The Kraken, Mermaids, or Tsunami: The Mystery of the Disappearance of Three Lighthouse Keepers Off the Coast of Scotland

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The story of this mysterious disappearance of three people is called the last secret of the 19th century. In December 1900, three keepers of the lighthouse located on the island of Eilie en Mor, the largest in the archipelago of the Flannan Islands, disappeared without a trace. For more than half a century, not only investigators and journalists, but also psychiatrists have been unsuccessfully solving this case.

The Flannan Islands are located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Scotland and belong to the UK. The climate in this place is very harsh, there is often a storm in the ocean, and ships that happened to be nearby often crashed on the rocks. Therefore, at the end of 1899, a lighthouse was built on it and two berths were made on different sides of the island, so that one could swim up and moor to it in any wind - not from one side, but from the other.

Everything was fine for a whole year

On December 7, 1899, the lighthouse started working. Three caretakers permanently lived on it - Thomas Marshall, James Ducat and Donald MacArthur. To work in almost complete isolation from the outside world, only the most balanced and sober-minded people were selected, and this trinity ideally corresponded to such conditions.

The keepers worked safely at the lighthouse for exactly one year. Every evening, the lighthouse was regularly lit, indicating the right path to the ships passing by. From time to time, the lighthouse mechanic Joseph Moore sailed to the island in a small boat - he brought food and all the necessary things to the caretakers and shared the latest news with them.

The lighthouse went out, people disappeared

And this continued until December 15, 1900, when the lighthouse, for some inexplicable reason, did not light up. The cargo ship "Archer", passing that evening by the Flannan Islands, almost crashed into the rocks because of this. Fortunately, he managed to avoid an accident, as did several other ships, which also noticed that there was no fire on the lighthouse. Arriving in Scotland, the captains of these ships reported the incident to the port services, and Joseph Moore was ordered to urgently sail to Eilie en Moor to see if the rangers needed help.

Moore himself rushed to the lighthouse as quickly as possible, worrying about the inhabitants of the island, but on December 16 such a strong storm arose that one could not even dream of going out to sea. It was possible to reach Eily-en-Mor and disembark at the eastern pier of the island a day later, and when Joseph and a couple of sailors entered the interior of the lighthouse, it turned out that there was no one there. At the same time, almost perfect order reigned in all the rooms. The lighthouse lamps were filled with fuel and could be lit at any moment, the systems of mirrors, reflecting the light, worked fine. And in the living room of the caretakers, the beds were neatly made, and everything was laid out in its place. The only thing that disturbed the order was an open wardrobe, which lacked two bright yellow waterproof uniforms that each of the lighthouse workers had.

Experts were stumped

Moore with the sailors, and later - a group of forensic scientists carefully examined the lighthouse and the entire island, but they did not find anything that could answer the question of where the caretakers disappeared. True, the western pier was badly damaged by the storm, but the storm itself began on December 16, 1900, the lighthouse went out the day before, when, according to all meteorological data, the ocean was calm. And in any case, the storm could not have carried all three caretakers into the ocean at once, since according to the instructions one of them should always remain inside the lighthouse.

Victims of kraken or mermaids?

This strange disappearance has once again revived interest in the legends of all kinds of sea monsters, giant squids or octopuses, as well as sirens luring people into the sea with their singing. More skeptical investigators put forward the version that one of the caretakers went crazy and drowned his comrades in the ocean, and then he himself threw himself into the water. But this version was objected to by everyone who was familiar with the missing and who selected them for this job. All three, according to those who communicated with them personally, could be the last thing to be suspected of a tendency to any mental disorders. And even if we assume that one of them suddenly developed a disease unnoticed by anyone, he would hardly have been able to cope with two equally strong and resilient colleagues, and even without leaving any traces of a struggle.

Tsunami on a single island?

In 1947, when this story was already beginning to be forgotten, interest in it flared up again, thanks to the journalist Ian Campbell. He decided to try to reveal this secret on his own, studied all the materials of the investigation and came to Eili-en-Mor to see the place of the tragedy with his own eyes. Other caretakers were working at the lighthouse at that time, but Campbell, before going up to them, went to wander around the island. And after a while, he ran to the lighthouse all wet and frightened - according to him, when he was examining the western pier, a huge wave suddenly rose from the ocean, which doused him headlong and almost dragged him off the shore.

According to the journalist, the rangers told him that from time to time such a high wave actually rises on the western side of the island, and this happens even on days when the ocean is calm. He wrote an article that, apparently, sometimes the waves in this place get into resonance and that it was such a wave that dragged into the ocean two missing caretakers who were on its way, after which the third rushed to their aid, but could not get them out of the water right away two and drowned with them.

However, before this article, no one had ever heard of the strange wave, so Campbell's version raises doubts: the journalist could simply have come up with all this in order to become famous.

So, to date, the most reliable version of what happened, despite its obvious weaknesses, remains the assumption of the temporary insanity of one of the caretakers.

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