The Flannan Isles Lighthouse Keepers

The Flannan Isles, also known as the Seven Hunters is a group of uninhabited rocky islands off the western coast of Scotland. The mysterious islands allegedly had a profound effect on sheep and shepherds would sail their flocks to the islands to graze. Sheep who dined on the grasses of the Flannan Isles were said to give birth to twins or recover from illness. Despite its positive effect on sheep, a legend of a spirit haunting the islands kept any shepherd from staying overnight.
Nevertheless, in 1896, the Board of Trade sanctioned the construction of a lighthouse on the largest of the Flannan Isles, Eilean Mor. Eilean Mor is also home to some bothies, a Scottish term for a small hut that now sits in ruin as well as the Chapel St. Flannan, the namesake for the islands. In December of 1899, the lighthouse was completed and lit for the first time. Four lightkeepers were assigned to the lighthouse, each of whom would work a staggered rotation of six weeks on, two weeks off. This meant there were always three men on the island tending the lighthouse at one time.
In mid-December 1900, one year after the lighthouse was first put in service, the three men stationed on the island were James Ducat, the 43-year-old principal keeper with a wife, four children, and 20 years of experience, Donald MacArthur, the married 40-year-old occasional keeper who was covering for the first assistant keeper who was on sick leave and Thomas Marshall, the youngest of the trio at 28 and the second assistant keeper. The fourth keeper, Joseph Moore, wasn't on the island as it was his two weeks off.
Around midnight on December 15th, the steamship Archtor passed near the Flannan Isles. Captain Holman noted that he could not see the light, though the conditions should have allowed him to. When the Archtor arrived in port, it reported the absence of the light, though this was never communicated to the Northern Lighthouse Board.
On December 26th, the lighthouse tender ship Hesperus made a routine visit to Eilean Mor.
When nearing the island, Captain James Harvey found it odd that there was no flag on the flag pole. The Hesperus sounded her horn to try to get the attention of the three lighthouse keepers but there was no response. They then attempted firing a flare, again, no reply. Joseph Moore, the fourth lighthouse keeper, was onboard the Hesperus. With no signal coming from the island, Moore was sent ashore. Upon arriving at the Eilean Mor's east landing, nothing appeared amiss.
Everything was where it had been when Moore had last been on the island. Moore made his way up to the island where he found the entrance gate, the entrance door, and the door after that all closed.
The kitchen door was found open however and the fireplace had not been lit for several days. All of the clocks were stopped. According to Moore, quote, "I then entered the rooms in succession, found the beds empty just as they left them in the early morning," end quote.
With no sign of anyone, Moore realized something was seriously wrong and returned to the Hesperus to get more men to help him investigate. They found the lamp of the lighthouse to be in working order and fully prepped but there was no clue as to what happened to the three missing men.
Moore and three others were left on the island to operate the lighthouse while the Hesperus sailed back to telegraph the Northern Lighthouse Board of the disappearances.
The next day, Moore and the others set about the island searching for more clues. While the east boat landing where Moore had arrived the previous day was in perfect order, it was a different story at the west boat landing. The west boat landing was damaged and a box that had held tackle and mooring ropes was gone. The ropes were found strewn on the rocks and the iron railings around the area had been broken, with some completely missing. That damage however was already detailed in the keeper's log, implying it was not directly related to the disappearance.
Most notably missing upon further investigation was a lifebuoy for emergencies which had been kept among the railings approximately 110 feet above sea level. The ropes holding the buoy in place however had not been removed by man, implying that the sea had ripped the buoy from its spot.
Back at the lighthouse, by taking inventory of the clothes left behind, Moore was also able to determine exactly what his coworkers had been wearing when they disappeared. MacArthur in particular has left behind the only coat he was known to wear, implying he had disappeared into the cold of a December in coastal Scotland without a coat. They also discovered the logs from the keepers' final days. The last entry was from December 13th but a slate had details from December 14th and 15th, including the time the light was extinguished on the morning of the 15th as well as atmospheric readings as late as 9:00 a.m.
The log noted morale had been low amongst the keepers. Peculiarly, it also made note of recent strong storms and winds, though there had been no reports of storms in the area. So either the turbulent weather had been extremely localized over their islands or the men had hallucinated or fictionalized the storms.
One source reports the discovery of additional logs made by the 28-year-old Thomas Marshall. Within, the second assistant keeper detailed how the storms had been so frightening, they had caused the men to pray even though their location atop a 150-foot cliff in a building that was only a year old practically guaranteed their safety. Marshall describes Ducat as being "very quiet in recent days." And the gruff MacArthur had been seen crying. The final entry read, quote, "Storm ended, sea calm. God is overall,"
What happened to the three lighthouse keepers that vanished into thin air?