The Vanishing at Flannan Isles

When three light keepers disappear from their post, those sent to investigate were left with more questions than answers. No sign of the light keepers was ever found, but the mystery of their disappearances endures.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Hey, hey, welcome back to Autumn Zodities. I'm autumn apologies
for the lack of an episode last week. I have
now recorded this very episode that you're about to hear,
not once, but twice, and my recording software has stopped
somewhere in the middle of the recording. It's left the
little or led right the red light on to indicate

(00:58):
that it is recording, and then it just lat out
won't save. Like I can sit there and let it
swirl and process for an hour, which I did the
other day, and it just will not save. So in
this episode I've recorded to twice. Prior, I have been
fairly skeptical of a paranormal involvement in this case. And
now I don't know, because two times, two different days,

(01:24):
even with like a software reboot, a computer restart, everything
just won't save. I don't know. I think that's kind
of weird. It is usually pretty rare that an episode
doesn't actually save and record, so to have it happened
twice in the span of a couple of days trying

(01:45):
to record the same episode, I think is kind of weird.
So I'm going to ease up on my criticisms of
potential paranormal involvement in this case. Anyway, we're gonna give
it another shot. I'm gonna get to go. It is
early in the morning. I am recording this before heading
off to work two hours away, to you know, clean

(02:08):
some children's teeth and maybe fill a couple of cavities.
But that's the only time I got this week, and
that is showbiz baby, and I have already got next
week's episode written. It might be a two parter. It's
a very famous missing child case unsolved still, of course,

(02:29):
otherwise I wouldn't be recording it. And I found quite
a few inconsistencies with citations and things like that reported
in different news outlets, timelines not lining up. I don't
know if I'm doing anything groundbreaking here, but I think
I found some pretty interesting stuff. And of course I'm

(02:50):
also gearing up for the greatest season of all and
I would like some of your listener stories. If you
are willing to share, please send to me your hauntings,
your ghost sightings, your weird stuff, strange encounters, cryptid encounters,
et cetera to Autumn's Oddities Podcast at gmail dot com
and I'll read them in a future episode and you

(03:10):
can also send me case what's the word I'm looking for. Again,
it's very early case recommendations that you would like covered,
including you can also send me case recommendations things you

(03:32):
think I should cover. If there's not a lot of
information available about them, I may do like a mini
episode and put it on Patreon something like that. But
I do want your input because you, gentle listeners, are
the ones who are doing the listening, and I would
like to give you some things to listen to that
you're interested in. And that is all the business that

(03:54):
I've got for you today. Let's get into today's enduring
mystery that may or may not be a very simple
case of just being swept out to sea. Nevertheless, it's
garnered speculation and tails for more than a century and
the details are still hotly debated. On its surface, the

(04:16):
mystery seems deceptively commonplace. Off the northwest coast of Scotland
lies a small chain of islands called the Hebrides. Clustered
at its outer edges lie the Flennin Isles, and I
think you know where I'm going with it. The isles
were home to a lighthouse managed by three experienced lighthouse keepers,

(04:36):
Donald MacArthur, James Ducott and Thomas Marshall. The official investigation
concluded that the sea had washed away the men. However,
the strange and baffling details from the investigation made it
one of these spookiest unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century
and of course a favorite topic for paranormal investigators, conspiracy

(04:59):
theorists and filmmakers. And there are quite a few inconsistencies
with the details of the scene at the lighthouse as
it were. I'm going to give you both accounts the
you know, things that were reported by various outlets and

(05:19):
poets owned storytellers, and then I'm going to give you
the facts as they are in the National Scottish Registry, uh,
you know, the well documented facts. Though three men dwell
on Flann and Isle to keep the lamp alight, as
we steered under the lee, we caught no glimmer through
the night eye. Though we hunted high and low, and

(05:41):
hunted everywhere of the three men's fate, we found no
trace of any kind in any place but a dora jar,
an untouched meal, and an overtoppled chair. And that is
Flann and Isle by one Wilfred Wilson Gibson, and we're
going to dissect that a little bit later. The flan

(06:01):
And Isles Lighthouse was operational for a little over a
year when the keepers disappeared, twenty one miles west of
the Isle of Lewis. The flann And Isles are sometimes
known as the Seven Hunters. The lighthouse is situated on
the largest of the island group, on the thirty eight
acre island More which translates to Big Island, designed by

(06:22):
David Allen Stephenson, son of David Stevenson, which I don't
know why that's important. That was just a fact added
in by the National Scottish Registry and their Maritime Association.
Not sure who David Stephenson is. I'm guessing he's also
a famous architect. But it sits on a two hundred
foot cliff a seventy five foot tall white tower. The

(06:45):
beacon has a range of twenty miles and flashes two
white signals every thirty seconds. And you know that's two
indicate to sailors, boats, people on the water, don't come
near these rocks. These are dangerous rocks. It's a lighthouse
approval for the construction of a lighthouse on the Flanne
and Isles was received from the Board of Trade in

(07:06):
eighteen ninety six, but it wasn't until the seventh of
December of eighteen ninety nine that work actually began built
by George lawson of Rutherglenn. Between eighteen ninety six and
eighteen ninety nine he constructed the lighthouse as well as
the landing places and the stairs on the island, of
which there were many, and the houses for the light

(07:27):
keeper's families at the shore station at Briosclot on Lewis.
And I probably screwed that up. My Scottish ancestors are
shaking their fists at me angrily, their headbutting things, you know,
plan and bagpipe, all the stereotypes. I am mostly Scottish.
I can say that during the lighthouse's operation fortnightly, which

(07:52):
you know means like every two weeks, reliefs were carried
out until the disaster of December nineteen hundred, as it
came to be known. Prior to the discovery that the
men were missing, the light had not been seen on
the island from the nearest point on Lewis, which is
sixteen miles away, for ten days. At the time, three

(08:13):
light keepers were on duty at the lighthouse, James Ducott
the principal lightkeeper, Thomas Marshall the assistant lightkeeper, and Donald
MacArthur occasional keeper. They didn't give the title. There's like
he's here on occasion who was on duty for William
Ross the assistant lightkeeper who was absent on sick leave.

(08:33):
One other assistant lightkeeper, Joseph Moore, was on shore duty.
James Ducott was born on August eleventh, eighteen fifty six,
to his parents, James Ducott Plowman and Louisa Ducott. He
had entered the service of the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses
on November twenty first, eighteen seventy eight, at just twenty

(08:54):
two years old, and had served at several different lighthouses prior.
His longest stipy was at Rin's of Islay Lighthouse, which
lasted seven years and nine months. By the time he
reached the Flannon Isles, he had been promoted in April
of eighteen ninety six from assistant lightkeeper to principle, whoah

(09:15):
he'd moven up in the world. James married Mary Grierson
on June ninth, eighteen eighty two, at Hutton Place in Edinburgh.
Although James does not appear to be descended from light
keepers as they're called, Mary certainly was with both her
father John and her uncle Robert working at different lights,

(09:36):
tracing her through the census records in eighteen eighty one,
just a year before her marriage, she was actually living
with her uncle Robert Grierson at number one inch Keith Light,
and James Ducott was living at number two with his
sister and niece, so it seems likely that this is
where the two met and fell in love before marrying

(09:56):
in eighteen eighty two. Thomas Marshall was the assistant lightkeeper
and had entered the service of the NLC on April
twenty seventh, eighteen ninety six, at twenty seven years old.
His entry in the light keeper's registers note that he
was previously a seaman, grow up everyone and occasional lightkeeper

(10:17):
when resident on Alsa. Craig Donald MacArthur was, you know,
an occasional keeper and apparently they don't find him or
did not find him important enough to record in the registers.
And I'm sure he's like, thanks a lot, guys, I disappeared,
but I'm not important enough to be recorded in the registers.

(10:37):
So let's get into the disappearance now and again. I'm
going to tell you the versions, various versions of this
story and what was found at the scene, and then
I'm going to tell you the truth. It was the
Transatlantic steamer Arctur that first noticed something was wrong on

(11:01):
its voyage to the port of Laith from Philadelphia. The
Arctur passed the lighthouse on the flann And Aisles on
the night of the fifteenth of December nineteen hundred and
the crew saw that its light was off. After docking
in Laith three days later, the news was passed on
to the Northern Lighthouse Board that something was a miss
on Flannin. The board dispatched the light house relief tendership

(11:26):
Hesperus to investigate, arriving at the island on Boxing Day,
which is the day after the Christmas holiday for those
of us out. For those of us in the United States,
we don't celebrate that holiday. I'm not sure how many
countries do, but I'm pretty sure Canada, the UK, YadA YadA.

(11:46):
The ship's captain, Jim Harvey, sounded his horn and sent
up a flare, hoping to alert the three lighthouse keepers
James Ducott, Thomas Marshall and William MacArthur, but there was
no response. The ship was carrying Joseph Moore, a replacement
lighthouse keeper for one of the three keepers who worked
on a rotational basis. As the ship reached the landing platform,

(12:10):
Moore was surprised to find that no one was waiting
for him. And you would assume somebody would be there
waiting for him to help the boat dock to tie it.
You know, if you've ever been on a boat, you
know there's usually someone there, and if there's not, you
jump out and tie it. But if the lighthouse keeper,
if the lighthouse keepers knew he was coming, which of

(12:32):
course they did, he was coming there to relieve someone,
then they should have been out there waiting for him
as they usually did. A sense of dread filled his
heart as he went to the lighthouse to find out
what happened. Once he got there, he knew immediately something
had gone horribly wrong. Captain Harvey was in command of

(12:52):
the Hesperus. He reported that there was no sign of
life to be seen on the island, and no response
was made to either the horn being sounded or to
the rocket being fired. From the ship. Disembarking from the
Hesperus Relief, lighthouse keeper Joseph Moore set off up the
one hundred and sixty steep steps to the lighthouse. That's

(13:14):
a lot. Three giant blackbirds perched on the cliffs above him.
They cast their beady eyes on his progress and most
likely judged him for halfin and puffing his way up
the stairs. And He's like, give me a break, I'm
doing my best reaching the lighthouse compound and entering the
living quarters. I'm gonna go ahead and caveat this. This

(13:36):
part is one of the parts that is hotly debated.
H We'll get into it further later, but I'm just
gonna tell it to you as some people report it.
Moore noticed that the clock on the kitchen wall had stopped,
the table was set for a meal that had never
been eaten, and a chair had been toppled over. A

(13:57):
canary in a cage was the only sign of life.
Returning to the eastern landing, Moore reported his findings to
the captain of the Hesperus. Harvey sent another two sailors
to shore, and they and more began looking for signs
of life. The door to the lighthouse was unlocked, and
in the entrance hall two of the three oil skin

(14:18):
coats belonging to Marshal Ducot and MacArthur were gone. Moore
continued to the kitchen, where allegedly he found the half
eaten food and an overturned chair, looking as if whatever
had befallen the keepers had come suddenly. To add to
this peculiar scene, the kitchen clock had also stopped working.
Like I said, Further investigation ensued and it was confirmed

(14:42):
that Moore had found the station deserted, with the lamps
trimmed and ready, and the linbs and machinery cleaned, the
kitchen tidied, and two sets of outdoor clothing missing. No
trace of the men was discovered. So, like I said,
there are things reported did that did not indeed happen.

(15:02):
The source of that is that poem that I read
to you earlier. He just made it up, apparently. I
don't know why he made it up. I don't know
if he did it on purpose. I don't know if it,
you know, to add to the lore, I don't know
if mister Wilfrid, you know, if he heard it through
a game of telephone. But there was not any dinner,

(15:25):
you know, set out and a chair toppled over. None
of that was true. He just put it in his poem.
It was actually in very good order. There was really
nothing amiss except for, you know, the one person that
was missing, leaving behind their coat their oil slick to
go out into the weather, you know, which you would

(15:47):
assume he would be going into weather if he needed
the coat. So none of that is true. The clock
being stopped is apparently true. The place being in disarray
was they had in fact set up everything for the
next keeper to come in, like everything was trimmed and ready.

(16:07):
The lens had been cleaned, and the kitchen was very clean.
Nothing was knocked over. So the perplexing clues raised even
more unanswered questions. Why would one of the keepers go
outside without his coat in such dreadful weather. Why did
all three of them leave their post which was very
against the rules. They were not allowed to leave their

(16:29):
post unattended, And why had the kitchen clock stopped working?
And I do find that part odd. When Moore returned
with his report, Captain James Harvey had the island searched.
No bodies were found. All three keepers had vanished. Harvey
then sent a telegram to the mainland asking for help,

(16:50):
and this is his assumption. A dreadful accident has happened
on the Flannins. The three keepers, do Cot, Marshall and
the occasional who he doesn't even give a name two
which is pretty rude, have disappeared from the island on
our arrival there this afternoon. No sign of life was
to be seen on the island, so the decision was

(17:11):
made that more would remain on the island with mister
McDonald the booy master. There's such a hard word to
say who was on board the vessel at the time,
and Siemens Lamon and Campbell or Lamont and Campbell, all
three having volunteered to remain on the island with more
to ensure that the light was kept in operation. They're like, well,
somebody has to do this. There can't just be one person,

(17:34):
you know, if something happens, you can't leave the post unattended.
That's how we got in this situation in the first place.
After a thorough search of the lighthouse complex turned up
nothing but a set of oil skins, suggesting that one
of the keepers had ventured out in just his shirt sleeves,
the men turned their attention to the landing platform on
the west side of the island. Here there was plenty

(17:57):
of evidence that the island had recently been hit by
a massive storm. A supply box had been smashed open
and its contents strewn across the ground, despite being over
one hundred feet above sea level. Iron railings on the
side of the path had been bent and twisted out
of shape, part of a railway track had been torn
from its concrete moorings, and a huge rock weighing more

(18:20):
than a ton had been displaced. Turf had also been
ripped up from the tops of the cliffs two hundred
feet above sea level. Still still, they found no sign
of the three keepers. So what happened here, poor fellas?
They must have been blown over the cliffs or drowned
trying to secure a crane or something like that was

(18:42):
Harvey's conclusion in a telegram to the Northern Lighthouse Board.
After the Hesperus returned to port Harvey Harvey had left
more and the three sailors behind to tend to the
light and continue the search. They scoured the island yet
again for the three missing men, but found nothing. Arriving
on the island. On December twenty ninth, the board's superintendent,

(19:05):
Robert Muirhead, began an investigation into the keeper's disappearance. Murehead
actually knew all three of the men very well. He
knew them the men who went missing well, I've repeated
that twice. Examining the oil skin that had been left behind,
he concluded that it belonged to William MacArthur, the occasional keeper.

(19:27):
After going over the wreckage on the western landing, Muirhead
speculated that Marshall and Ducott must have headed out into
the storm to try to secure the equipment stored there.
When they did not return, muir had surmised that MacArthur
must have ventured out to try and find them. Murehead
uncovered further clues in the landing platform, where he found
ropes strewn all over the rocks. Again, these were the

(19:50):
ropes that were usually held in a brown crate seventy
feet above the platform on a supply crane. Perhaps the
crate had been dislodged and knocked down, and the lighthouse keepers,
while attempting to retrieve them, got washed away in the sea.
Who knows, I don't. Apparently no one does. And probably
never will. That's why we keep talking about it. It

(20:13):
was concluded that the men must have left the lighthouse
for some purpose in this weather, you know, perhaps to
secure some gear or to ascertain what damage had been done.
With Moore's knowledge of the lightkeeper's working clothes, you know
what they wore and what situations they would wear them in,
muir Head could guess that they had made their way

(20:33):
to the landings, and he said this when the accident occurred.
Dukat was wearing sea boots and a waterproof marshall sea
boots and oil skins. And is more assures me that
the men only wore those articles when going down to
the landings. They must have intended when they left the station,
either to go down to the landings or the proximity

(20:54):
of it. And that's from the National Register of Scotland.
His mir had closed the investigation with this explanation. I
am of the opinion that the most likely explanation of
this disappearance of the men is that they had all
gone down on the afternoon of Saturday, fifteen December, to
the proximity of the West landing to secure the box

(21:16):
with the mooring ropes et cetera, and that an unexpectedly
large roller big wave had come up on the island,
and a large body of water, going up higher than
where they were and coming down upon them, had swept
them away with resistless force. Needless to say, the explanation

(21:36):
left considerable room for doubt. The lack of bodies, the
calm sea conditions, and the perplexing clues found at the
lighthouse ensured that the mystery continued to baffle generations of
seamen and researchers for over one hundred years. I need
to grow up as well. It's just a hilarious word,

(21:57):
like why why would you? I understand that there are
men of the sea, But when the other thing is
called that, like scientifically, why would we? Why would we
say the exact same thing? I don't know either way.
Four volumes of the Lightkeeper Register of the Commissioners of
Northern Lighthouse, spanning a total of eighty four years from

(22:19):
eighteen thirty seven to nineteen twenty one, were fairly recently
imaged and made available on the National Records of Scotland's
Service Scotland's People. These registers are indexed and can be
searched by name, age and the year an individual entered
into the service. The register entries for Ducot and Marshall
include a note in red ink disappeared on or about

(22:42):
fifteen December nineteen hundred and All three men are recorded
in the Register of Deaths for the District of Carloway
on the same page, with the cause of death noted
as probably drowning. We don't know, probably drown Like really
that's a if it's probably, I understand you're saying it's probable,

(23:04):
But if you don't know for certain, maybe just say
cause of death unknown. You don't need to say probably drowning.
Who am I though? What do I know? Keeper James
Ducott was survived by his wife and four children, sixteen
year old Luisa, thirteen year old Robert, nine year old Annabella,
and six year old Arthur. Thomas Marshall was unmarried and

(23:27):
had no children, but was survived by his father, brother,
and sister. The correspondence records suggest that MacArthur was survived
by his wife and two children who are yet to
be definitive definitively identified. But as far as the public
was concerned, Murehead's report wasn't the end of the story,

(23:48):
and speculation was soon Rife theories more suited to the
Middle Ages were soon making the rounds, such as the
men being gobbled up by a giant sea serpent or
whisked away by a huge seabird. One theory had the
men leave the island by boat to escape debts, so
the old fake and your death trick, while another had

(24:08):
them spirited away by the skeletal crew of a ghost ship.
Could that would be pretty cool, right, I don't know.
Pretty sweet way to go for somebody who loves the sea.
Some people even thought that the men had been kidnapped
by foreign spies. More doubt was cast on the official
investigation with the emergence of a log book supposedly containing
several baffling entries between the twelfth and fifteenth of December.

(24:33):
In the first entry, Marshall is supposed to have written
that a great storm, the likes of which he had
never seen before, had hit the island. He continued that
Dukot was unusually quiet when the storm hit, and MacArthur,
a big, burly man not known to have much of
a sensitive side, was weeping. A second entry has all

(24:54):
three men praying in the eye of the monstrous storm,
and a third and final entry, supposedly written on the fifteenth,
states that the storm had passed and all was calm.
On hearing about the existence of these logbook entries, many
questioned the idea that the men had been swept out
to see if anyone had died. Shirley, whoever wrote the

(25:15):
fifteenth of December entry, would have mentioned this. Well, there
had to be another explanation, right, Well, there was indeed
another explanation. The logbook entries weren't real. They were injected
into the story several years after Marshal Ducott and MacArthur disappeared.
There is no evidence that they ever existed, as the

(25:36):
forty eight Times journalist Mike Dash discovered after carrying out
his own investigation, and the Scottish Registry has no record
of these whatsoever. They are false. So, dismissing both the
fake logbook entries and the fanciful tales of sea serpents
and ghost ships, what are we left with? Well? Three
theories have emerged over the years to seek to explain

(25:58):
the men's disappearance. The first is based on the character
of William MacArthur. MacArthur was, by all accounts, an ill
tempered man who was quick to settle an argument with
his fists. It had been speculated that he could have
started a fight up on the western landing, which led
to all three men falling to their death from the cliffs.

(26:20):
The second theory is that one of the men, again
probably MacArthur, murdered the other two, threw their bodies into
the sea, and then jumped off the cliffs himself. While
both theories add a level of you know, bloodthirstiness to
the mystery, there is no evidence that either a fight
or a murder took place, none whatsoever. Again, everything was tidy,

(26:41):
everything was in its place, everything was ready for the
next you know, lighting of the lamps, and there was
no blood or anything that would indicate there was a fight.
So it is of course perfectly possible for men and
confined quarters to rub each other the wrong way to
the point they snap and all hell breaks loose, you know,

(27:03):
especially when one of them has a history of violence.
But without bodies or crime scenes to examine, these two
theories will forever remain mere supposition, and it is possible,
Like you're in close quarters, I don't know how long
they've been there together at that point, Oh yes, I do.
That's a lie. Roughly two weeks. Roughly two weeks because
they were sending the replacement for the occasional guy. Yeah,

(27:25):
you could go nuts, especially like if you couldn't leave
the building. But they can leave the building. Two of
them can leave the lighthouse and go walk around and
get some fresh air. Like it's not like they're completely
stuck inside and have total cabin fever. It's not like
there's some massive snowstorm that's preventing them from going out
or some massive, you know, two week long storm where
they can't ever set foot outside. No, they could. The

(27:49):
much more plausible explanation is that Marshall and Ducott were
swept away while trying to secure the supplies and equipment
on the West landing. When his colleagues failed to return,
MacArthur headed out to find them, and he too, perished
in the storm. Why anyone would head out on such
a dangerous expedition when they could have just stayed safe

(28:11):
in the lighthouse can be explained by the fact that
Marshall had been previously fined five shillings for losing his
equipment in a previous gale. As a family man losing
five shillings in nineteen hundred was no laughing matter. So
it's not really a surprise if securing equipment was more
important to Marshall than his personal safety. Probably worried about

(28:33):
losing his job. You know. It's like he's already been
fined once. How many times are they going to find
him before they just straight up fire him. That's it,
That's what we got. That's the whole mystery. But I've
got a question for you. Has the flann and Ile
lighthouse mystery been solved well recently? Leading naturalists John Love,

(28:55):
the author of the book A Natural History of Lighthouses
which I used for research, aimed to have solved the
mystery of the missing keepers. According to the research done
by Love, Thomas Marshall had previously been fined in the
five shillings, like I said, for negligence after equipment was
washed away during a fierce storm. Because of this fine,

(29:15):
the men were determined to ensure that mistake did not
happen again. As Love stated, since it was not permitted
for all three to abandon the lighthouse, only two of
the men must have gone down to the landing to
secure the gear. The third, Donald MacArthur, would have remained
back in the lighthouse. But when his companions did not return,

(29:35):
he would have been concerned for their safety, or else
perhaps he saw such a great wave approach and rushed
to warn them. MacArthur may have been too late, only
then to be swept away himself. Love concluded that no
paranormal activity was involved and it was purely a tragic
act of nature that the men got swept away by

(29:56):
abnormally roughed seas. But not ever, every one is buying
this explanation, as Keith McCloskey, who researched the story extensively
for his book that I also used researching this, The Lighthouse,
The Mystery of the Alien Moore Lighthouse Keepers. He says,
for me, the giant wave theory doesn't work. It seems obvious,

(30:18):
so the theory seems convenient. The truth is, nobody really
knows what happened, and I, for one agree with him.
We can speculate all day long, but we don't know
what happened, and we're never going to. And while it's
likely that the mystery behind the keeper's disappearance will continue
to fascinate, it is worth remembering that the three keepers

(30:38):
lost their lives in pursuit of their duty and the
families of these men to this day, you know, their
descendants do not know for sure what happened. So let's
ask the question what the fuck happened? Well, for one,
I found in the Scottish National Registry that several details
of the scene were added in later I mentioned this,

(31:00):
and they were added in that poem that I read
at the beginning by one Wilfred Wilson Gibson. The you know,
the fact or the stated fact that there were apparently
overturn chairs or meals left abandoned on the dining table.
He made that up. The scene was very neat and tidy,
which to me that makes this whole thing all the

(31:20):
more confusing. You know, if there was something that the
keepers urgently needed to attend to outside, I feel like
there should have been a scene of disarray, like there
should have been things knocked over. If you're running out,
if you see some massive way of some huge storm coming,
some equipment you know fell, wouldn't you know? And these
men are afraid of getting in trouble. One's already been fined,

(31:41):
is possibly afraid of losing his job, and he has
a family. Wouldn't there be a chair knocked over? Wouldn't
you think, like, I see how those details got added in,
because that's exactly what you would expect to see. But
none of that was there. Everything was completely in order,
set up and ready for the relief lighthouse keeper. Okay,

(32:06):
so back to what we know, back to facts, no
more speculating wildly. So we know that Joseph Moore walks
into the lighthouse, he found the door unlocked to begin with.
He found only one man's oil slick hanging up and
the other two men's stuff completely gone. And the clothes

(32:26):
that were gone were specifically the men's going outside clothes.
Whatever the hell that means. I assume it's just like,
you know, waterproof shit, because they're on an island surrounded
by the sea. So those are the things we know.

(32:46):
The interior of the lighthouse, there was no scene that
would have indicated any sort of struggle had taken place.
You know that the men had run out in a hannic.
There was none of that. Everything was in perfect order.
It was waiting for Joseph Moore to show up, and again,

(33:10):
just nothing out of the ordinary at all. They said
when they arrived the Hesperus that the seas were very calm,
there were no massive storms, there were no huge waves,
so mer Head concluded that maybe it wasn't you know, well,
he didn't really conclude anything. The cause of the men's

(33:32):
cause of death is listed as prowy drowning. It's like, no,
you didn't really conclude much of anything. No one ever
found them or any sign of their bodies whatsoever, which
is pretty strange if you ask me. I'm not an
expert on like sea and ocean currents or anything like that,
but those people do exist now and like pretty frequently

(33:56):
get used. So back to the investigations conclusion. Mirror Head
believes that there was some massive wave, a large roller
as he called it, some freak weather event that only
affected this one particular lighthouse and nobody else, like ships

(34:18):
that were coming in on the very same ocean. You
know that you should have seen a massive roller rolling
in on. Again, I'm not an expert on currents or anything,
but it would seem to me that, you know, maybe
other parts of the water with the with the large
rolling wave would be affected. I think I think a

(34:38):
lot of them might. I don't know, you know, not
a not a scientist, not a wave ologist or anything
like that, but really like the like only one island
was affected, no water around it, and the ship that
was bringing in the replacement for him, the replacement lighthouse keeper.

(34:58):
They they didn't experiperience anything any effects of a massive
tsunami wave that would have swept away men who were
like two hundred feet above sea level. That makes all
the sense in the world, though, So they probably drowned.
They could have drowned. I don't know. Like again, he

(35:18):
doesn't either. He's just saying probably drowned. That is not
a cause of death. Probably drowned. That's so insulting. I
hope their families never saw that, because that's absolutely ridiculous.
I'd be pissed. I'd be like, what do you mean probably,
Like did he drown or not? I need to know.

(35:39):
Am I a widow? Do I wear all black? Or
do I just let him fake his own death and
we call it a day? Who knows? I don't know.
No one does. Again, this is pure speculation, because the
guy who was investigating literally just said probably drowned. He's like,

(36:01):
let's call it a day. Boys, We've done it. We've
solved it. We've solved the mystery. They probably drowned because
you know, there's a lot of water around them, so
you know, probably drowned. It's probable that they drowned. He's like,
uh huh, anybody behind it? I don't know what do

(36:22):
I think actually happened? Man, I really don't know the
fact that nothing in the house, like are in the
you know, living quarters of the lighthouse, that nothing was disturbed,
nothing was a miss And it just looks like the
guys ran out there like really quickly. One obviously had

(36:44):
to stay behind because you know, they've gotten in trouble
for abandoning a post or whatever, losing his equipment. That's
what it was. They were not allowed to abandon their
post completely, meaning that two of the lighthouse keepers could
go out and one had to stay inside and for
the third to go out like he did. Like something

(37:06):
crazy must have been happening out there. But I don't
know about a wave like again, if it were that
big they would see it coming. Why in God's name
would they be like, let's run out onto this rock
right straight in the path of this historically large wave.

(37:32):
That one. It's not making sense to me. Like these
were seamen, they were indeed men of the sea. I
think they knew better than that. And the principal lightkeeper
had had his previous position for over seven years, so
I think he knew what he was doing. I don't
think he would have just been like, I'm gonna run

(37:53):
out there, like what the hell could he possibly do?
Like he wouldn't have gone to secure you know, whatever
little crate was up there, Like that's risking their lives
for a fine, like the other guy got a fine. Okay,
you know, I don't think these two guys are gonna
be like, all right, I'm gonna risk life and limb
and you know, abandon my five children. No, they weren't

(38:18):
saying anything like that. I don't think that happened. That's
just like not plausible at all. I feel like that's
the laziest possible conclusion to an investigation. It's in the
running for the laziest of all time, you know, recorded history. Anyway,
the MacArthur like having a bad temper, being ill tempered

(38:43):
and murdering the other two and then killing himself. Well
my problem with that is there's no blood anywhere. Sure
he could have drowned them, and sure he could have
thrown himself, you know, off a cliff and onto the rocks.
But wouldn't the currents just bring them right back in?

(39:03):
You know? Like usually when somebody goes to dump a body.
And I know this because I watch Dexter. Usually when
somebody goes to dump I talk about it like I'm
an expert. But you know I have seen every season
of Dexter. I'm not caught up on a new one.
Nobody spoil it for me. Okay, I'm gonna watch it
eventually when I get a damn minute. Usually when one

(39:28):
takes their boat out onto the open water, Uh, you would,
you would want to drive further out, you know, away
from the shore, because there's a thing. There's this thing
called currents, and they'll pull the body back in, you know,

(39:49):
if it's not super far out or weighted down or whatever.
I feel like they would get washed up if they
were quite literally, like say, say he like I would
he have murdered him? That wouldn't have gotten blood everywhere,
you know what I mean? Like there would be blood
somewhere even if he killed him outside, because what's he
going to kill him with. I don't know if they

(40:09):
have guns on that island, you know, I have no idea.
I'm sure they have, Like some sort of weapon for protection.
I guess, I honestly don't know if that was like
a thought back then, be like I got to keep
a gun in my lighthouse because somebody's gonna come rob
my lighthouse. I don't know if they had that fear

(40:31):
or not. I just don't feel like he had, you know,
anything that wouldn't leave a lot of blood for a
weapon available to him. Like there's probably some cutlery in
their kitchen, knives for the rope. You know, obviously you
got to cut rope. They got that crate supplies on it,
and like rocks on the island, so it's literally all ways.

(40:54):
You you know, would would create a lot of bloody
mess if you killed someone with Like if you smash
somebody with a rock or you know, stab or or whatever,
it's gonna leave blood. There would be blood somewhere. There
would be blood inside the lighthouse, there would be blood
on the stairs, there would be blood on the rocks
and the shore. And you know, I don't think their

(41:16):
bodies would have gone out too far, so that one
doesn't make a lot of sense either. And now I'm like,
I keep you know, I told you at the beginning
that I've tried to record this twice and it just
like won't record. The third time worked like It's just
I find it really strange. That's only happened like maybe

(41:39):
one other time, and I think it was it was
one of the Haunted Doll episodes, or I mentioned one
of the haunted dolls. And I'm not gonna mention them
by name again because I don't want to have to
apologize again. Write them a letter and tell him that
I'm sorry him or her. We don't know which haunted
doll that it is. I'm no longer cursed, I believe,

(42:03):
but I don't know. Maybe someone's put a hex on
me or something. I got to write another letter, send
it to Key West, to my boy. I'm in a
weird mood. I'm sorry, just a weird, weird mood talking
about writing letters to haunted dolls and curses upon my

(42:26):
podcast recording software, as if I'm that imparted to the universe. Yeah,
I don't know, though it might be some sort of
hes There might be something supernatural going on, you know
that does not want me to record this episode. It
cares so deeply about me and my great sphere of

(42:47):
influence that is sarcasm. If you couldn't tell by the
hearty chuckle anyway, Could it be a UFO. I don't know.
Anything's possible. It's twenty twenty five. I don't know anymore.
It wasn't then, obviously, but I feel like I feel
like anything is possible. We're not going to discount it,

(43:07):
you know, because they probably drowned, but they could have
also probably been abducted by a UFO or eaten by
the crack and come ashore. What else could have happened
to them? Here's a fairly likely one. Maybe actual pirates,
you know which did and do continue to exist, rolled

(43:30):
up on the island. Two guys go out to you know,
go see who the hell this is rolling up on
our island in this pirate ship, and you know, maybe
a fight ensues, maybe a canon is launched. I don't know. Well,
they would have found a can if they launched a canon,
But you know what I mean, perhaps there is some

(43:51):
violence that causes the third guy to just run out
and you know, not be fully dressed. And he would
have been fully dressed if there was weather, as they
call it in the lighthouse business. So maybe I don't know,
the pirates take them aboard their ship and either force

(44:13):
them to work, or you know, take them really far
out to sea and dump them, or have them walk
the plank if you will, if you won't, that's cool too.
Could have been, you know, one of the rumors was
foreign spies. I don't know, like why though, Like why
are they just going to take these random ass light housekeepers.

(44:36):
That's kind of kind of a weird thing for spies
to do. Maybe if they had a very, very very
specific goal, Like I don't think this lighthouse was like
some sort of strategic point of national defense or anything
like that. So I don't know about all that. To me,

(44:59):
the most likely and again, I'm not like a wave scientist.
What other kind of scientists? And am I not? I'm
not a pirate scientist. I'm not a blood spatter analyst
or you know, like a current wave current you know
what I mean, water current specialist. I'm none of those things.

(45:24):
But I am a woman with a podcast and a
totally unverifiable theory. But hey, my guess is really as
good as anyone's, and I'm just trying to go through
all the possibilities and say what I think is the
most likely, most likely scenario here. I think they probably

(45:44):
got taken like a board someone's ship, spy, pirate, I
don't know, but for their not to be like an
initial panic where the guys run out of the house.
So here's okay, I got it. Now here's here's my scenario.
A ship rolls up, the lighthouse keepers see it, and

(46:09):
they go down, like the two men just put their
coats on. They get fully dressed, so they're not in
a hurry. They're not knocking over furniture, they're not, you know,
leaving in a panic or so you know, it doesn't
appear that they've left in a panic. Two lighthouse keepers,
they get dressed, they go outside. They're not in a hurry,
because if they were in a hurry, why would they have,

(46:30):
you know, taken the time to get fully dressed. So
the ship does not they don't consider it initially a threat.
The two men go down, some sort of visible or
audible violence occurs that causes the third to run out,
leaving the front door unlocked and not fully dressed. He

(46:50):
runs down they you know, the crew wrangles the three men,
maybe at gunpoint, knife point, sword point, who knows beak
of a parrot point they're forced on the boat, though,
that would account for no lack of blood, you know, no,

(47:13):
just no like physical evidence on the shore. They're forced aboard.
They don't struggle. They get on the boat and they're
either you know, forced to work on the crew. They're
taken somewhere and tortured. If you know, if spies really
did pick them up, maybe one of these guys has
some sort of information. I don't know, doesn't seem likely,

(47:36):
but whatever, just speculating here, just spitballing. Let me riff
either way. I think they all got taken aboard a boat,
most likely not by choice, the whole like, oh, they
fake their death to escape their debts, all three of them.
What they're like, let's make a pact, because first of all,

(47:58):
only the two guys work together all the time time,
you know, the principal and the assistant lightkeeper, and the
other guy was just called the occasional and he wasn't
even recorded in the brig and official register, which is
pretty hateful. And then writing Prowlly drowned behind his name,
you know, cause of death, Prowlly drowned. Ridiculous, Like you

(48:20):
just you couldn't have just said drowned like you said,
this is my conclusion. That's not a conclusion. I feel
like the word conclusion and the word probably I don't know,
like they're not unequal footing, they don't super correlate to me.
That's what I think happened, though. I think they got taken.
Uh don't know for what purpose, you know, really could

(48:42):
have been for anything, really could have been for like
nothing at all, could have been totally friggin random. Oh oh,
I remember the detail about the crate being busted open.
I don't know if every thing was found from the crate.
What if they just came there to steal whatever whatever's
in the right like simplest motive, right, like oldest motive

(49:06):
in the world, like money, what they think might be money, treasure,
you know, whatever. Who knows where the pirates are from.
Maybe they don't even know what a lighthouse is. Maybe
you know, they think it's some sort of a bank
or so. I don't know, a vault could be now
I'm really going off. Okay, I'm gonna stop. That's that's

(49:27):
my that's my theory. I think, uh, that's the most
likely scenario, you know, based on what very little evidence
there is, and you know, all the all the interjecting
of random facts by poets, just like saying random shit,
the clock, I like have double checked it's I'm not

(49:49):
one hundred percent sure, so I'm not gonna say probably
the clock was stopped. If it was, that's freaking weird.
And then I changed my answer to UFO, and I
will not discuss it any first, just gonna say, UFO,
if the clock is actually stopped, and if it stopped

(50:13):
at the time the men disappeared, which we would have
absolutely no way of knowing unless the aliens come here
now and they tell us, and they tell us what happened.
Either way, some kind of ship took these men. This
is what I think. What do you think? Let me know.
Do you agree with Captain Dipshit that they probably drowned,

(50:39):
that some ginormous wave, like absolutely huge freaking wave came
and just swept them in away. Caused some damage on
shore really to the crate and some sort of railing,
but that could have been caused by like maybe the
crate falling and hitting it. Who knows the great was

(51:01):
broken open did it hit the railing first? Again, crime
scene and accident reconstructionists did not exist back then. But man,
I wish somebody could like just go back in time
with that. It will probably be possible one day. I
am not counting anything out anymore. If somebody told me

(51:24):
tomorrow that unicorns are real and not you know, something
that somebody glued a horn too, but like an actual unicorn,
I'd be like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
It's probably a unicorn. All right. That's it. That's all
I've got. Those are my theories. I've spent them. Sit

(51:45):
with those for a while if you will, and if
you won't, that's cool too. And if you like what
you hear, you can hear more episodes every Friday, released
on all podcast platforms. You can find me on social media.
Terrible at posting, but I'm there. I post a lot
of stories that don't really have anything at all to

(52:06):
do with my podcast. I just post things I like
because I want you to see them too, because I
think they're good. I think they're really good. On Instagram,
you can find me at Autumn Podcast, on Facebook at
autumns Adities, Patreon at Autumn's Oddities, and what else am I?
I'm on threads at Autumn's Oddities. As always, I appreciate

(52:29):
you listening, and remember, if it's creepy and weird, you'll
find it here.