Flannan Isles
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The Flannan Isles (Scottish Gaelic: na h-Eileanan Flannach) are an island group in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, lying several miles west of Lewis.
The islands have never been permanently inhabited, although their lighthouse was crewed from 1899 until 1971. It led to a great mystery when in December 1900, all three lighthouse keepers vanished without explanation, the details, based on the records of the Northern Lighthouse Board, being related below. The mystery has been compared to that of the Marie Celeste and was the inspiration for the composer Peter Maxwell Davies's modern opera The Lighthouse. The events were also commemorated in Wilfrid Wilson Gibson's ballad, Flannan Isle.
The isles are also known for their ancient chapel, dedicated to Saint Flann, and for their population of seabirds, including puffins, fulmars, European Storm-petrels and Leach's petrels.
The islands are split into two groups. The main eastern rocks are Eilean Mòr (home to the lighthouse and ruined chapel below the north face) and Eilean Tighe, while the main western outcrops are Eilean a' Gobha, Roaiream and Bròna Cleit.
The Mysterious Disappearance of the Lighthouse Keepers on the Eilean Mor Rock, 15 December 1900
The Flannan Isles lie about twenty miles west of the Isle of Lewis and represent a danger to shipping. The largest of the seven islands, Eilean Mor, is an indented mound 600 metres long and 350 metres at its widest, rising to 87 metres near its northern end where the lighthouse is situated. This white cylindrical brick tower 23 metres in height was erected in 1899 to provide a flash of white light every thirty seconds over a distance of up to twenty miles.
In December 1900, four men made up the staff of the lighthouse and operated a roster system in which three men manned the station while a fourth was on shore leave. Principal Keeper James Ducat of Arbroath (43) was a married man with four children and had spent twenty years in the lighthouse service, fourteen months on Eilean Mor: First Assistant Keeper Thomas Marshall (28) was a seasoned mariner: Occasional Keeper Donald MacArthur, deputizing for the Second Assistant on sick leave, was an ex-Regular Army man. He was a staunch Presbyterian, married and held in great respect by the local community. These three men were those lost in the tragedy. A fourth man, Third Assistant Keeper, Joseph Moore, was on scheduled shore leave from 6th to 20th December.
There was no means of communication between lighthouse and shore. Roderick MacKenzie, gamekeeper at Uig, had been appointed by the Lighthouse Commissioners to look out for daily signals and to note each night whether the light was seen or not. From the Return Book after the incident, Superintendent Muirhead established that the tower could not be seen, even with the aid of a powerful telescope, between 7th and 29th December. Between 7th and 26th December, the light was only seen once, on 12th December. It was not unusual for the light to be obscured by weather conditions for four or five nights in succession, but by his recommendation, Muirhead obviously considered that there had been meteorological conditions between 7th and 26th December when the light ought to have been seen more than once, and the outage had not been reported. On the night of 15 December 1900, Captain Holman, master of SS Archtor bound for Leith, reported to his ship's owners by wireless that the Eilean Mor light was out. By an oversight, the office failed to notify the Northern Lighthouse Board. For all these reasons and inclement weather, the return of Keeper Moore to Eilean Mor was delayed until 26th December 1900, when he arrived at the island aboard the supply vessel Hesperus. Upon the approach it was observed that no preparations had been made for the tender's arrival: no empty packing cases or mooring ropes had been readied at the jetty, and accordingly, Moore was sent ashore first to report on the situation.
He found the main door and entrance gate to the lighthouse closed, and the boat though present, roped to railings at a height of 70 metres, torn free by the force of the sea. On his inspection later, Superintendent Muirhead drew attention to damage to iron railings stretching from the crane platform up the tramway to the lighthouse "which had been displaced and twisted in a manner difficult to believe unless actually seen." The lighthouse interior was in good order except that the kitchen door was open. The table had been laid for a meal and items of food were ready. The window of the kitchen gave a view over the sea northwards, but it was not possible to see the jetty from it, nor would shouting have carried from the waterfront to the kitchen. Two sets of boots and oilskins were absent from a rack in the passageway, a third set was hanging from a peg. In the lantern room the wicks of the lanterns had been cleaned and trimmed and the lamps filled with oil ready to be lit after dark. A slate had been chalked with the barometric readings and temperature for 15 December 1900. The slate also bore a note of the time when the light had been extinguished that morning, and as it had not been lit for the evening, it was clear that whatever had befallen the men had occurred before lighting up time on 15 December 1900. Of the three lighthouse keepers there was no sign.
The lighthouse log lay open on the kitchen table. Contrary to regulations, it had not been maintained daily, the last entry being for 12th December, three days before the date of the tragedy. A handwriting expert called in to give an opinion on who had made this entry concluded that it was in the hand of First Assistant Keeper Thomas Marshall. The entry read:
"12 December: Gale N by NW. Sea lashed to fury. Never seen such a storm. Waves very high. Tearing at lighthouse. Everything shipshape. James Ducat irritable. Later: Storm still raging, wind steady. Stormbound. Cannot go out. Ship passing sounded fog horn. Could see lights of cabins. Ducat quiet. Donald McArthur crying."
At the Board of Enquiry hearing, evidence was received that the purpose of the Day Journal was to record information relating to the running of the installation and meteorological conditions. Information about keepers being irritable or crying was deemed "unusual", particularly when the author of the entry was the second in command reporting on his superior.
Entries for the subsequent days, 13th and 15th December, (no entry having been prepared for 14th December), had been chalked on the slate and read:
"13 December: Storm continued throughout night. Wind shifted W by N. Ducat quiet. McArthur praying. Later: Noon, grey daylight. Marshall, Ducat and McArthur prayed. 15 December: Storm ended, sea calm. God is over all."
At the Board of Enquiry, Keeper Moore gave evidence that he had never known any of the three men to pray on station, even though MacArthur was a Church-going Presbyterian. He was of the opinion that fear of a storm while on a rocky island in a well-built lighthouse would not have been a motive for joint prayers. The Board of Enquiry discounted foul play for lack of evidence and settled for Death by Misadventure, concluding that the three men must have been washed away by a monstrous wave. This finding was widely considered unsatisfactory because the sea conditions on 15 December were placid, and it was inculcated into lighthousemen to keep an eye on the sea while engaged on work near the water.
It is clear from the log entry that there is an unresolved mystery surrounding this tragedy. 12th December 1900 began with a gale coming from the NNW which appears to have developed quickly into a storm, the like of which the author of the entry had never seen before: the sea was very high, lashed to a fury, and "tearing at the lighthouse". This meant that after pounding into the rocky north-west face of the island, the seas reared up over one hundred or more feet in height to crash against the tower structure, the tower being set so far back from the cliff edge that it was always spared the worst of the weather. These winds must have been of hurricane force.
Later that day the keepers saw a ship. This ship confirmed all their worst fears, for it was after seeing her that Ducat grew calm and McArthur started crying. A ship anywhere near the lighthouse in a hurricane would have been facing close to the wind direction, north-north-west, stern-on to Eilean Mor, tossing and pitching at huge angles, desperate to obtain sea-room, unable to make progress against the tremendous wind and seas and in grave peril. The ship which the keepers saw "passed sounding its fog horn, its cabin lights visible". This ship was proceeding broadside to wind and sea, its captain believing he was in fog. It is a meteorological impossibility to have both fog and a hurricane in the same place at the same time, and the keepers would have realized the paradox simply by raising a telescope to ascertain how the ship bore and her motion through the water. This may have been why McArthur was crying, and also explains the decision not to continue with the Day Journal until the situation resolved itself. The fact that the hurricane perceived by the lighthousemen was a phenomenon localized to their few square miles of rocky islets is confirmed by the fact that no winds of hurricane force were observed at Lewis, only twenty miles away, between 12th and 15th December 1900, and the inference to be drawn is one which the Board of Enquiry preferred not to address. For this reason, the mystery has been compared to that of the sailing ship Marie Celeste.
A possible parallel to Eilean Mor is the inconstant island of San Borondon in the Canaries, which has been reported on what amounts to hundreds of occasions over the last two thousand years. Accounts coincide that when San Borondon is about to dematerialize, a fogbank and hurricane occur at the same time during the day. It seems at least curious that these conditions were present at Eilean Mor on 12th December 1900, the last day when the light was seen from Uig.
Reference Sources:
(1) Wikipedia - "Lighthouse": item 16 of "External Links" - "Northern Lighthouse Board for Scotland", click on "Historical Information" for the official documentation.
(2) A comprehensive paper on the vanished keepers, written by the Contributing Editor to Fortean Times, appears at: www.mikedash.com/investigations_eilean_paper.htm
(3) For San Borondon, see Wikipedia entry "St Brendan's Island" under "Phantom Islands".
External links
Ian Campbell's Observation
In 1947,Iain Campbell, a Scottish journalist, was standing near the west landing stage on a relatively calm day when the sea rose "about seventy feet" with amazing suddenness and washed over the steps and the concrete platform, "as if there had been an earthquake on the sea" he reported. Unfortunately the date of the occurrence and the prevailing weather conditions on the day in question or for the previous week are unknown. A visitor to the 107-year old lighthouse will have difficulty in reaching the door as Campbell stated the water had eroded and weathered the steps.
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