Selects: The Flannen Isles Mystery

Summary

Stuff You Should Know: Selects – The Flannan Isles Mystery

Hosts: Josh Clark & Charles W. "Chuck" Bryant
Date: August 23, 2025

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Episode Overview

Josh and Chuck revisit the haunting and unsolved disappearance of three lighthouse keepers from the Flannan Isles Lighthouse in 1900—a mystery that's persisted for over a century. The episode delves into historical records, debunks myths and fictional embellishments, and explores theories both mundane and supernatural. True to their style, Josh and Chuck bring humor, curiosity, and depth to re-examining one of maritime history's most notorious vanishings.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Setting the Scene: The Flannan Isles & Lighthouse Life

• Location & Geographical Challenges

  • The Flannan Isles are a remote, windswept archipelago off northwest Scotland in the Outer Hebrides, notorious for treacherous seas and sheer, rocky cliffs.
  • The Flannan Isles Lighthouse sits atop Island Moor, perched 200 ft above sea level—an area so exposed it’s near the famed "Butt of Lewis," the UK's windiest spot.
    • Josh (05:21): "The Butt of Lewis... it's the windiest part."
  • Only the lighthouse keepers and some sheep reside on Island Moor. The “locals” (sheep owners) never stay overnight due to rumors of the island’s eerie quality.

• Lighthouse Operations & Keeper Roles

  • Run by the Northern Lighthouse Board since the late 18th century, lighthouse keeping was a respected profession—not the refuge of misanthropes as movies often portray.
    • Josh (09:47): "Lighthouse keepers are very frequently portrayed as weirdos... that's not the case. At least not in Scotland."
  • Teams typically consisted of a principal keeper, an assistant or two, and an "occasional keeper" who worked rotating shifts due to difficult travel to the island.
  • Falling asleep on duty was incredibly rare, illustrating the seriousness of the profession.
    • Josh (10:02): "Out of 2.75 million lighthouse nights in Scotland over fifty years, only 15 found a keeper asleep on duty."

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The Disappearance: December 1900

• The Lighthouse Keepers

  • James Ducat: Principal Keeper
  • Thomas Marshall: Second Assistant
  • Donald MacArthur: Occasional Keeper, filling in for the first assistant (William Ross) who was on sick leave

• Timeline of Events

  • December 15, 1900: The transatlantic steamer Archter passes Flannan Isles and notes the lighthouse light is out—an uncommon and concerning sight.
  • December 26, 1900 (Boxing Day): The relief vessel Hesperus arrives with supplies and a replacement keeper (Joseph Moore). No greeting from shore, flag is down, no response to horn blasts or flares.
    • Josh (23:10): "No one gets that steam shack going... they're like, alright, we have to go on land and figure this out."
  • Discovery
    • Moore climbs 160 steps to the lighthouse; finds everything in meticulous order: beds made, meal finished, clock stopped, records up to date until Dec 15, oil ready.
    • Two sets of oilskins (rain gear) are gone, but one remains, implying at least one man went outside in haste, possibly unprepared.

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Sifting Fact from Fiction: Mythmaking and the Real Record

• Fictionalized Logbooks & Poems

  • Over time, fabricated stories emerged: logbook entries describing horrifying storms, keepers weeping or mute, an untouched meal, and a toppled chair—none of which matched primary evidence.
    • Chuck (29:50): "It's still pretty creepy. The log entries in the fake log entries... 'storms I've never seen before in 20 years'... 'Ducat struck mute,' 'MacArthur weeping'—all fabricated."
    • Josh (31:05): "Mike Dash made mincemeat out of it... logbooks were not diaries."
  • Wilfred Wilson Gibson's 1912 poem added unsettling embellishments (untouched meal, starving canary) that were subsequently uncritically repeated.
    • Chuck (31:21): "These are all the things... would have made this a different story, but everything was really just fine."
  • Investigative Journalist Mike Dash established that these details were myth, not part of the original accounts.

• Primary Evidence (Based on contemporary reports)

  • The keepers’ home was tidy; crucially, only two oilskins missing, supporting the theory not all men went outside prepared.
  • Severe storm evidence: a 2,000 lb stone displaced, iron railings twisted, a storage box shattered and contents gone, grass torn up 30 ft from cliff edge—indicating truly extraordinary wave action.

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Theories: Rational and Paranormal

Plausible Explanations

• Storm/Accident Theory (Mainstream View)

  • Probably two men (Ducat & Marshall) ventured out to secure equipment or investigate storm damage. MacArthur, left inside, rushed out to aid them—possibly without his oilskins, indicating haste.
  • A "rogue wave" (or two successive waves) swept all three men away in quick succession.
    • Josh (48:26): "That supposes something really amazing, Chuck... at least one swept away by a freak wave, the second goes for help, a second wave gets the last two."
    • Chuck (47:44): "MacArthur... had to leave quickly, which would explain why they had their rain gear on and MacArthur didn't."
  • Later lighthouse keeper Robert Aldebert (1950s) observed waves so large their spray reached 200–300 ft up—confirming such freak events were possible.
    • Chuck (51:32): "He said... sea spray from some waves at the very top... so it's very possible a big wave could come through and reach these heights."
  • Some storm damage evidence may even have occurred after the disappearance, during a later storm on December 20.

• Wind Theory

  • Originally floated, but discounted: winds were westerly (would have blown men inland), and keepers would likely have known how to protect themselves.

Other (Less Plausible) Theories

• Murder or Fight

  • MacArthur, known as a "hothead," possibly fought and killed fellow keepers, then jumped—or all three tumbled off the cliffs in a struggle.
    • No evidence supports any violence or disturbance; no signs of struggle inside or outside.

• Paranormal/Supernatural Theories

  • Kelpie (Water spirit) legend: Outer Hebrides "Kelpies" dragged them away. Rejected for being local folklore (and for dwelling in freshwater lochs vs sea).
  • St. Flannan Sacrifice: Pagans sacrificed people here; the gods mistook lighthouse keepers for offerings.
    • Josh (45:16): "...the idea that the gods mistook the lighthouse keepers as a human sacrifice and that's what happened to him. I love that one."
  • Tiny People Legend: The island was once home to a race of tiny prehistoric people—another fanciful explanation based on dubious ruins and folklore.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Scottish Place Names and Pronunciation:

  • Chuck (02:10): "I want to pre-apologize to our Scottish listeners... we are going to butcher some of these names."

• Lighthouse Keeper Stereotypes:

  • Josh (09:47): "Lighthouse keepers are very frequently portrayed as weirdos... that's not the case. At least not in Scotland."

• On Meticulousness of the Job:

  • Josh (10:36): "Out of 2.75 million lighthouse nights in Scotland over fifty years, only 15 found a keeper asleep on duty."

• Accidental Humor about the “Butt of Lewis”:

  • Chuck (05:24): "The Butt of Lewis is the windiest island."
  • Josh (05:25): "But Lewis is a nearby island... and it’s the windiest part."

• Disappointment Over Fictional Embellishments:

  • Chuck (29:50): "It's still pretty creepy. The log entries in the fake log entries..."
  • Josh (31:05): "Mike Dash made mincemeat out of it... logbooks were not diaries."

• On Rogue Waves:

  • Josh (49:49): "That’s the only way that could happen... it would have had to have been two successive freak waves that cleared all three."

• On Paranormal Theories:

  • Chuck (44:12): "Kelpies are not seaside dwellers. They are inland at the lochs."

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:57–06:23] – Describing the Flannan Isles' geography and notorious weather ("Butt of Lewis," remoteness)
• [09:00–11:19] – Debunking lighthouse keeper stereotypes; seriousness of the job
• [17:38–21:54] – The Actor (steamer) notices the lighthouse is dark; the relief ship Hesperus investigates
• [23:07–26:45] – Joseph Moore discovers the keepers missing; inventory of the site
• [28:24–31:52] – Discussing mythmaking: Mike Dash debunks false logs and poems
• [34:41–35:09] – Detailing physical storm damage: ropes, iron railings, massive stones, and grass
• [38:33–43:11] – Evaluating wind, wave, and fight/murder theories
• [44:12–46:10] – Exploring supernatural explanations (Kelpies, gods, tiny people)
• [47:00–53:20] – Outlining the most likely sequence of events and analyzing timing, logbooks, and physical evidence

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Conclusion

The Flannan Isles Mystery remains unsolved, shrouded in both historical fact and fanciful fiction. The most plausible answer is a tragic intersection of bad weather, bad luck, and human vulnerability in a perilous place—none of which has ever been proven conclusively due to the absence of physical remains. Josh and Chuck combine humor, skepticism, and historical rigor to cut through the myths and make sense of the tragedy, all while maintaining reverence for the romance and spookiness of unsolved mysteries.

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Additional Resources (As Mentioned)

• Mike Dash’s Articles (primary investigations and myth-busting on the Flannan Isles disappearance)
• Wilfred Wilson Gibson's Poem ("Flannan Isle" — for myth vs. fact comparison)

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For Further Listening

If you love maritime mysteries and historical unsolved cases, check out older SYSK episodes on lighthouses, rogue waves, and the psychology of isolation.

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(End of Summary)

Transcript

[Narrator/Host]

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[Chuck Bryant]

3.

[Josh Clark]

Hey, everybody, it's me, Josh. And for this week's select, I've chosen our episode on the Flannan isle mystery from November 2021. This is one of those rare instances of a missing person's unsolved mystery disappearance case where the people weren't murdered. Well, almost certainly weren't murdered. That is one theory, but it's a lesser theory. And isn't that refreshing? I hope you enjoy this one. Even if you've heard it before. I can attest it's still good. Again, enjoy.

[Narrator/Host]

Welcome to Stuff youf Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

[Josh Clark]

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant over there, and Jerry's out here, too. So since the gang's all here, the three of us alone on a deserted isle, stuff you should know.

[Chuck Bryant]

Can I mention a couple of things here?

[Josh Clark]

I think you should.

[Chuck Bryant]

I want to pre apologize to our Scottish listeners whom we love. We toured in Scotland, had a great time, one of our best live shows in the beautiful city of Edinburgh. Yes, wonderful people love the Scots, but we are going to butcher some of these names. And I apologize ahead of time.

[Josh Clark]

It's inevitable. Yeah, we're sorry.

[Chuck Bryant]

And what was the other thing? Oh, the other thing was it's impossible to talk about the Flannan Isles Lighthouse mystery and research it without almost always thinking about the movie the Lighthouse.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, and actually it comes up a lot in the research, too.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I think one reason is because it's clear that. Oh, what's the guy's name who made it? I can't think of his name.

[Josh Clark]

William Eggers.

[Chuck Bryant]

It's not William Eggers.

[Josh Clark]

Well, it's definitely not Dave Eggers.

[Chuck Bryant]

It's an Eggers.

[Josh Clark]

Right? Yeah, I'm pretty.

[Chuck Bryant]

Robert, I think. Robert, yes.

[Josh Clark]

Okay. Robert Eggers. Okay. Yes.

[Chuck Bryant]

He clearly did his research. And, you know, I remember when that movie came out, I spoke on the show that I wrote a movie, a period movie about a lighthouse and a murder that takes place. And then the movie the Lighthouse came out, and I was like, so much for that. But I did a lot of research at the time, and it was clear that Egger did a lot of research because it was a very accurate film. Especially when you read and research the Flannan Isles Lighthouse mystery. You're like, oh, yeah, that's like, from the movie. And that's, like, from the movie.

[Josh Clark]

Apparently they mention it in the movie. I didn't go back and watch it again, but I saw somebody say that they make a reference to the mystery in the movie.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, cool. That's awesome.

[Josh Clark]

I thought so, too. Yeah. Man, I can't wait for that Viking movie to come out.

[Chuck Bryant]

Me, too. And this made me want to see the lighthouse again, which I didn't think I wanted to do, but now I do.

[Josh Clark]

Same here. So we are talking about one particular lighthouse called the Flannan Isles Lighthouse. And it was located on one island in the Flannan Isles called Island Moor. That's not exactly like Chuck was saying, the Scottish pronunciation, Scot, Gaelic. But it's close enough. And it actually means, in English, I guess, the Moor Island. Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay.

[Josh Clark]

So anyway, that's where this lighthouse is and it's situated. It's still there today. It's automated, though it went automated in 1971. But it sits, its light is about 75ft atop the cliff, which is the highest point of Island Moore. And that cliff is 200ft above sea level. And it's a pretty good place for a lighthouse because this area of Scotland is kind of treacherous for ships.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes. And it's important how high this one was. It figures into the story.

[Josh Clark]

I'm not just showing off with stats here.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, it is treacherous. It's a windy area. There are big winds in Scotland, especially out there on those islands. I think it is close. And this is kind of funny, the name of it. But isn't it nearby, supposedly the windiest place? Is it the windiest place in the uk and what's the name of it?

[Josh Clark]

The Butt of Lewis.

[Chuck Bryant]

Come On.

[Josh Clark]

I'm serious. But it makes sense.

[Chuck Bryant]

I know I'm not 12 years old.

[Josh Clark]

But Lewis is a nearby island which is inhabited in the region, which is pretty rare, I think. But this part of it, one end of the island, is called the Butt of Lewis island, and it's the windiest part.

[Chuck Bryant]

The Butt of Lewis is the windiest island.

[Josh Clark]

Right. So the. But the area that these Flannan Isles are in. So Island Moor is in the Flannan Isles. The Flannan Isles are part of the larger island chain on the northwest of Scotland called the Outer Hebrides. And to the west of them, you can just keep going and going and going, and then you'll finally reach North America. They're pretty remote. They're pretty isolated. They are indeed windy. And like we were saying, the seas are kind of rough around there. I think that's kind of putting it mildly. Plus the islands themselves are often very rocky and jagged, and so it's treacherous. So, of course, you'd want to put a lighthouse there.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, yeah, the winds blow strong from.

[Josh Clark]

The Butt of Lewis, but the lighthouse that was built there, finally on Island Moor, wasn't installed until 1899, which is kind of late, considering that Scotland had something called the Northern Lighthouse Board that they organized in 1786 to basically oversee and standardize lighthouse keeping in that country.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. So they were headquartered there in Edinburgh. And here's how it worked at the time. And this checks out. According to my research, when I was writing my movie and the movie the Lighthouse.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, nice.

[Chuck Bryant]

They were staff. You had your principal lightkeeper called the principal keeper. And then usually depending on where the lighthouse was, how busy it was, how big it was, and as far as needed personnel for operation, you had one or two assistants. And they were all ranked as, you know, you weren't just like, oh, I'll be the first keeper this week. Like, you earned that spot. It was a promotion. And then you were assigned to these stations by the board, just like in the movie. You don't stay there forever. You kind of rotate and you go there for a little while. And you may get stationed with someone you've never worked with before. And you have to get to know that person very intimately over the course of a short period of time, or it's somebody you have worked with before and you're old friends with, maybe.

[Josh Clark]

Or old enemies.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, exactly. Or old enemies. So aside from these two to three people as principals and assistants, you had what was called the occasional keeper. And this is someone who actually lived nearby, either an Inhabited island resident, or if it was uninhabited, if it was at least close enough to where they could get there easily. And they would help out during the day, but they would go home at night and sleep and stuff in their own beddy by.

[Josh Clark]

And that was the standard. But for a place like Island Moor, where the Flannan Isles lighthouse was located, if you were an occasional, you were there for two weeks. That's how hard it was to get to the island and how hard it was to get off of the island.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right.

[Josh Clark]

So the purpose of the occasional was to give two weeks rest off to one of the other two or three people who were permanently or temporarily stationed there for much longer than you.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. And in those cases, the keeper, the occasional, does not go home and sleep.

[Josh Clark]

Right. So the one of the things that I that stuck out to me, Chuck, was that, you know, when you think about lighthouse keeping, like, yes, the person has to live there and it's a lot of work and they have to attend to the light and everything. But I think lighthouse keepers are very frequently portrayed as weirdos, just complete alcoholics who, like, can't do anything else but live by themselves. Almost like they're placed there because there's nothing else for them to contribute to society, so they're kind of cast off or ostracized. That's not the case. At least not in Scotland. That was not the case. If you were a lighthouse keeper, that was a very, very important job, and you took it very, very seriously. So much so that there was a study that found between 1850 and 1900, 50 years, there were only 15 recorded instances of a lighthouse keeper falling asleep at their post, which was about as bad as it gets as a lighthouse keeper.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I mean, that's not to say they weren't drunks and misanthropes here and there. Maybe those are the 15.

[Josh Clark]

Yes, but I did a little more further math, Chuck, if I may be so indulged as to share it.

[Chuck Bryant]

I saw that. I thought that was pretty funny.

[Josh Clark]

So get this. Let's say you have about 150 lighthouses in operation between 1850 and 1900. And if you calculate that number of lighthouses times the number of nights that occurred over that 50 years in Scotland, you have what we'll call 2.75 million lighthouse nights. Out of those 2.75 million lighthouse nights in Scotland over those 50 years, only 15 of those nights found a lighthouse keeper asleep on duty. That's how seriously they took it.

[Chuck Bryant]

Did you account for leap years?

[Josh Clark]

Oh, Chuck, I just really Wanted to drive that home, man, I really thought that was an important point. And it didn't come across with 15 instances of 50 years. Who cares?

[Chuck Bryant]

No, I mean, it's a big deal because, you know, the purpose of a lighthouse, I guess we have not really said, is to light the way around rocky shores and islands so boats don't run into them.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Unless you've been living under a rocky shore, you know that.

[Chuck Bryant]

It's a very important job though. I love lighthouses. We've talked about them quite a few times on this show. Big, big fan. Every time I am near a lighthouse, I will do my best to climb that thing if it's allowed.

[Josh Clark]

So who done it in your lighthouse mystery?

[Chuck Bryant]

Uh, who did do it? It was a good story actually.

[Josh Clark]

Well then maybe you should hang onto it in case somebody comes along. Cause it's not like the lighthouse is the only lighthouse movie ever made. Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

The briefest synopsis is it's two sisters who are tending the lighthouse because it was their family job and their parents died there. So it's these two sort of like maybe a 20 year old and a 16 year old and out there alone on this island. And then these two men wash ashore one day in a shipwreck and they tell the awful story of their, their ship going down. And it turns out that the real story is they were prisoners aboard a ship being transferred and they escaped their shackles and murdered everyone aboard.

[Josh Clark]

Wow.

[Chuck Bryant]

And then there was a shipwreck. So they were bad guys who got washed ashore.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, it's a bit like a reverse dead calm sort of.

[Chuck Bryant]

And they charm the girls. But there is, I guess I didn't know the name was an occasional keeper. There's a guy that lives, one guy that lives on the island that helps them out, that is sort of suspicious of the guys. And it sort of plays out over the course of the movie where they're exposed, ending in a game of cat and mouse one night.

[Josh Clark]

Nice.

[Chuck Bryant]

I remember how it actually, it was okay. I mean, I did it as an experiment. Cause all I've ever written is comedy. And I thought, hey, maybe I'll write a serious thriller. And it could be better if a really good thriller writer got a hold of it, I think.

[Josh Clark]

But were there still like little jokes peppered as a side? Like one of the sisters is running from the murderer and says to herself, I left the mainland for this. Like your comedy shines through still.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, I don't know. I'll have to dust that thing off.

[Josh Clark]

You should. Man, it sounds like a Good one.

[Chuck Bryant]

Thank you.

[Josh Clark]

So this lighthouse, back to the Flannan Isles lighthouse on Island Moor. Like we said, most of the Outer Hebrides are uninhabited. I think we said that, didn't we?

[Chuck Bryant]

I don't know, but you just said it then.

[Josh Clark]

I think there's 70 islands in the Outer Hebrides and only 15 of them are populated. And Island Moor is definitely not one of them.

[Chuck Bryant]

It's remote.

[Josh Clark]

It is extremely remote. The only people, the only beings that live there, what you would recognize as a genuine normal being as opposed to, say, paranormal, which we'll get into, are the lighthouse keepers and some sheep. Even the people whose sheep those are don't live on the island or even stay there overnight. They go out a few times a year, check on the sheep, and then leave before nightfall. That's kind of how Island Moore is viewed. It's seen kind of as a place where maybe gods or ghosts or just something otherworldly lives on Island Moor, according to the locals. According to lore written about the locals. I've never spoken to an Outer Hebridean.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, and I think the other thing we need to mention too. Cause I believe it comes up later in one of the supernatural explanations for what is to come here with this mystery is the name St. Flannan comes from the fact that Island Mor was the site of a chapel in the 7th century built by a traveling Irish monk who eventually became Saint Flannan. And that's gonna come up. Just put a pin in that.

[Josh Clark]

It's a big time pin. Hang onto it. Okay.

[Chuck Bryant]

Is that a good setup? Should we take a break?

[Josh Clark]

I think so, man.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right, we'll come back with more spooky lighthouse mystery stuff right after.

[Josh Clark]

Foreign.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Now through August 26th, it's back to deals time where you can enjoy storewide deals and earn four times points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible items from Black Label Bacon, Pop Tarts, Quaker Activia, Lunchables, Frito Lay, Goldfish and Jack Links. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Shop in store or online for easy drive up and go. Pickup or delivery subject to availability restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details.

[Bob Crawford]

American history is full of wise people.

[American History Hotline Caller/Guest]

What woman said something like, you know, 99.99 of war is diarrhea and 1% is gory.

[Narrator/Host]

Those founding fathers were gossipy AF and they love to cut each other down.

[Bob Crawford]

I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline the show where you send us your questions about American history. And I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history has to offer.

[American History Hotline Caller/Guest]

Hamilton pauses, and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said. It would have been harder to fake it than to do it.

[Bob Crawford]

Listen to American history Hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[John Lithgow]

Hello, I'm John Lithgow.

[Josh Clark]

We choose to go to the moon.

[John Lithgow]

I want to tell you about my new fiction podcast, It's One Small Step for Man. It's about Buzz Aldrin, one of the true pioneers of space.

[Chuck Bryant]

You're a great pilot, Buzz. As far as I'm concerned, the best I've seen.

[John Lithgow]

That's the story you think you know. This is the story you don't predisposition.

[Josh Clark]

To depression, alcohol abuse, and suicide.

[John Lithgow]

We'll see Buzz try to overcome demons.

[Chuck Bryant]

What do you say, Buzz?

[Josh Clark]

Another beer.

[John Lithgow]

And triumph over addiction.

[Josh Clark]

Here's to you, Buzz Aldrin.

[John Lithgow]

Good luck to you and become a true hero.

[Chuck Bryant]

Buzz and I will proceed into the.

[John Lithgow]

Lunar module not because he conquers space, but because he conquers himself.

[Josh Clark]

Buzz, we intercepted a Soviet radio transmission.

[John Lithgow]

Starring me, John Lithgow.

[Josh Clark]

Can you put it through?

[John Lithgow]

Can you Translate on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts?

[Josh Clark]

Columbia. All right, so we should probably mention the steamship actor or archter, Arkter. I've seen it both ways, but that kind of kicks off the story for us, don't you think?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, well, we haven't mentioned the major players either, yet, have we?

[Josh Clark]

No, no. I guess we could go either way. We can mention one or the other first.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right, let's mention the players, because these are the actual keepers of that lighthouse. Okay, you had the principal keeper, James Ducat. You had the second assistant. Wouldn't he be the first assistant, though?

[Josh Clark]

No. Donald McArthur. We'll get into that.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay. Thomas Marshall was the second assistant, and then Donald MacArthur was the occasional. Right, yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Here's my bit. So he was filling in for a guy named William Ross. William Ross was the first assistant keeper, which meant that since Donald MacArthur was filling in for him. Donald MacArthur was the first assistant keeper, even though he was an occasional keeper.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay, that makes sense. And William Ross was on sick leave. And just judging from the movie the Lighthouse and all this research, like, you must have had to been really Sick to get taken off the island.

[Josh Clark]

Yes. But don't you think. Yes, that's what I thought too. But doing research for this, I found that these guys had, all of them had a rotating two weeks off. So at any given point, over a stretch of two weeks, one of those men, James Ducat, Thomas Marshall or William Ross, would not be on the island because they rotated two week shore leave, basically. So I. Yeah, I was of the impression that if you went and tended a lighthouse, they dropped you off, left you with some food and said, see you never.

[Chuck Bryant]

But that's not the case.

[Josh Clark]

No, no, I think they were well taken care of. I get the impression the Northern Lighthouse Board was pretty good at its job and really cared about these people and looked after them. I didn't see anything to deny that.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, well, it's a brutal and important job, so surely that they were taken care of, at least to a certain degree.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, but the upshot of all this is that there were three men on the island, three dudes working that lighthouse, and aside from some sheep, that was it. That was the only people on the island. And this, by the way, this is December of 1900, right?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. So this thing is brand new.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, they built it in 1899. It was scheduled to take two years, it took four years. The construction was started in 1895. And what they built was at the time a state of the art lighthouse. But it took so long. It took twice as long as they anticipated because the cliffs and the island itself was so treacherous. That's how long it took just to get materials up the cliff to build the lighthouse.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. So it's finally in operation. And then now comes the actor, which is what you mentioned earlier. Not a C T O R, but the actor. A C H T E R. Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

It was a transatlantic steamship from Philadelphia to Leith, which is a port for Edinburgh.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. So they were out there, I was about to say, sailing around, but I guess they were steaming around and they waited out of storm for a few days. And then this part got confusing to me.

[Josh Clark]

So the actor was passing by Flannan Isles. It passed by on December 15 and the actor noticed that the light was out. Not that they couldn't see the light because of weather or anything like that. Like the light was straight up, not lit on the lighthouse on Flannon Isles. Lighthouse. It was a very strange thing to see and it was very noteworthy. They ran into some weather on their way to Leith and had to wait it out for a few days. And when they finally Made it into port. I guess they passed the information along, but the northern lighthouse board didn't catch wind of it until the official relief supply ship showed up a few days later. And the actor's observation that the light was out wouldn't come into play until an investigation was launched later on.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. So that relief ship was the hesperus. H e s P e r u s and that arrived on December 26, 1900, which was boxing day after Christmas. And what these ships brought was they usually brought either supplies or fresh dudes or both. And in this case, I think they had supplies and a fresh lighthouse keeper. And it was captained by captain Harvey. And they were like, all right, something's going on here. This lights out, the flag's not flying. Let me toot on the horn a few times.

[Josh Clark]

Toot, toot, toot.

[Chuck Bryant]

Nobody comes out. They're all right, well, let me send up a flare. They send up a flare, no one comes out. And what they're trying to do is say, hey, we're here. Get your little. Your little rail car system going. It had a little cable, a little cable pulled railroad system that was operated by a steam engine in a shack. And so when the ship pulls up, they would toot the horn and the dudes would come down and they would get that steam engine going and get that cable car ready to transfer the goods onto this thing. So they could. You know, it's like hundreds of pounds of stuff going up a really, really steep cliffside.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. There's just no way to move that stuff otherwise.

[Chuck Bryant]

No, you'd have to do it. So nobody came out. No one gets that steam shack going. And they're like, all right, something's going on. We're gonna have to go on land and figure this out.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And just the fact that they weren't greeted by one or more of the guys from the lighthouse, which is apparently custom. Like, even the most grizzled misanthrope lighthouse keeper just knew it was custom to come down and greet the relief ship.

[Chuck Bryant]

You're still dying to see someone else?

[Josh Clark]

Pretty much.

[Chuck Bryant]

I think so, yeah.

[Josh Clark]

So the fact that no one showed up and then no one responded to their signals, they were like, something really weird is going on here. And they had Joseph Moore, who was the relieving keeper, which makes me think that William Ross was really, really sick, because he would have been on sick leave for way over two weeks by this time, Because I believe the relief ship was five days late because of weather. So he must have really been laid up. And they Sent another relieving keeper, Joseph Moore instead. And Joseph Moore went ashore and he was friends with these guys. He wasn't some new dude or anything like that. So he was genuinely concerned. And he went up the steps to the lighthouse. There's apparently 160 of them. And he just knew right away that something was way off. There was no sign of life, there was nobody around. There was the, the. Just nothing was going on. It was abandoned basically. And he didn't have a very good feeling about it. So he runs back down to the boat to say, I think we have a problem.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes. So he says, I think we have a problem. And then that's when basically everyone on board said, all right, we gotta, this is a situation now that we all have to deal with. I think it was the captain who went with Moore to search for other stuff. And they said, in the meantime, you other guys, you gotta get up there and start operating this lighthouse. Cause it's been down and we need to get that thing cranked up again.

[Josh Clark]

Yes. So they. So the first, for the first time possibly since December 15, the lighthouse was lit again by these relief guys who took over and kind of settled in and were like, all right, this is our job now. But that follow up search, it's weird. Like we'll talk about some of the legends and layers that were added to it over the years. But to me, the thing that was like so weird about the follow up search was that everything was in place.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Like it would be way more like kind of middle of the road to me, this mystery. If there was like signs of struggle or, you know, there were like, like everything was just kind of askew. It's way more eerie to me that like everything was exactly how it should have been. It's just the three human beings that were supposed to be there were missing. But that's what, what Joseph Moore foundation and the others found when they searched a lot more thoroughly.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. The door to the keeper's house was closed, the gate was closed in the kitchen. Everything was all spic and span. Everything was all cleaned up. It was clear that someone had done some cooking in the grate, but not anytime soon. There were ashes in there, the beds were made, the clocks had all stopped because no one was there to wind them, obviously. And everything was fine, except like you said, that there was no one around, that there was a full fountain of paraffin oil. It was all like the light was ready to be burned. That Fresnel lens was cleaned up and ready to go. The blinds were drawn the records were all filled out all the way up until Saturday, I think. The morning of December 15th, right?

[Josh Clark]

Yep.

[Chuck Bryant]

And so everything was great except for there were two missing sets of rain gear. They're called oilskins. Their coats and their boots. Two of those were missing out of the three guys. And so that's sort of the only thing out of the ordinary at this point.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, yeah. That was basically the only trace of the missing men. Like, had those oilskins still been there, you would have taken the lighthouse and the area as, like, having been prepared for somebody else. They just hadn't shown up yet. Like, the missing oilskins were the only trace that those men were missing, that there had been men there that were no longer there anymore.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. And then there were a couple of pieces of literature that kind of confused things after the fact.

[Josh Clark]

Right, yeah. That really kind of made this, like, to a lot of people, like a much bigger mystery. I think some people came along and weren't satisfied with how mysterious it was on its own. And so added to it and added to it over the years through magazine articles and newspaper reports, and then later on, like podcasts and stuff. And so you really have to be careful navigating these waters, if you'll excuse the pun or the stupid metaphor when you're researching this, because so much of it is just regurgitated as fact because it has been part of the story for a hundred years. That it was actually thanks to the efforts of a journalist named Mike Dash, who, if you are at all interested in non fiction writing, especially nonfiction history writing, go check out Mike Dash's website. He's probably the best in the business.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, yeah.

[Josh Clark]

But yes, he's just amazing. But he. He set his sights on getting to the bottom of this, and he did some stuff and basically finally, definitively proved, no, this was added to it later on. This was added to it later on. This is not true. That kind of stuff. So hats off to Mike Dash for demystifying a lot of it. True.

[Chuck Bryant]

But also making it not as fun because it's decidedly creepier with these newspaper stories as they were written. One of the newspaper stories talked about the logbook. And this is completely fabricated. You know, like Mike Dash exposed it as fabrication.

[Josh Clark]

Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

But it's still pretty creepy. The log entries in the fake log entries were by second. Well, not by second Assistant Marshal. But this is how they wrote it.

[Josh Clark]

Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

And wrote on December 12, they saw severe winds the likes of which I've never seen before in 20 years. And wrote. And these are people that have seen Some of the worst storms you could imagine out there on these outer islands. And pretty unshakable guys, I would think. And he said, he wrote in the next few days that the storm continued. It was so unbearable that Dukat, the principal keeper, was struck mute by the storm. And that occasional keeper MacArthur, who is supposedly a really tough guy, was recorded as weeping uncontrollably for days because of how bad the storm was.

[Josh Clark]

Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, it's good stuff.

[Josh Clark]

It is good stuff. But Mike Dash made mincemeat out of it, and he's kind of my hero for it. One of the things that he basically just points out is if this were an official logbook, if you were a second assistant, you put that in there, you would. You would basically get fired for that kind of thing. Like, that's not what a logbook is for. And you certainly wouldn't put that your superior was weeping uncontrollably in the logbook. Like, that's just not what you would put in a logbook in the first case. And then secondly, he also said that somebody being quiet because of a storm or whatever or their mood, like, it also kind of mentions their mood a lot, too, that that would have no bearing on anything. And the only way that that makes sense in relation to the story is after fact, which he said, obviously, that means that these were written after the fact. And then years later, after he'd first investigated it, he. He finally turned up a copy of the. The magazine that this came out in, like, 1921. And it was like a. Like a pulp magazine called, like, True Confessions or something like that. So he definitely. He definitely deconstructed that for sure, to my great satisfaction. I love it.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. It's kind of funny, though. Like, the logbook was basically like your diary.

[Josh Clark]

That's exactly right. He said, like, logbooks were not diaries.

[Chuck Bryant]

No, they were.

[Josh Clark]

He actually specifically said that. Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's funny. The other thing he uncovered. Or did he uncover the poem? Or was that just.

[Josh Clark]

I think that was a little more common knowledge. But, yeah, he wrote about the poem being the poem, too.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay. So in 1912, there was a poem by Wilfred Wilson Gibson, who wrote a poem about this mystery where he says, there was an untouched meal on the table, cold meat, pickles, and potatoes. The kitchen chair was knocked over. The only sign of life was the keeper's canary half starving on his perch. Like, these are all the things that you mention would have made this a different story, but everything was really just fine. I don't even think the chair was Turned over. Right.

[Josh Clark]

I don't know.

[Chuck Bryant]

I think the guy later on. Well, we'll get to him.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. The way that Mike Dash treated it is that it's possible. Okay. I don't know if Mike Dash treated it like that way. Mike Dash wrote about a later guy who we'll talk about who treated it as fact, so.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, okay.

[Josh Clark]

I think the upshot of it is that in doing like this research on primary resources, like what Joseph Moore wrote, what Robert Muirhead, who we'll talk about, wrote these people who were actually there when it happened or right after it happened, that nobody mentioned anything like a turned over chair. And based on what they did mention, it seemed like they probably would have mentioned a turned over chair. They were so meticulous in the details.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right, well, let's talk about some of the evidence that was there.

[Josh Clark]

Okay.

[Chuck Bryant]

Because what we're really talking about is was there. I mean, the kind of obvious thing you would think about is was there some big storm that wash these guys away forever? Like, that's kind of the one reasonable explanation. And so as far as evidence goes, most of it is storm related. For the, you know, to sort of support that and to go against it. There was a railway that we talked about and that had a crane. And the crane was sort of, you know, built to help unload things off of this platform off the cargo container. And it was about 70ft above sea level, and it was fine. It even still had the canvas wrapped around it. So if there was some big storm and evidence shows there probably was one. Right. But at least this crane 70ft up wasn't damaged and that canvas was still there, which is a little weird.

[Josh Clark]

It is a little weird because even a little higher up toward the top of the cliff. So the crane was at about 70ft above sea level, right? Yeah, a little higher up than that. At about 110ft above sea level, there was a box, a big box that held a lot of, like, mooring ropes and ropes for the crane and just some really important stuff, tackle. And it had been busted open and the contents, like, strewn all down the cliff's face. There was a buoy that was tied to the railing right around the same place as that crate, 110ft above sea level. It had been torn clean away from the ropes that had lashed it to the railing. The ropes were still. But the buoy, just a little piece of buoy was left attached to it. And yet the crane was intact. And then even weirder, the iron railings around the crane that you would use as handrails had just been completely twisted and wrenched out of place.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's a heck of a storm.

[Josh Clark]

It's an amazing storm. It's crazy to me that the crane was left intact and that the canvas was even on it. Still.

[Chuck Bryant]

That was really weird. There was a 2,000 pound stone that was up on the cliff that slid down and then I believe the railway tracks were even torn up from the concrete. And then the grass at the top of the Cliff, this is 200ft up at the very top, was ripped up as far back as 30ft from the edge.

[Josh Clark]

That's nuts. Do you know how much force a wave would have to have to tear up grass in the first place? And then that thing would have to be over 200ft tall to even reach that grass.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's a bad storm.

[Josh Clark]

It's a monster wave. But the storm part, that kind of confounds things big time. And I think we should take another break and we'll talk about how everything's just so confounded still to this day. Which is why this is a mystery right after this foreign.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Now through August 26th, it's back to Deals time, where you can enjoy storewide deals and earn four times points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible items from Lindor, Oreo, Lays, Celsius, Cottonelle and Snapple. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Shop in store or online for easy drive up and go. Pickup or delivery subject to availability restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details.

[Bob Crawford]

American history is full of wise people.

[American History Hotline Caller/Guest]

What woman said something like no? 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is gory.

[Narrator/Host]

Those founding fathers were gossipy AF and they love to cut each other down.

[Bob Crawford]

I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history has to offer.

[American History Hotline Caller/Guest]

Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said. It would have been harder to fake it than to do it.

[Bob Crawford]

Listen to American History Hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator/Host]

The Super Secret Bestie Club Podcast Season four is here and we're locked in. That means more Juicy Cheeseman Terrible love advice Evil spells to cast on your ex.

[Curly]

No, no, we're not doing that this season.

[Narrator/Host]

Oh, well, this season we're leveling up.

[Curly]

Each episode will feature a special bestie, and you're not gonna wanna miss it.

[Chuck Bryant]

Get in here.

[Curly]

Today we have a very special guest with us. Our new super secret bestie is the diva of the people.

[Narrator/Host]

The diva of the people.

[Curly]

I'm just like Texturex. My theory is that if you need to figure out that the stove is hot, go and touch it. Go and figure it out for yourself.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay, that's us.

[Josh Clark]

What the heck? That's us.

[Curly]

My name is Curly.

[Josh Clark]

And I'm Maya.

[Curly]

In each episode, we'll talk about love, friendship, heartbreaks, men, and of course, our favorite secrets.

[Narrator/Host]

Listen to the super secret Bestie Club as a part of the Microtura Podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right, we've got this mystery brewing. These three men are missing. It's pretty clear that there was a big storm that blew through there. So like I said earlier, the obvious explanation was these strong winds just came along and just blew these guys the heck off this island, and they were never seen again.

[Josh Clark]

That's not entirely out of the question. Because of the butt of Lewis.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. Strong winds flow from the butt of Lewis, as everyone knows. And I'm 12 years old. Robert Muirhead, he was the superintendent of lighthouses, and he investigated this disappearance. He knew all these guys some really, really well, but I think the occasional keeper, he knew the least. But he still knew pretty well, Right? He's the one that did this investigation personally and went out there, wrote up this report. And I think he was the last person he was out there, you know, because it was a new lighthouse, I guess, sort of finishing up. And I don't know if he christened it or whatever, but he was one of the last, in fact, maybe the last person to even see them alive. Right.

[Josh Clark]

He says in his report that he's probably the last person to shake hands with these men and see them alive when he shoved off on December 7, when the last relief ship, the previous release ship, had come along.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right, so in his official report, he said, I don't think it was a strong wind that literally blew them off the island. It was blowing westerly that day, and that means it would have blown them back inland toward the island. And there's no way that these guys would have blown completely across the whole face of the island off the other side, because they know what to do they know to drop and get flat and hold on. And they probably would not have been blown all the way off if it was westerly.

[Josh Clark]

They need to stop, drop, and do not roll.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, don't roll. Please don't roll.

[Josh Clark]

Not in that case.

[Chuck Bryant]

I would grab something heavy.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, anything, a sheep, whatever. Anything that will keep you from being blown off. But that's just nuts. It shows you how windy it is up there. That that was a possibility that Muir had considered and was like plausible enough that he had to at least put it in the report as a possibility.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

The one that he focused on that most people who think in level headed ways kind of agree with too, is that instead a wave probably came along and knocked these men off.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I mean, this one, I'm an amateur when it comes to like figuring out island, Scottish island mysteries and weather. This one makes a lot of sense to me.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, totally agree. So being blown away by wind sounds kind of nuts. Unless you think about it, in which case it's not super nuts. In this instance, at least, there were more slightly nuttier explanations. And like, the thing is, you can't fully discount any one of these because the men's bodies were never found. So there was never any conclusive proof of what happened. Even still to this day. And some of the likelier, less likely scenarios seem to always focus on Donald MacArthur, who was supposedly a bit of a hothead, quick to fists kind of dude. Not necessarily the kind of occasional keeper you'd want to have on rotation for two weeks with you, but that's what a lot of these secondary theories kind of presuppose.

[Chuck Bryant]

He would have been the Willem Dafoe, right?

[Josh Clark]

I guess so, yeah. I kind of imagine him as such. He had a.

[Chuck Bryant]

He got the story from this, didn't he?

[Josh Clark]

I don't know.

[Chuck Bryant]

I'm curious. I bet you he did.

[Josh Clark]

I don't know. I'd have to watch it again now that I know that I hadn't even heard of this story when I saw the lighthouse. So I need to watch it again and see what I think.

[Chuck Bryant]

I'm gonna do some research on that. I doubt if he based it on this, but I wouldn't be surprised if it triggered the idea or something.

[Josh Clark]

Gotcha.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right, so MacArthur was, like you said, a tough guy, a hothead. And he, of course there's gonna be speculation that he started a fight and they all got in a big fight and they all fell off the cliff together. Or maybe he murdered these two guys and then knew what his comeuppance would be and flung himself off the cliffs himself in sort of a murder suicide situation.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Again, it's plausible. Like some people can go nuts, like especially in extreme isolation kind of thing, but there's just no evidence whatsoever of any sort of fight. It's possible to fight started entirely outside, but it just doesn't satisfy all of the evidence, right?

[Chuck Bryant]

I don't think so.

[Josh Clark]

Like the, the guy whose weatherproof coats were still there was Donald MacArthur. So why would he start a fight outside in weather that was bad enough that his, his comrades would put on their weather gear?

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. Or maybe when it comes to fighting, you don't want that raincoat on.

[Josh Clark]

I guess maybe he found it restrictive. That's entirely possible too. But that's again, as far as like these secondary kind of paranoid theories go, those make a lot more sense. The other ones just are much more squarely in the realm of paranormal.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, you could say that the Outer Hebrides are home of the Kelpie. And the Kelpie is a water spirit, a shape shifting water spirit that drowns human victims. But there are two problems with this. One, that is not real. And two, even if it was real, let's just do a thought experiment. Everyone knows that the Kelpies are not seaside dwellers. They are inland at the lochs, Right.

[Josh Clark]

They're not known to frequent the seaside. No.

[Chuck Bryant]

They don't like that salt water.

[Josh Clark]

No. So the Kelpies probably did not kill these men and cart them away.

[Chuck Bryant]

There's more supernatural there, right?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. The island being named after St. Flannan and that ruined chapel being there, and the idea that the locals just kind of view that island as a weird place. There was this one author, a supernatural, like a Freudian type author who came along and said, all right, I've got it. Everybody ready for this? So the locals think that this place is kind of inhabited by spirits. I'm guessing that the pagans who used to live here sacrificed people on this island and that the gods came to be used to a certain type of sacrifice. And that with the Northern Lighthouse Board installed these three men in a tower on Island Moore. It awoke something and the gods mistook it as a sacrifice. So they took their sacrifice and that's what happened to the three men.

[Chuck Bryant]

I think he skipped over the best part of this whole thing though. What it was an ancient race of tiny people.

[Josh Clark]

Well, so I can't tell if that guy made that part up or if that is actually a local belief. But yeah, that was part of it. Too.

[Chuck Bryant]

How small were they?

[Josh Clark]

Supposedly they found small bones that seemingly belonged to humans. And so there was a race of tiny people who supposedly lived there before.

[Chuck Bryant]

But are we talking like, are they the size of a. Of a sea rat or a like 2 or 3ft tall person?

[Josh Clark]

I don't. Am I Scottish? I don't know. Uh huh. All right.

[Chuck Bryant]

I was just curious.

[Josh Clark]

A sea rat?

[Chuck Bryant]

He was tiny.

[Josh Clark]

That's a very tiny, tiny person. Pagan. But I think that's really interesting, the idea that the gods mistook the lighthouse keepers as a human sacrifice and that's what happened to him. I love that one.

[Chuck Bryant]

It's like a big wicker man or something.

[Josh Clark]

Yes, exactly. I think that's exactly the point the guy was making.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right, so those are obviously all bunk. What probably really happened is as follows. And I think this is a pretty plausible. I think this is pretty plausible.

[Josh Clark]

But even still, it's still astounding if you step back and look at it.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, well. And there's no way to prove it. So it's kind of like these mysteries where you just don't know, you know. So here's what could have happened is that there was bad weather reported, but it wasn't maybe that bad on the 15th. But let's say that that box is loose or. Well, how could it get loose? Let's say that box needs tending to. That's holding all this stuff.

[Josh Clark]

Right? It's an important box.

[Chuck Bryant]

Don't forget it's an important box. And I think Marshall had previously been fined what would be about 20 pounds today for having lost some equipment. So he may have been like really quick to like, hey, we gotta secure that box. And so maybe Dukat and Marshall went out there to like, they left their quarters while the other dude, the occasional keeper MacArthur is up there in the lighthouse still and they're securing this box down. And then maybe this freak wave comes through or maybe they just get in TROUBLE and then MacArthur needs to really leave quickly. Which would explain why they did have their rain gear on and MacArthur didn't. Because MacArthur had to leave really quickly to go down there and help these guys.

[Josh Clark]

Yes. So like that, that definitely checks all the boxes that after that MacArthur was swept away as well. But the thing is, is like that, that supposes something really amazing, Chuck, that there was a freak wave that the men just did not expect that carried at least one of them away. The second one who survived that wave ran back to get help from MacArthur to help get the first guy who went in. And a second freak wave Washed those two away, just cleaning the island of its human inhabitants in two swift waves over the course of a minute or two.

[Chuck Bryant]

Because the idea is that the storm wasn't bad enough to just sweep them all away.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

And the act, it had to be a rogue wave.

[Josh Clark]

Right. And the steamer, the actor noted that the area. Because the actor passed by just a few hours, a couple hours probably after this event happened. And they noted that it was calm but stormy, which is the opposite of what you would think. You would think it was not stormy, which would draw the men out to make them. I mean, stormy enough that they needed to secure the box, but not so stormy that they felt like they couldn't go out, but calm really kind of makes it, the idea of two freak waves really freaky, because that would mean that those waves just came out of nowhere and swallowed the men up.

[Chuck Bryant]

But in the whole, I mean, we did an episode on rogue waves and the idea is that it's a wave.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Or is there a set of rogue waves?

[Josh Clark]

I think, if I remember correctly, it was a wave. But that's what I think. Maybe, maybe there is more, I don't know. But yes, that's how this, that's the only way that could happen is because MacArthur wasn't wearing his rain gear, which suggests that he ran out in a hurry into bad weather, which means that one of them would have had to have come and gotten him. He wouldn't have been there with the other two. So it could not have just been one freak wave. It would have had to have been two successive freak waves that cleared all three.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, and this does lend some credence to the idea that this thing was big enough to damage the Turf, you know, 200ft above sea level and destroy that box and wash that 2,000 pound stone down the cliff too. Right, yeah.

[Josh Clark]

And there was also, there's a chance that all that stuff that just was evidence of a terrible storm actually came after the men had been washed away from the island several days later when there was a really bad storm on December 20th.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay, that makes sense. I didn't think about that.

[Josh Clark]

But isn't that weird to think that that damage had happened after the fact?

[Chuck Bryant]

Right, sure, that makes sense.

[Josh Clark]

Because it's almost certain that this event happened on December 15th. The last info they had on the log slate was 9am Dec. 15, like we said. So it couldn't have happened earlier than that. And it would have happened before dark on December 15, which would have happened about 4pm because otherwise they would have lit the light that night. And the. The steamer actor would have seen the light in the lighthouse as it passed by on December 15th.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. I think all this gets really interesting in the 1950s when a lighthouseman named Robert Aldebert, who worked there, served as principal keeper between 53 and 57. He lived there, obviously had a little time on his hands and was really enthralled by this mystery and was like, I'm gonna do some research and I'm gonna take a lot of pictures and keep a lot of records in my diary. And he said that, you know, I was in the lighthouse itself and got. And so that's how many feet above sea level at the top of that?

[Josh Clark]

75?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, like 200, close to 300ft up. And got sea spray from some waves. So he's like, it's very possible that a big wave could come through and reach these heights.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. He did tests where he took coils of rope and put them on the top of the cliff. And they get wash by some of those horrible waves. So he basically said it was almost certainly a wave that got these guys. That's not the craziest part. The craziest part is it was two waves. Almost like the sea was waiting for all three of them and took them all.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's pretty weird. I wonder if he got fined for losing those ropes.

[Josh Clark]

I don't know. Maybe. So if it's the Northern Lighthouse Board, I know he definitely did well.

[Chuck Bryant]

And he. What was his final exploit? Because he's the one that we mentioned earlier that said that one of the chairs was turned over in the kitchen. Right. Like, he kind of bought into that false narrative.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. But I wonder, because this is a good. You know, 40 years after that poem had been written, maybe it was so woven into the story by then, he just presumed that it was true or not.

[Chuck Bryant]

So how that comes in is he's basically like, all right, after dinner happens, like there's bad weather going on, These two guys go out there. See, this doesn't make sense to me, and I'll tell you why in a second. But these two guys go out there to secure this box or whatever, cookies. Back in there, washing up and cleaning up. And that's where everything's nice and tidy. And then all of a sudden, they need help. And so he turns the chair over. Cause he just, like, runs out of there real quick. Yeah, but wouldn't that be. Wouldn't someone have to be in the light, too? Isn't that four guys?

[Josh Clark]

No, that's why they think that this happened in the afternoon of the 15th because they never went to light the. They hadn't lit the light yet. Remember, the light was all set up and ready to be lit for the evening.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes, it was daytime.

[Josh Clark]

Yes. It was before sunset, which would have been before 4pm all right, that's the.

[Chuck Bryant]

One part I didn't get. I get it now. Lighthouses shine at night.

[Josh Clark]

Yep.

[Chuck Bryant]

I forgot that part when I wrote my movie. Everything takes place during the day.

[Josh Clark]

Right. I left the mainland for this. You got anything else?

[Chuck Bryant]

Good stuff. No, I like a good mystery. You're good at finding these.

[Josh Clark]

Man, I love this one. So thank you very much. Yes. Well, if you want to know more about the Flannan Isles mystery, go read Mike Dash's work on it. It's really interesting stuff. It's pretty comprehensive, too. And since I said it's pretty comprehensive, everybody, that means it's time for listener mail.

[Chuck Bryant]

I thought this was really interesting. This is a follow up to the dingoes episode about dingoes not really barking much. Hey, guys. In response to the statement that dingoes don't bark, he left out a very fun fact and perhaps a topic for another show. While domesticated dogs bark throughout their lifetimes, wild adult dogs do not routinely bark. One popular theory is that domesticated dogs were bred for tameness, which as a result, selected for dogs that never reached full maturity. The upshot of this is that our domesticated dogs are trapped in a state of suspended adolescence. They're more or less trapped in puppies, puppyhood, an age where all dogs, wild and domestic, bark, play, lick, and most important of all, don't kill, which is an important trait for the family pet. And sent an article from Tampa Bay.com why Dogs? Why Do Dogs Bark? From 1991. Love the show. That is from Peter Vonnier. V O N I E R. Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Either one of those will work, depending on whether you're in France or not.

[Chuck Bryant]

And Peter's a PhD in Owl Oncology research.

[Josh Clark]

Awesome. With an interest in dog barking.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sounds like Peter just is interested in stuff. Which is our favorite kind of listener.

[Josh Clark]

Yes, that is a dyed in the wool stuff. You should know, listener. Thanks a lot, Peter. That was a very interesting email and we appreciate it. Belated congratulations on your PhD. If you want to get in touch with us like Peter David, you can send us an email. Right, Chuck?

[Chuck Bryant]

You surely can and you might get a response even.

[Josh Clark]

Yep. Or you might end up on listener mail. Who knows?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I try to answer these.

[Josh Clark]

Why don't you roll the dice and find out by sending Your email to stuffpodcastheartradio.com.

[Narrator/Host]

Stuff youf Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Now through August 26th, it's back to Deals time, where you can enjoy storewide deals and earn four times points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible items from Lindor, Oreo Lays, Celsius, Cottonelle and Snapple. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Shop in store or online for easy drive up and go pickup or delivery subject to availability restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details.

[Bob Crawford]

I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, a different type of podcast. You, the listener, ask the questions.

[Josh Clark]

Did George Washington really cut down a cherry tree?

[Narrator/Host]

Were JFK and Marilyn Monroe having an affair?

[Bob Crawford]

And I find the answers.

[Josh Clark]

I am so glad you asked me this question. This is such a ridiculous story.

[Bob Crawford]

You can listen to American History Hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator/Host]

The Super Secret Bestie Club Podcast Season four is here and we're locked in. That means more Juicy Cheeseman, terrible love advice, evil spells to cast on your ex.

[Curly]

No, no, we're not doing that this season.

[Narrator/Host]

Oh well, this season we're leveling up.

[Curly]

Each episode will feature a special bestie and you're not gonna want to miss it. My name is Curly.

[Josh Clark]

And I'm Maya. Get in here.

[Narrator/Host]

Listen to the Super Secret Bestie Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Josh Clark]

This is an iHeart podcast.