AFTERMATH - The Lighthouse - page 56

air. However, the NLB lightkeepers collectively were hardy, professional men and car-
ried out their work with stoicism.
Muirheadsettleddownandporedoverthedetailsofvariouskeepersatallthestations
to see which men were coming to the end of reasonable length tenures at their current
stations and could be pulled in to the Flannan Isles at fairly short notice. Within a very
short period of time, Muirhead decided on four men (three assistants and a principal)
to transfer on a permanent (a standard period of duty on a single station) basis. Once
again, however, fate would intervene for one of the replacements and the ill luck which
surroundedtheFlannanIslandsintheearly1900swouldseetheEileanMorLighthouse
being the last posting for one of the men.
The first permanent replacement was Assistant Lightkeeper John McLachlan, who
arrived on Eilean Mor on 29 January 1901. He was followed two days later on 31
January by Assistant Lightkeeper David Ross who was brought out by the lLighthouse
tender Hesperus. OneweeklaterathirdALK,AngusMcEachern,arrivedon7February
on the Hesperus . Finally, the last to arrive was William Beggs, a new principal to re-
place James Ducat, on 20 February. With all the replacements finally settled in, Robert
Muirhead was at last able to allow Joseph Moore to leave the Flannan Islands on 9
March 1901, two and a half weeks after the arrival of new Principal William Beggs.
Beggs was of the view that the missing lightkeepers were swept away whilst working
onthecranethatdayandhedevisedahooktobeattachedbyropetolightkeeperswork-
ing on the crane to stop them being swept away by a wave. He sent the design to NLB
headquarters.
While the tragedy played itself out in the news in early 1901, the three new ALKs
(with one constantly acting as a rotating relief at the Breasclete shore station) and prin-
cipal all settled down in their new station. Assistant Lightkeepers David Ross and An-
gus McEachern stayed on the Flannan Isles for just over five years and three years re-
spectively. Principal William Beggs was to stay for four years and eight months before
being transferred to Douglas Head. However, the first of the permanent ALKs to arrive
on the Flannans, John McLachlan, was not so fortunate. When David Alan Stevenson
designed the lighthouse on Eilean Mor, he decided that the height of the main island
in the group dispensed with the need for the light tower on the Flannan Isles to be of
a great height compared to, say, a light tower like the one on the Bell Rock, which
was built at more or less sea level. The highest point on Eilean Mor was 280ft and
although the light tower needed to rise above this and the surrounding islands of the
Seven Hunters, Stevenson designed a light tower of which the optical apparatus was
only 48ft above the 280ft height of Eilean Mor. Whilst a 50ft light tower was fairly
short in lighthouse terms, it was a big enough drop to kill someone, particularly if they
fell onto concrete. On 20 August 1904, three and a half years after he had arrived at