Maritime Mysteries at The Flannan Lighthouse
The three men that disappeared from the Flannan Lighthouse
The Flannan Lighthouse Mystery . . That Will Never Be Answered. Or will it. . .
The mystery focuses on unusual log entries made by one of the Lighthouse Keepers. The three Lighthouse Keepers pictured, are Thomas Marshal, James Ducat and Donald MacAthur. On December 1900, the keepers of the Flannan Isles Lighthouse, off the Northwest coast of Scotland mysteriously disappeared without a trace.
Thomas Marshal wrote : “Severe winds, the likes of which I have never seen in twenty years” Marshal also wrote that the other two keepers had been very quiet, explaining that one had been crying. The next day, Marshal wrote that the storm was still raging, and that all men had been praying . . What remains a mystery, is that there was no actual reported storms in that area on the 12th 13th or the 14th December.
The final log entry is said to have been made on the 15th December, stating : ” Storm ended, Sea Calm. God is over all”
The staff at Solarglide Limited have maybe stumbled upon a theory that has been largely forgotten . . . The plot thickens . .
It was common practice for lighthouses with large Fresnel lenses to use mercury baths as low-friction rotation mechanisms. Some recent acute Mercury poisonings and incidents of abnormal behaviour in Lighthouse Keepers has been drawn attention to the potential for chronic Mercury poisoning in these workplaces.
Although not fully understood at this time, Mercury is a deadly poison. One of the symptoms of Mercury poisoning can be the onset of madness. Those involved in the manufacturing of hats in the 18th and 19th centuries also suffered from Mercury poisoning , becoming “Mad as a Hatter” as the saying went.
Unfortunately, it was not the solitude that drove the Lighthouse Keepers insane, but the actual prolonged exposure to Mercury.
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