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bothchildren.Thiswas£30lessthantheNLBproposalbutwasalmostdoublewhatthe
official entitlement would have been, so it was still not a bad outcome for the family.
The accountant's report then went on to give details of the sums and policies for
James Ducat and Thomas Marshall. Both men's lives had been insured with the North
BritishandMercantileInsuranceCompany.Finally,inanothergestureofgreatdecency,
the accountant stated that none of the wages and allowances for the three men had been
paid since their disappearance and he recommended that even though they had disap-
peared on or around 15 December, their wages and allowances should be paid up to the
end of the quarter (i.e. the end of December 1900) and that sanction should be sought
from the Board of Trade to allow this payment to the men's families or their represent-
atives. The Board of Trade agreed to the proposal that the three missing lightkeepers
have their wages paid in full up until 31 December 1900.
As well as the report for the Commissioners concerning payments to the families,
the accountant, William Boat, prepared a further memorandum for the Commissioners
regarding Mrs Ducat, suggesting that, although it would involve extra administrative
work, payments to Mrs Ducat should be made by the offices at 84 George Street upon
herapplicationwhenshefeltsheneededmoney.Itwasfeltthisarrangementwouldhelp
her better as she was left alone to bring up four children, two of whom were under the
age of ten years. Once again it was a small gesture of decency from William Boat.
In 1901, deliberations over money and costs also concerned the NLB on the subject
ofthebuildingworkforthelighthouseonEileanMor.Despitethelighthousebecoming
operational on 7 December 1899, building work had been ongoing, even though the
bulk of it had been completed. The work was officially finished in October 1900.
However there were serious arguments about costs and payments with the contractor
( see below ).
The wider world had also become acquainted with the tragedy through the newspa-
pers. After the telegram had been sent by Captain Harvey of the Hesperus to James
Murdoch, the NLB Secretary, informing them of the missing lightkeepers, the news
rapidly spread, with the first reports in newspapers appearing on Friday 28 December
1900. Virtually every newspaper in the country reported on the tragedy in one form or
another over the following weeks. These included such newspapers as the Aberdeen
Journal , Oban Times , Oban Express , Arbroath Herald and Advertiser for the Montrose
Burghs , Inverness Courier , as well as in England with papers as regionally diverse as
the Hull Daily Mail , Bath Weekly Chronicle and Gazette and the Leicester Chronicle.
Thenewspaperwhichprobablygavethemostcomprehensive overviewoftheevents
was the Scotsman through their Stornoway correspondent. On 28 December 1900, two
days after the arrival of the Hesperus at Eilean Mor, an article entitled 'Disaster at a
Lewis Lighthouse - Three Men Drowned' appeared:
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