Geoscience Reference
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the lightroom to wind the mechanism back to its starting point to keep the light turning
and giving out its flashes. While he was doing this, both Ducat and Marshall would be
sleeping soundly in their beds catching up on their sleep, the lack of which was seem-
ingly the bane ofevery lightkeeper'slife when they were ontheir stations. After check-
ing the lightroom one last time just prior to the end of his watch, Macarthur then went
to Marshall's room to rouse the sleeping man and inform him that it was now Saturday
and coming up to 2 a.m. and therefore time for his watch. No matter how many times a
lightkeeper had done it, getting dragged out of bed on a wild winter's night was never
enjoyable. Marshall would have swung himself out of bed and then stumbled over to
the wash basin and washed himself before getting dressed and making his way to the
kitchen for a cup of tea before going up to check on the lantern. Donald Macarthur was
duty cook and decided to avail himself of four to five hours' sleep just after Marshall
had gone to attend to the lantern. By 6 a.m. the weather was still fairly wild with high
windsandlargeseasbothapproachingtheFlannanIslesfromawesterlydirection.Mar-
shall finished his watch and came down from the tower to rouse James Ducat who had
completed the 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. shift the previous night, Friday 14 December. Despite
the early start he was reasonably refreshed, having had nearly eight hours of sleep.
Althoughhehadfinishedhiswatch,Macarthur,asmentioned,wasalsodutycookfor
the week and after sleeping for about five hours, he awoke to start preparing breakfast
justafter7a.m..Breakfastwasverymuchstandardfareofplentyoftea,possiblyboiled
eggs, porridge and oatcakes. He would have brought water in from the tank where it
was collected and stored, which was located just outside and along from the kitchen
window.
At daybreak and after they had all eaten breakfast, Ducat would have extinguished
the light, although it would be a grey gloomy morning with heavy overcast skies, and
rain and spray carried by the strong westerly wind from the turbulent sea breaking on
the rocks and cliffs around the island. Once the light had been extinguished, Ducat
wouldhavedrawntheblindsandthensetaboutrefillingtheparaffinreservoir.Thiswas
refilled every morning after extinguishing the light, by whichever man was on duty.
Marshallhadonlyhadfourhours'sleepbutgotupat10a.m.anddecidedtogoupto
the tower to assist Ducat in cleaning the lens, which was a time-consuming job. Before
going up, Marshall had a cup of tea and chatted to Macarthur while he drank his tea.
Macarthur had cleared away the breakfast items and washed up. As an OLK Macar-
thur did not know either Ducat or Marshall particularly well, but he was happy to chat
whenever he could, as it would not be long before he returned to Breasclete.
Their lunch was taken at 1 p.m. sharp with James Ducat keen to adhere as strictly
as possible to all timings. As the meal was eaten, with a large quantity of hot soup
beingconsumed,thetalkturnedtothedreadfulweatherofthepastweek.Thewindand
