"Ships around the world, in the vast and endless darkness, we are the only light, our whole life, is to ensure the safety of these ships at sea." There is such a line in the movie "The Lighthouse".
Today, the lighthouse has long been automated, no longer need the tower keeper to maintain the operation of the lighthouse at all times, this profession is gradually buried by history, but its deeds are still circulating.
Waves, towers, lone lamps, these elements are full of mystery and literature, the loneliness, faith, and unknown encounters of the tower keepers make the story of the lighthouse an unsolved mystery.
On the Flannan Islands, the three tower keepers who mysteriously disappeared more than a hundred years ago have not heard from each other so far, and have become important protagonists of the lighthouse mystery - the scene of the hasty escape, the bizarre and suspicious log, the strange talk of the isle of More... Opinions vary, and there is still no conclusion.
Strange talk of the mysterious archipelago
The Flannan Islands are a small group of islands in scotland's Outer Hebri Islands, with seven main islands, also known as the Seven Hunters Islands, which have been uninhabited for thousands of years and where shepherds occasionally come to herd sheep but never spend the night here.
Legend has it that many small bones were dug up on these islands, and locals believe that there was an ominous force between the seven islands that would drag invaders into another world.
The locals went to visit Flannan, and the first thing they did when they landed on the island was to hold a ceremony at the altar to thank God for keeping them safe.
There is also a small church here, which is said to have been built in the seventh century by a missionary named St. Francin. Curiously, even though the church was dilapidated and in ruins, passing crew members, whether religious or not, would come here to pray.
A folklorist has documented a strange ritual on the island: "All the crew prayed three times, the first time they moved to the church on their knees, the second time they said prayers as they walked around the church, and the third time they stopped near the church to pray their last prayers." ”
It has always been believed that this is a cursed area, and many passing merchant ships and fishing boats claim to have seen ghosts from afar, and the legend of sea ghosts and water demons has always been a common talk for ships at sea, but only this place is different, where the reefs are hidden, the sea is frequently shipwrecked, countless ships are sunk here forever, and the crew has never survived.
"Frannan does not welcome outsiders, she will send all those who disturb the peace to hell."
In the 1890s, Edinburgh's Northern Lighthouse Council decided to build a lighthouse here, the largest of the Flannan Islands, Alan More Island, and the cold, desolate and deserted Island of Mohr was the highest point of the archipelago, with waves constantly hitting the reef, seagulls whimpering, and storms raging.
The harsh environment of More Island, the difficult construction process of the lighthouse, the transportation of materials and equipment consumed a lot of manpower and material resources, and the lighthouse was built for four years before it was officially put into use.
Three experienced tower keepers were sent to More Island — James Duquet, 43, Donald MacArthur, 40, and Thomas Marshall, 28.
They were the first guardians of the lighthouse, responsible for ensuring the clarity of the light of the lighthouse, especially in the event of a storm, to show the way to the people who sailed in the dark of the night, to avoid hitting the reef and sinking the ship.
Vanishing Tower Keeper
The lighthouse has been in operation for almost a year, and the lighthouse on Mohr Island has never been extinguished at night. It wasn't until the night of December 15, 1900, that an American steamship traveled from Philadelphia to Edinburgh, passing by More Island, where it was pitch black and the lighthouse was not lit. Immediately after the ship docked at Auburn, the captain reported the situation to the Lighthouse Board.
It was only because of the recent bad weather and the restrictions on the ship's going to sea that the commission did not immediately send someone to Mohr Island to investigate, and when the sea was calm, more than ten days had passed, and a rescue ship called Chang Gung Xing set off from Edinburgh, which was loaded with supplies sent to the island.
According to the regulations, each lighthouse needs to be equipped with four tower keepers, and the three-person shift system is implemented, three people are on duty, one person is on vacation, and two weeks is a cycle.
As is customary, boats are on the island every two weeks with supplies and substitute guards, and this time the routine call is a week late due to the weather, and Joseph Moore, who is on the boat to replace the isle of More, is also on board, and he is worried about the situation of his colleagues.
Chang Gung Star sailed over the east coast of Mohr Island, and before he could dock, Captain James Harvey felt that the atmosphere was very strange.
He fired several signal flares in a row, and there was no response from the lighthouse, the island was dead, the flag of the lighthouse was not raised, no one waited to meet him on the shore, and no one prepared for the landing of the Chang Gung Star.
Before docking, the captain signaled again, blowing a horn to inform the lighthouse keeper, but still no one responded. Joseph Moore offered to go ashore first to investigate the situation, and Harvey had no better way but to remind him to be safe.
As soon as Moore landed on the island, an inexplicable panic surged in his heart, and the stone steps to the lighthouse were long and steep, the surrounding area was empty and dead, the seagulls circling overhead were crying out, and the ominous premonition in his heart was getting stronger and stronger.
The lighthouse's iron fence was locked, and Moore climbed the ladder to the lighthouse's studio to find that the doors were also locked.
Leaving the post without permission is a big taboo for the tower keepers, no matter what the situation, the lighthouse must leave at least one person, why do these three people leave the lighthouse at the same time? Moore's heart sank, and he pushed open the door with a shaking hand, and the situation inside made him breathe.
The room was still lit, the beds were messy, and two of the three oil-skinned coats that had been hanging by the door were missing.
The scene in the kitchen frightened him even more: he had only eaten a few bites of the food on the plate, and a chair next to it fell to the ground, looking like three people had suddenly encountered something, and they fled the scene in a hurry without eating, and from the leftovers, it seemed that the three people left the lighthouse for about a week, and the most strange thing was that all the clocks in the lighthouse had stopped moving.
What really happened to this lighthouse a week ago, why did the three tower keepers leave their posts at the same time, and if they left at the same time, who was the oil-skinned coat that was not worn away by the entrance hall? Moore was puzzled, and he intended to inform captain Harvey James of the situation first.
Harvey was equally shocked, and he asked the sailors on board to follow Moore to the island to find the whereabouts of the three men.
A group of people along the island to investigate, the east bank where the Chang Gung Star docked was still calm and calm, but the west bank was in a mess, the storm swept through, the iron railing had long been bent by the strong sea breeze, several boulders were moved, even the turf was overturned, and the air was filled with the salty smell of the sea.
Several people searched the island inside and out, but they did not see the three tower keepers, they disappeared as if out of thin air, and they did not see anyone alive or dead.
Captain Harvey, realizing that this might not be a simple dereliction of duty, sent an overnight telegram to the Lighthouse Committee, and for the sake of safety, he repeated a separate copy to board member Robert Murray hand, which read:
"There was a terrible accident on Alan Mohr Island, three tower keepers disappeared for no apparent reason, the island was full of strangeness, the doors were locked, and the clock was still.
Through a preliminary investigation into the lighthouse, we determined that the disappearance of the three people occurred a week ago. Based on the extent of the damage to the West Bank, we speculate that the three tower keepers may have been caught in the sea by huge waves when they tried to fix the lighthouse equipment such as cranes. ”
As night fell, Joseph Moore and two other sailors remained on the island to await the commission's arrival to investigate.
Murrayhand also found it very strange to receive this telegram, and decided to personally go to More Island a few days later to investigate the disappearance of the three tower keepers. Unfortunately, the results of the investigation were not satisfactory, and he did not find any new clues except for what Harvey had already reported.
At this moment, it occurred to Murrayhand that the lighthouse keepers would keep a duty log for each day, and that the log might have recorded the anomalies of those days, possibly related to their unprovoked disappearance.
Suspicious logs
Murray hand carefully looked through the contents of the logs for those days, and the last log was recorded at 9:00 a.m. on December 15th, when the lighthouse reported by the American steamship was not lit on the night of the 15th, and it can be seen that the abnormal disappearance occurred on this night.
Work logs generally only record the weather and wind direction, and record the names of people, but from the 12th, the contents of the log have become strange.
"On December 12, the north-northwesterly winds, there was a storm from about nine o'clock in the evening, I had never seen such bad weather, Du Kai behaved a little abnormally today, acting very irritable, at 12 o'clock in the morning, the storm continued, Du Kai finally quieted down, but MacArthur somehow began to cry secretly."
"On December 13, strong winds, north winds turned westerly, the storm lasted all night, Dukai has been quiet since last night, and MacArthur and I were praying."
No record date of December 14.
"On December 15, at one o'clock in the afternoon, the storm finally ended, the sea calmed down, and thanks to the Lord for his gift, God is everywhere."
The journal was recorded by the young Thomas Marshall, who wrote about MacArthur's crying, which is strange, what exactly made the famous Scottish tough guy "secretly cry".
Moreover, the eldest of the three, Du Kai, as the main person in charge of the lighthouse, lived on More Island for a period of time as early as the beginning of the construction of the lighthouse, counting the time he worked in the lighthouse, Du Kai has lived in More Island for fourteen months, it can be said that he is quite familiar with this small island, and the experience of guarding the tower is quite rich, why is he the first person to appear "emotional abnormalities"?
It seems that this storm has made the three experienced tower keepers discolored, but this lighthouse is nearly 150 feet above sea level, it has not been built for more than a year, and it has not been without wind and waves in the past use process, the lighthouse should be the safest place on the island, why is the arrival of this storm so pessimistic for the three people?
Leaving aside these details, the most frightening thing is that there was no storm at all on December 12, 13, and 14, and it can even be said that the wind and waves were calm, and the storm did not come to this island until December 15, as evidenced by the ships that sailed by these days.
So what exactly happened to the "storm" recorded in the log? Is it the long-term depression of living in the lighthouse that leads to insanity and hallucinations? Or did the recorder remember the wrong date? People have no way of knowing.
Speculation from all sides is still a mystery
For more than a hundred years, because of this event, it is really strange, and it is highly sought after by paranormal enthusiasts, mystics, and conspiracy theorists, and the claustrophobic islands, the dark sea, and all the unknowns and mysteries have attracted many opinions, but they have never been conclusive.
What makes the remaining tower keepers go out without wearing a coat? Why do you remember to lock the door in a hurry? What is the explanation for the bizarre diaries that people search for? The existence of various doubts makes people have different opinions and cannot justify themselves, so some people rely on supernatural phenomena.
There has always been a legend of the water demon, in this part of the French Islands, there is a humanoid creature called the Minchi Blue, which is said to be able to speak, they have long hair, usually live in caves on the seabed, make wind and waves at sea, and overturn ships.
They sometimes come to shore, and nearby residents claim to have seen it with their own eyes, and the three vanished tower keepers may have been dragged into the sea by the water demon.
Another rumor is that Frannan is a cursed land, and it is often possible to see huge strange birds hovering over the island, and the three tower keepers are most likely taken away by the haunting giant birds because they have broken some rules here, and as invaders, they are dragged into the abyss by the vengeful spirit of this mysterious land.
In addition to the speculation of the occult, alien enthusiasts are not to mention more, active in the forum and news websites, "Mysterious Universe" reported that some people support the alien visitors to pick up three people, but these speculations are not empirical, just out of fear and fascination with nature, outer space, so more people are still inclined to reason based on reality.
There is a somewhat conspiracy theory speculation that the three people have hallucinated because of long-term loneliness and depression, the storm of the 12th and 14th is actually their imagination, and the delay in the arrival of supplies has overwhelmed these people.
The three of them have gone insane and made some irrational moves. It may be that the three people can't stand the pressure to jump into the sea to commit suicide, or it may be that two people who want to escape jointly kill the person who insists on staying and then flee...
But the most convincing is the official report that the Northern Lighthouse Commission immediately sent investigators to investigate after receiving information that three people were missing. According to the investigator's written records and the analysis of only a few clues, the most reasonable explanation for the disappearance of the three people is:
On the day of the storm on December 15, the more experienced James Duquet and Donald MacArthur went out to the west coast of the island to repair the equipment damaged by the storm, and according to the administrator's manual, no matter what happened, there must be one person left in the lighthouse, so the young James Marshall stayed at the lighthouse.
During the repairs, James saw from the lighthouse a huge wave on the sea coming towards his two companions, and he shouted in a hurry, and rushed out of the lighthouse, trying to remind them that this would explain the food on the plate, the overturned chair, the lamp that had just been oiled, and the oil-skinned coat that was too hurried to wear in the future.
James hurried to the shore, but unfortunately it was too late, the huge waves rushed towards them, the three were swept into the sea together, the lifebuoy originally tied to the iron fence had long been swept away by the storm, and the three struggled in the waves, unable to save themselves, and finally buried at the bottom of the sea.
In addition, the Lighthouse Authority has recorded that there have been tower keepers who have improperly managed the equipment, resulting in equipment failure, and the three responsible persons have been fined, which is more explainive of why on the 15th, despite the raging storm, they still have to go out to repair the equipment despite the danger.
This is only an official speculation, careful consideration there are still many unreasonable places, such as James is so anxious to go out to save people, how can he lock the door of the lighthouse and the door of the iron fence outside the lighthouse, and the bizarre log also records that the storm ended at 1 p.m., and what time did the huge wave attack happen?
For the next few decades, the island's lighthouses were still guarded by tower keepers, who later said they could always hear strange winds on the island, sounding as if they were calling out to the three vanished people.
It was not until 1971, when the lighthouse began to be fully automated, that the profession of tower keeper gradually withdrew from the stage, and only the waves on More Island remained.