Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
She mentioned that six months previous to the disappearance, her father had been fined
5
s
fordamagetolandingtackleatthewestlanding;assuch,herviewwasthatherfather
had gone down to check the equipment with Marshall on Saturday 15 December when
tion of the fine in the archive records at the Scottish National Archives. This of course
is not to say that he was not fined. Not all the records are available in the archives but
there is the detail concerning the near accident to the crane caused by Thomas Mar-
shall'scarelessnessandasbothmenwereinvolvedinthis,itismorelikelythatthiswas
the driving factor behind the decision of the men to approach the west landing.
ThemysteryofwhathappenedtoJamesDucat,ThomasMarshallandDonaldMacar-
thur generates as much speculation now as it probably did at the time, with the various
theories mulled over time and again. The weight of evidence supports the giant wave
theory. However, virtually every former lightkeeper interviewed for this topic has said
that under normal circumstances, in bad weather, no one would have ventured outside,
particularly in conditions as treacherous as they were that Saturday afternoon. Another
point to bear in mind is that, assuming they took an hour for lunch at 1 p.m. that day,
there was less than an hour and a half of full daylight left when they ventured outside.
A normal day saw the majority of work undertaken in the mornings, with rest being
takenintheafternoonsbeforenightduty.Somethingtookthepair(orallthree)downto
the west landing on that last day, in the afternoon, in weather that generally would have
precluded anyone from leaving the safety and security of the lighthouse.
There would have been plenty of tasks for them to do indoors during bad weather,
such as cleaning the lens and doing the brasswork - two of many tasks that always had
to be carried out - yet they went outside. Did their fear of being fined for loss of equip-
ment override their caution? In 1900, 5
s
would have been considered a tidy sum, there-
fore had they been fined this amount some time previously, as seems likely, then this
could have accounted for what may have seemed extreme foolhardiness.
It is quite likely that the three men would have been anxious to avoid a repetition of
damage or loss involving them in a fine, especially at Christmas time. There can have
been no other practical reason for them descending to the west landing, other than to
check that the ropes and tackle were secured and thus avoid the possibility of another
fine. One has to ask what was so pressing. What made them think that the ropes and
tackle were not secure? Are we to assume that a man with twenty-two years of light-
keepingbehindhim,andexperience ofthedangersofthesea,literally threwallcaution
to the wind and risked his life and that of his two colleagues for the sake of avoiding
a fine? In view of the fact that there was just over an hour of full daylight left and that
they would have been facing massive waves on their descent down to the west landing
it must be said that this theory is as implausible as any of the others.
