The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Memorial to lost lighthouse trio including Arbroath man
James Ducat and two others vanished from Flannan Isles
A memorial has been unveiled in memory of three lighthouse keepers who vanished without trace from the island of Eilean Mor in the Outer Hebrides in 1900.
Arbroath lighthouse keeper James Ducat, a 43-year-old with more than 20 years’ experience in lighthouse keeping, had arrived on the deserted island to man the lighthouse with two other men, Thomas Marshall and Donald McArthur.
When off duty the keepers lived with their families in Cnoc Mor in Breasclete, Isle of Lewis, where the community commissioned the memorial.
Designer James Crawford created a bronze wave sweeping over a sandstone lighthouse sitting on a Lewisian gneiss boulder. An exhibition on the events is open in Breasclete Community Centre. DUNDEE 13 Ward Road, Dundee, DD1 1LU T: 01382 200000
Christina Maclean, a cousin of Donald Macarthur, unveiled the memorial.
“The sea at the Flannans is unbelievably rough and it would have been bad weather at the root of the incident,” she said.
Hollywood A-lister Gerard Butler will portray Ducat in a movie about the tragedy called Keepers which is out later this year.
On December 15 1900, just a few weeks into the trio’s stint, a passing steamer on passage from Philadelphia to Leith noticed the light was not working, which it reported three days later when it docked in Oban.
A relief vessel, the Hesperus, carrying supplies and a relief lighthouse keeper Joseph Moore, had been due to arrive on Eilean Mor on December 20 but had been delayed until Boxing Day due to rough seas and dangerous weather.
Mr Moore rowed to shore and found the lighthouse in complete darkness.
Inside the beds were unmade and the clock had stopped.
A chair had been overturned and a pair of oilskins was still on its hook, indicating one of the three men had gone outside without dressing for the wild winter weather. PERTH 10 Blackfriars Street, Perth, PH1 5NS T: 01738 637311 CRIEFF 14 Comrie Street, Crieff, PH7 4AZ T: 01764 655151