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came out of control and accidentally set the place on fire. It was a close-run thing; it
could have been dangerous, if not fatal, as the whole place was lined with tongue-and-
groove wood panneling. Acting promptly, the lightkeepers managed to extinguish the
fire fairly quickly and the end result was largely limited to smoke damage. However,
thequestionwas-whattodo?Iftheyofficiallyreportedit,therewasaveryrealchance
that they would all be dismissed. This was not a prospect that any of them relished
so they collectively came up with a novel solution; they simply stripped off the wood,
turned it around, refitted it and then gave everything a fresh coat of paint. The whole
incident was only mentioned to a very few people and then nothing more was said.
The status quo remained until automation when all the internal wood would have been
stripped out of the tower. Nevertheless, it was felt to be a positive solution to a poten-
tially very tricky problem.
Despite the fears of the 'firestarting' Dubh Artach lightkeepers, instant dismissal for
what was basically an accident was not necessarily a forgone conclusion. In a similar
case, on the NLB Chicken Rock Lighthouse off the south coast of the Isle of Man,
almost the same type of accident occurred in 1960, but with far more serious conse-
quences.ChickenRockwasathree-manrocklighthouse,andthekeepersandtheirfam-
ilies were housed in Port St Mary. It was not unlike Skerryvore in appearance, although
it was much smaller. The lighthouse had a coal fire in the kitchen in those days and one
dayafirebrokeoutthatrapidlywentoutofcontroltosuchanextent thatthelightkeep-
erswereforcedtoabandonthetower.Theyspentawetandmiserablenightontherocks
before being picked up by the local lifeboat, all thankfully unhurt. The tower itself was
totally burnt out and when it was eventually rebuilt it was never remanned, becoming
an early candidate for automation in 1961. The blame for the fiasco was laid squarely
at the feet of the PLK who was reprimanded and 'reduced to the ranks' as an ALK.
However, the burden of his guilt was not carried forever, and in later years he became a
PLK yet again - he is thought to be the only individual in the NLB to achieve this dis-
tinction.Whilstitistruethatanaccidentisjustthat-anaccident-andthattheburning
out of a lighthouse was not a deliberate act, in many ways the position of a PLK was
similar to that of the captain of a ship in that the responsibility was ultimately theirs
and that they were paid to accept the consequences of whatever went wrong under their
command.
Despite the long hours and days of monotony experienced by the lightkeepers, es-
pecially on the tower and rock stations, both world wars brought an added strain to a
number of lighthouses in Scotland.
An attack on a lighthouse may seem especially senseless but all the NLB lighthouses
werestillfullymannedduringbothwarsandcameunderstrictAdmiraltycontrol.They
were considered essential for shipping, particularly convoys. Accordingly, the lights
