Eilean Mor

The lights are on but no one's home.

This is a strange case, or at least it appears to be at first. Many have wondered about this and come up with some bizarre explanations for what they think happened here. There is nothing to support these wild claims as far as I can tell, but
peoples fascination with the strange and unusual often lead them to come up with strange and unusual ideas. 

If you ask me though, this is an open and shut case.

 

 

 

In December 1900, three lighthouse keepers mysteriously disappeared from the Eilean Mor lighthouse on the Flannan Islands. These were, James Ducat the principal keeper, second assistant Thomas Marshall and third assistant William MacArthur. Their disappearance was first noticed on 26th December by an approaching ship, The Hesperus, the captain of which was captain James Harvey. The ship was also carrying Joseph Moore a replacement lighthouse keeper. As they got closer it became apparent that something was wrong on the Island. There was no activity even after they blow the steam whistle and fired a rocket to attract the men's attention. 

Moore rowed ashore and ascended the lighthouse steps in an attempt to find the missing lighthouse keepers that could not be seen on approach. As he ascended the steps up to the lighthouse he had an unusual and terrible sense of foreboding.

He noticed that there were ropes strewn all over the rocks that were meant to be held in a crate 70 feet above the platform by a supply crane. The lighthouse door was left unlocked and whilst two of the oil skinned coats were missing as if taken and used by two of the men, the last one was left hanging up inside still. The lighthouse clock had wound down and stopped and furthermore it is said that a chair was turned over and there was half eaten food left on the table. Though this last part is said to be false.

Moore returned to The Hesperus and requested the assistance of second mate McCormack to look for the missing lighthouse keepers. The two searched but to no avail and eventually it was decided that they should return to report to the ships master- Captain Harvie.

Harvie sent Moore with three volunteers,  Allan Macdonald the buoy master, and seamen Campbell and Lamont to return to the lighthouse to keep the lamp burning and try to find out what happened to the missing lighthouse keepers.

It seemed most likely that tragedy (whatever the tragedy was) had struck around the 20th December given that on that date a great storm had caused considerable disruption along the East coast. Prior to this point, people have tried to work out what happened and what the conditions were like for these men from their supposed log book. I say 'supposed' as there is some doubt as to its authenticity. Many believe the following log book accounts to be the work of a hoaxer, which they could well be as not all of the information surrounding this case is open to the public and there is some debate over where this log book actually came from.


 Dec. 12: Gale, north by north-west. Sea lashed to fury. Stormbound 9pm. Never seen such a storm. Everything shipshape. Ducat irritable. 12pm. Storm still raging. Wind steady. Stormbound. Cannot go out. Ship passed sounding foghorn. Could see lights of cabins. Ducat quiet. Macarthur crying.

Dec. 13: Storm continued through night. Wind shifted west by north. Ducat quiet. Macarthur praying. 12 noon. Grey daylight. Me, Ducat, and Macarthur prayed.

Dec. 15: 1pm. Storm ended. Sea calm. God is over all.

There are many reasons why people say that this does not seem to be a genuine log book account. Why would it mention the men's personal habits in such detail, that they were praying and crying? And this itself doesn't make much sense as it seems out of character. Macarthur was said to be a tough, hardened man who would not be seen crying. And Ducat was always a good natured person. It makes a very specific point that he was supposedly irritable.

Of coarse this can still be explained however if it is a true account. The term 'praying' is used so often that it is not always literal. You can say, 'I pray we'll be OK in this bad weather', but not actually mean it in literal terms that you are praying to God for safety. Just that you hope all will be well. And as for Macarthur crying, this could be a misconception. It may be that at an earlier point in time Macarthur snapped at the person who wrote this over something unrelated and then they later thought they sore him crying but they were mistaken. If he'd been out in the cold he would be red faced and might have tears in his eyes from the wind. Instead of asking if he was OK or what was wrong they knew better and simply made a note of it instead. 
   As for Ducats apparent irritability, whilst the men would be used to these living conditions by now, it is believable and most probable that they would feel this way after so long stuck together in a confined area as long as they were. Anyone would become irritable and it would get harder to hide this from people.  

Lets try to separate the facts from the fiction. Theories on what might have happened will have been influenced by both the facts and the fiction which is why this story seems so convoluted. The myths surrounding this case are basically the lies and/or misconceptions that have been accepted as fact since this story was first told, then retold again and again and exaggerated each time.

   Tales of voices in the wind calling out the three men's names where this happened for example can be ignored as they are just unrealistic stories that can't be proved. People are fascinated by the idea of such accounts all the same which is why I think people can't accept the official report on the case.

So where were they and what happened to them?

Theories

Theories on what happened to them range from plausible to the supernatural. Most people who hear this story are naturally more interested in the supernatural theories. It's so easy to be drawn to this as it seems more interesting. In truth I think this is why these theories appeared to begin with even though there was an official report on this case and the official conclusion was far simpler.

Aliens: Yes of course, there are those who think that aliens are to blame. I'm not mocking anyone by saying this, but it was bound to happen. There are so many fanatics out there who believe in alien abduction. The idea of this blog though is to offer everyone a chance to express an opinion so let me know if this is your conclusion and tell us why.

Ghost ship: Some people believe that the men were taken aboard a ghost ship that came ashore alongside the mountain, however there appears to be nothing to support this theory. There is no evidence at all for this along the lines of sightings in the area. Though many say that there is a supernatural feeling to the island and the lighthouse was put there because so many ships lost their way in this area. But lets look for something more plausible.

A passing ship: Some say they ended up aboard an ordinary passing ship and were abducted by the crew. This also seems unlikely however as there is no reason why they would have been abducted in this way. Along the same lines it has been suggested that they were trying to help a passing ship that got lost or in trouble. I can't find any accounts of missing ships in or around this area at the time and no wreck was found nearby.

Mermaids: I have also heard it said that mermaids could have lured them out to see. But I can find little to suggest that mermaids are real let alone to support the notion that they lure people out to see to kill them. This is folklore and I would be fascinated to know if anyone can find evidence for them being real. Send me a link if you do. But again there are no sightings of them around the area and nothing has ever been washed up ashore that could not be identified by scientists. This appears to be another made up story that can't be backed up with any rational argument. There is footage on youtube of course but the only footage I found appears to be all fake.

There is no doubt that life exists in the ocean which has not yet been discovered. But mermaids have always been mythological. The first mermaid was Atargatis, a Greek fertility goddess who dived into the ocean to become a fish, but only her lower half transformed.  

Murder and suicide: People have suggested that one of the men could have gone mad in the difficult circumstances and killed the other two, then dumped their bodies into the sea and committed suicide. But this is just a suggestion that someone came up with. It's not based on anything solid except maybe the unusual behaviour reported in the log book. And this is most likely fake, or if not as mentioned above there isn't anything all that untoward about the way they were acting.  



The official report: The official report is that they were swept out to sea by a wave. This would explain the debris being strewn all over the place if a storm hit.

In 1947, Scottish journalist Iain Campbell visited the islands and observed whilst standing on a calm day by the west jetty that the sea suddenly heaved and swelled, rising to a level of seventy feet above the landing. After about a minute the sea returned to its normal level. He could not see any reason for the sudden change and theorized that it may have been an underwater seaquake. Certainly nobody standing on the jetty would have survived. The lighthouse keeper at the time told him that the change of level happened periodically and several men had almost been pulled into the sea, but managed to escape. This makes the official wave theory the most reasonable. But then again in a way it always was, which is why this became the official report at the time. It also adds credibility to the log book reports (assuming the log book is authentic) of a storm that terrified them all, even though around this area the weather was supposed to be calm.

 

 

So why is this theory so hard to accept? Well this is because as I mentioned before, people are drawn to the most interesting explanation before the most plausible one...

Walter Aldebert who was the principal keeper on Eilean Mor also did some research to see if waves could have reached high enough to smash the crate down from the supply crane by observing the weather and taking pictures. He proved that the waves could reach up to two hundred or even three hundred feet. Whilst doing so at one point he himself was almost washed out to sea.

Conclusion

I agree with the official report on this one. If two of the men were outside working together and one of them got hurt near the bottom of the cliff or actually got hit by a wave, there is chance that the third man on watch in the lighthouse wouldn't have had enough time to get his coat on in an emergency. It would have been life and death, act now instinct that drove him out into the storm to try and help them. He ran out and tried to help them get back up to safety before another giant wave hit, knowing that at any minute a wave could come along big enough and strong enough to wash them all out to sea. But tragically that's exactly what happened and they were all taken out to sea before they could get back up to the lighthouse. The supplies were left all over the place in the process because of the wave hitting.

 It's even possible that the supplies had already been torn down by this point. Two of them went down to a lower level to retrieve what they could when they though it was safe to do so, assuming that the weather had calmed down by this point- without even realizing that there never actually was much of a storm. One of them gets badly hurt from falling and the other person can't help them up by themselves.

The problems that people have mentioned in an attempt to dismiss the wave explanation, such as the fact that the storm was reportedly calm most of the time that the men were out there can now be ignored as the is plausible evidence to suggest that this would have made no difference and they certainly wouldn't have known the difference either.  

 Also people have wondered why their bodies weren't washed up ashore if they were taken out to sea by a wave. But realistically this probably wouldn't have happened anyway as it's rare that bodies are washed up after people get taken out to sea and for all we know the bodies were eaten.  

Prove me wrong.

Riddle me this: ANSWER- The answer to the last riddle was, the last person takes/ picks up the box with the egg still inside.

NEXT RIDDLE: There is a prison with only one entry/ exit to the building at the front. A guard checks the front yard once every 5 mins and it takes 10 mins to get across. No one can get in or out of the building without documents to visit or to leave. How did one prisoner escape?