Geoscience Reference
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Despite these arguments against the Stronsay beast being genuine, it has been said
that the longest basking shark ever measured was only 40ft; the 55ft measurement of
the Stronsay Beast is considerably larger. So, is it possible there are other serpentine
creatures of a similar size to the Stronsay beast in the waters of northern Scotland?
In terms of the supernatural, a rather odd report came from a seaman on a passing
shi p 31 who stated that he had seen three men in a rowing boat passing by his ship close
to the Flannan Isles. This sighting (which was deemed to have a ghostly appearance)
was around the time of the incident at Eilean Mor. The seaman on the ship called out to
the three men in the rowing boat but they ignored his calls and carried on rowing. Des-
pite the veracity of this account, the three men were unlikely to have been the missing
lightkeepers.TheyhadnoboatonEileanMor,forthesimplereasonthatitwasvirtually
impossible to keep a boat there and launch it, as any boat kept close to the waterline
would have either been destroyed in bad weather or swept away.
Finally, after having considered the folklore of the Outer Hebrides and the various
possibilities of the disappearance of the three men being somehow connected to a su-
pernaturalevent,thereisonelastpossibilityoftheFlannanIslandsvisitingacurseupon
the lighthousemen and anything connected with the lighthouse on Eilean Mor.
Therewere,ofcourse,plentyoflightkeepers whofollowedDucat,Marshall andMa-
carthurontothelightstationonEileanMor;however,therearesomeaspectsworthcon-
sidering.Itcouldbesaidthataseriesofincidentsconnectedtoapersonoraplacecould
be ascribed to just bad luck or unfortunate coincidence. However, there was a series of
unfortunateoccurrences connected withthelighthouse,rightfromthetimeitwasbeing
constructed.
First, there was a death during the construction phase of the light station when, at the
end of the third season of work, the Clerk of Works, Mr Deas, suddenly passed away.
Just over a year later, the three lightkeepers disappeared. Next, on that night of 15-16
December 1900, when the SS Archtor passed the Flannans and saw the light was not
operational, she hit the Carphie Rock within forty-eight hours of passing and, severely
damaged, limped to the port of Leith. Then in an episode reminiscent of the missing
lightkeepers, the Archtor herself disappeared without trace on or about 4 January 1912.
She left Norfolk, Virginia, on 2 January 1912 for Rotterdam with a cargo of phosphate
rock. The Archtor was seen passing Cape Henry on the following day, 3 January 1912.
Afterthatlastsightingshewasneverseenorheardfromagain.Shewaswidelybelieved
to have sunk with all hands in very bad weather at some point in the North Atlantic,
shortly after passing Cape Henry, but as with the missing lightkeepers of Eilean Mor,
there was no proof of what actually happened to her.
Of the men who replaced the missing lightkeepers, for one of them it was to be his
final posting ( see Chapter 5). John McLachlan arrived as one of the replacements on
 
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