Speaker 1: for those who haven't read it, as this will contain
Speaker 1: a spoiler. The Road details a terminal, obleaqu journey of
Speaker 1: survival as one man and his son try to reach
Speaker 1: the south coast of America in the aftermath of a
Speaker 1: catastrophic event. As they grow increasingly weak and the journey
Speaker 1: becomes more and more dangerous, the father fights desperately to
Speaker 1: g keep his son from harm. He tells him they
Speaker 1: must survive because they are the good guys who are
Speaker 1: carrying the fire. The phrase seems glib, but it's enough
Speaker 1: to keep the boy going, even though he doesn't quite
Speaker 1: get it, and nor do we really, that is until
Speaker 1: the novel's fateful end, when both we and the boy
Speaker 1: finally understand the fire was him.
Speaker 2: Those three men dwell on flattered isle. It's a kihi
Speaker 2: the lamp lie as westd under the lee. We can't
Speaker 2: no glimmer through the night. A passing ship at dawn
Speaker 2: had bra the news, and we said, saying, to find
Speaker 2: out what strange thing? Why all the keepers of the
Speaker 2: deep sea life? The winter day broke blue.
Speaker 1: And fry.
Speaker 2: With a glancing sun and a glancing spray. As for
Speaker 2: the swell above made way as gallant has a goal
Speaker 2: in flight, But as we need the lonely I looked
Speaker 2: up at the naked high saw the lighthouse towering, why
Speaker 2: with blind de lanter that all night had never share
Speaker 2: a spar of comfort through the.
Speaker 1: Doll Unexplained is an Avy Club Productions podcast created by
Speaker 1: Richard McClain Smith. All other elements of the podcast, including
Speaker 1: the music, were also produced by me Richard McClean smith Unexplained.
Speaker 1: The book and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide.
Speaker 1: You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and
Speaker 1: other bookstores. Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, and feel free to get in
Speaker 1: touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've
Speaker 1: heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of
Speaker 1: your own you'd like to share. You can find out
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