Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
also offered his services, which were accepted, and Moore, MacDonald and these two
seamenwereleftinchargeofthelight,whileCaptainHarviereturnedtoBreascleitand
telegraphed an account of the disaster to the Secretary.
The men left on the island made a thorough search, in the first place of the station,
and found that the last entry on the slate had been made by Mr Ducat, the Principal
Keeper on the morning of Saturday the 15th December. The lamp was trimmed, the
oil fountains and canteens were filled up and the lens and machinery cleaned, which
proves that the work of the forenoon of the 15th had been completed. The pots and
pans had been cleaned and the kitchen tidied up, which showed that the man who had
been acting as cook had completed his work, which goes to prove that the men disap-
peared on the afternoon of Saturday, the 15th December. This is borne out by inform-
ation which was received (after news of the disaster had been published) that Captain
Holman had passed the Flannan Islands in the steamer 'Archtor' at midnight on the
15th ulto., and could not observe the light, though, from the condition of the weather
and his position, he felt satisfied that he should have seen it.
On the Thursday and Friday the men made a thorough search over and round the
island, and I went over the ground with them on the Saturday. Everything at the East
landingplacewasinorder,andtheropeswhichhadbeencoiledandstoredthereonthe
completionofthereliefofthe7thDecemberwereallintheirplaces,andthelighthouse
buildingsandeverythingattheStationwasinorder.Tracesoftheseverityoftheweath-
er were, however to be found at the West landing place. Owing to the amount of sea,
I could not get down to the landing place, but I got down to the crane platform, about
70 feet above the sea level. The crane originally erected on this platform was washed
away during last winter, and the crane put up this Summer was found to be unharmed,
the jib lowered and secured to the rock, and the canvas covering the wire rope on the
barrel securely lashed around it, and there was no evidence that the men had been do-
ing anything at the crane. The mooring ropes, landing ropes, derrick landing ropes and
crane handles, as also a wooden box in which they were kept, and which was secured
in a crevice in the rocks 70 feet up the tramway from its terminus, and about 40 feet
higher than the crane platform, or 110 feet in all above the sea level, had been washed
away, and the ropes were strewn in the crevices of the rocks near the crane platform
and entangled among the crane legs, but they were all coiled up, no single coil being
found unfastened. The iron railings round the crane platform and from the terminus of
the tramway to the concrete steps up from the West landing were displaced and twis-
ted. A large block of stone, weighing upwards of 20cwt had been dislodged from its
position higher up and carried down to and left on the concrete path leading from the
terminus of the tramway to the top of the steps. A life buoy fastened to the railings
