The Flannan Isles Mystery
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- What happened to the lighthouse keeps on the Flannan Isles?
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Fact boy and his bazillion channels are the only thing that make chemotherapy a bit better. Thanks Fact boi!
Good luck and get well soon!
Get well soon! Kick cancer’s ass!!
Hoping everything works out for you and yours!!! Take care and have fun!!! 😷😎😷
If your coming here to have fact boi spit anything other then mad facts at you, you came to the wrong place
@@thejason755 That's very true! I've learned a lot from him, including getting better in English. :)
Things Simon does not believe in
1: Ghosts
2: Lighthouse Keepers
Tfw one does not exist, and Canada has 51 manned lighthouses (in 2017)
dont even think about mentioning ghost lighthouse keeprs
Priceless
Not to mention UFO's and aliens.
@@paulceglinski3087 the latest video added reincarnation to the list lol
Ah yes, I can't wait for Simon's New Channel, "Stating The Bloody Obvious." I'd definitely give it a watch
I was going to say the same thing. I would love this.
Will Sam be supplying the memes?
I already subscribed 😉
Brain Blaze? 😂
Every time I think there’s no way he can possibly have another channel.. I’m in a new mysterious land and subscribed.
"Why are your sheep commuting?" Seriously one of your best rants ever.
I'm not going to take advice on the existence of ghosts from a man who doesn't understand how sheep work.
Grazing lands. Not much growing on those islands and when the sheep have munched all the grass on one island you shuttle them over to the next one while the first one grows back.
Or, if you prefer, the sheep got bored.
@@lynn2551 yhea but they don't travel over every day as Simon thought they did do they. They might be moved once a year say, summer etc on island bought back to land in Winter.
I knew it was coming
Still was not disappointed
Because an Aberdonian arrived on the main island.
I've heard this covered by probably close to a dozen TH-camrs, but I'm still going to watch this, that's how much I love this channel.
Legend.
... well I haven't heard Simon's take on this... *Click*
@@chrisrailey2294 Exactly!!!!!
And Simon and the writers will cut all the BS away, which I love.
@@SeanGilbertson Meh I perfer Wendigoon, but Simon is definitely a close second for me.
a friend of mine in Cornwall used to work as a security guard and was frequently assigned to remote buildings like disused asylums, homes, and on one occasion he spent two weeks at a light house. They may be mechanized, but some are guarded because of the risk of vandals and would be ghost hunters and the potential damage to equipment.
Decoding the Unknown is slowly becoming one of my favorites. Thanks guys for something always interesting & entertaining. Katie & Jen are so good they can cover up the chaos Fact Boy brings. (Although that's part of the fun.)
Same.
Who is fact boi? I only see God King Whistler 👑😇
@@stephjovi Sorry, my mistake. Correct you are. The Whistle King keeps me watching TH-cam. (Reply sarcastically if you're also in his basement.)
@@christopherengel7436 nah. I'm just someone who decided to get TH-cam Premium because the god King keeps me on TH-cam all the time 😂. Wonder if the Blazement Crew has been calling him God King all this time already
Agreed. This channel is Fact boi polished like a fine emerald of the TH-cam sea
Simon, up until the late 20th century most off-shore lighthouses required people living on-site to ensure the light had sufficient fuel to operate and was turned on when required at dusk. Originally they had oil and similar fuels for the light itself and when electric lights were installed they had to ensure the generators had sufficient fuel to work to supply the electricity.
I agree with everything you said. Additionally, consider that, at these sort of latitudes, in December (the month of this disappearance) it's night for 19+ hours a day - and, for the remaining hours, it's little more than twilight because the sun crests so low in the southern sky. So these beacons had to run nearly 24 hours a day during the winter months. And these lighthouses have pulleys and cables and gears and bearings and an engine of some type to drive the giant lens/mirror apparatus (the part that makes the light "spin" and be strong enough to be seen miles away). All of those components needed constant maintenance and lubrication. Plus, the kerosene from the lamp itself was super-sooty so both the mirror and the glass on the outside of the torch-room needed constant cleaning to prevent the soot from making the light so dim ships couldn't see it.
I feel this could have been solved pretty easy with lasers
Three minutes in, and Simon already name-droped Gul Dukat... And that's why I love some factboi content xD
Idea for April fools content, post only star trek related videos on all the channels: Brain Blaze could talk about Ferengi business tactics, casual criminalist could talk about war-crimes from the Dominion, decoding the unknown could tackle the bajoran light sail... The fun would be to see Simon talk about this kind of thing in the more serious channels, like Megaprojects...
Megaprojects could be a breakdown of the particle beam transporter and Sideprojects could be about the show spinoffs (TNG, DSN, etc).
I need it
I would love this so much.
I was so surprised when he mentioned Dukat. That would be fabulous, to hear Simon discuss the Rules of Acquisition.... I may be secretly laughing for days.
he could just go over "In the pale moonlight" and have lots of material.
As a man of science, nothing frustrates me more than people who think we already have it all figured out.
The proclamation of "The Science is settled" also irks, but usually comes from moronic politicians, making it easier to ignore.
@@owenshebbeare2999 "The science is settled" is a thing only stated by people who clearly don't understand science.
Science is, "everything can be questioned and updated".
People who don't want to be questioned clearly aren't confident in their 'science'.
Amen!!
"Trust the Science" is the most non-scientific thing ever said. ... "questioning science" is how you do Science.
Science has gained more ground from "being proven wrong" than it ever will from "being proven right"
The immediate boost of confidence when Simon says something correctly is exactly what I needed today 😂 #Legend
Lighthouse keepers absolutely still exist. Over here, they're Navy personnel, mostly working in the more remote lighthouses. I think it's meant to have someone on location to make immediate repairs, as deploying someone from the mainland would take important time and would be dependent on the weather.
Interestingly, they send people on a 6-month rotation, and only married men with children are allowed to apply; the whole family is sent to make the guy company.
Same thing in Mexico, where I live on the coast of the nation’s second largest port city on the Pacific Ocean. A large light house exists on a flat, low “island” (possibly better considered to flat top of a large seabed rock rising maybe a dozen meters above the sea). I personally know the nephew of one of the two lighthouse keepers. He explained to me the federal port authority pays his uncle to live on the island 24/7, ALONE, for six months straight each year. He then receives the next 6 months on vacation - which he usually spends at a second home in California, USA, about 80 miles to the north of the Mexican lighthouse. He is paid VERY well by local, Mexican standards. He has virtually no contact with people in the of port city’s metro area population of about 400,000, only several miles back on the shore. While there he is responsible for not just the light, but virtually EVERYTHING at the facility. ALONE. Another individual handles the other 6 months alone. My friend’s uncle has held the job for some 30 years. It is highly coveted here.
In 2000 the British oceanographic vessel RRS Discovery recorded a 29-metre (95 ft) wave off the coast of Scotland near Rockall. In 2019, Hurricane Dorian's extratropical remnant generated a 30-metre (100 ft) rogue wave off the coast of Newfoundland. Both noted in Wikipedia.
You had me until you said
"Wikipedia" they are notoriously wrong about everything.
Steven Crowder even did a show on fat checks against them tried to edit his own page and yeah it was Wikipedia 10 little white lies truth 0.
32:25 I've actually always disliked this argument for why aliens wouldn't be interested in us. The average alien? Sure. But they would surely have oddballs interested in us just as we have people who dedicate their life to studying Ants.
Same as people like Captain Cook. No matter how small or remote an island, people or (stepping away from explorers) subject of interest, it doesn't mean people won't document it. If just to say they did it first or to see if it develops into something (has something profitable there; opens up an area of knowledge that helps somewhere else).
Agreed. Just because they had Ftl travel or whatever doesn’t necessarily mean they’d be that much more advanced or evolved. We were on the moon like 50 years after we realized we could fly. If it’s just a technological advantage (as in they hadn’t evolved into energy beings that floated through the galaxy kind of thing) then yeah, I think they would be just as excited to find intelligent life as we would. At least, until they discovered Twitter.
@@31webseries it's more probable that "aliens" exist than it is for them not to exist. Space is such a huge place that the probability they would find earth is low. I mean we don't even know how big space is and if it even has an "end" to it. And I can see them being really excited to discover life other than themselves, but I can also see them being a bit apprehensive to make their presence known or make contact with us. I'd hope that we would be too if/when we observe planets with life also. It could be dangerous, they could find out a lot from us if taken hostage while visiting their planet. Just like it most definitely would be if they visited our planet. The government would definitely capture, imprison, experiment, and dissect them to learn how their body works and document their anatomy. And that could cause them to retaliate bc we killed their kind, and I speculate that if they can fly around in space like that then they could blow our whole planet up with one hit. They don't know how we would respond to them visiting our planet or what kinds of weapons we have, so I would imagine they'd just observe us to learn as much about us that they could. The alleged alien aircraft sigtings could be them doing just that. And abduction stories could be true, and they could be researching our anatomy and whatnot. We will never know if they are actually true bc it sounds so outlandish.
Thinking about how big space is and how we don't even know how big space is almost filled me with existential dread. 💀 I mean just really think about how small we are compared to the vast open space. The possibilities of what is out there is just insane. Space just existing is insane. Like what is beyond space, how big is it, and what other life is out there? We will never know in our life time, if we ever find out at all.
Simon: Who says they want to be a lighthouse keeper?
Me: quietly looks away because I 100% thought about it at one point despite knowing how labor intensive it was
LOL. Same. Such is the intense desire to get away from society sometimes.
My dad used to talk about retiring to go be a lock keeper on the canal…
Those of us who enjoyed lockdown would be fine with the isolation just maybe not the work.
I want to live in the woods far enough from busy roads to get away from the unrelenting noise. I do not want to live alone on a mountain just somewhere peaceful without a neighbor within whispering distance.
I would love it. Especially if I could have some internet like star link or something. Sounds relaxing to me.
I think there's one in Rhode Island that you can stay at like a hotel (you actually will be tucked in to the lihthouse keeper's residence) and they train you in how to care for the light and that's one of your major tasks for those 7 days!
They could have got lost in the Haar. Its most common on the north east coast of Scotland in the summer months but depending on the weather conditions it could have occurred on the west coast and it normally arrives quickly so they wouldn’t have had time to make it back to the light house. If the Haar is thick enough then you struggle to see directly in front of you and it would be quite easy to simply fall off the cliff edge as you would not be able to see the sea or the edge of the cliff and the sound of the waves crashing against the cliff gets muffled in the Haar so it’s difficult to tell what direction it’s coming from. The other light house keeper could have ran out side quickly to warn the others (the Haar isn’t necessarily cold or wet so no need for a coat), then gotten lost him self and fallen off the cliff. The light was probably turned off as you would not be able to see it in the Haar any way and it would conserve fuel. It would also explain why the light house was not visible for a long time.
Now I kinda want to see you start a channel called "Stating the Bloody Obvious"
I'm reminded of the murder in Antarctica; like, the only one. One scientist used to give spoilers to the books another scientist was reading, and he did it so much and with such disregard, that the reader eventually murdered him. Worth an episode, probably on another channel, though.
Man, at that point just don't let him know what you're reading! Cover it up with a dust jacket if you have to be around him or read it alone.
@@emeryltekutsu4357 Maybe he did, and maybe the other scientist really went out of his way to find out what the scientist was reading, going so far to turn over pillows and opening closets.... they must be really bored out there.
Simon lighthouse keeper do still exist, but mostly as a mechanic. I have a friend who used to work at one in/near Aero, Denmark.
What kind of education they had, and do you know how they got the job?
I've dreamt for a job like this for a while, the more remote the better 👌🏻
@@ilarious5729 i believe they are mostly drawn from the coast guard. At least they are in the US. They have mechanics that periodically visit and do the regular maintenance and fuel the tanks.
@@ilarious5729 what about a wildfire spotter?
@@TwoJaysMoon that sounds good as well, I'm not sure if we had those in Finland but that's the only reason I'm ready to move to US to 😁
@@ilarious5729 canada has them, too!
38:00 It is my understanding that a great many _Lighthouse Keepers,_ were former sailors very much used to being alone/part of small crews for extended periods of time. A big part of that life is being able to live with another's foibles as they overlook yours. It's kind of part of the job.
Combined to being a sailor it must have been absolute luxury.
I've been fascinated by this mystery since I was a child. Even featured it in a school project. One reason you want more than one Keeper is so the poor soul doesn't go nuts in isolation for weeks at a time, if you think about it. That's why solitary confinement is a punishment.
Originally lighthouses were manned by a 2 man team, but after the smalls lighthouse tragedy (1 died and the other literally went mad waiting for the rescue team to arrive, which took weeks because of the weather) lighthouse regs were changed to a 3 man team so if it happened again the remaining 2 would (hopefully) keep each other sane
@@marcwilliams8047 ahh, the good old minimum of 3 factor redundancy.
There’s a documentary on here about the worst jobs in history and they interview a light house keeper from back in the day and he’s clearly a bit off his rocker.
@@marcwilliams8047 That's so sad.
The wave doesn’t have to be 30 meters tall to hit the rock 30 meters up. The force of the moving water would push it up the hill to wet the steps or knock them down
The Northern Lighthouse Board which built and ran (and I think runs) most of Scotland 's lights, was a highly disciplined service and probably one of the first organisations to utilise, albeit, primative selection criteria based around behaviour and personality. Overwhelmingly sober, ateady, disciplined men were hired, this was particularly important on isolated lights like Flannan or the submerged rock lights like Bell Rock.
Lighthouse keeper jobs were highly sought after and came with a cottage at the land base station (remote lights all had land stations that serviced them) and an excellent pension, all rare at the time.
I would recommend reading Bella Bathurst's excellent book ,The Lighthouse Stevensons which catalogues the extraordinary construction of these buuldings by the father, grandfather and uncles of Robert Louis Stevenson.
Great info! Thanks for sharing!
Simon, three men always had to be manning a lighthouse as when there were two at a certain location, one died, the other one had to spend the whole Winter with the rotting corpse (to prove Murder was not an issue), as no boats could land due to the rough seas. The sole remaining man was driven insane by his experience and from this time all lighthouses had to have at least three occupants. Now it is all done automatically.
I can't remember which lighthouse this happened in, it was in South West England somewhere, but Simon should 100% do this story on one of his channels. It was chilling. I would absolutely go mad.
@@counterfeitsaint7479 There was an episode of the "Lore" podcast about it. The events happened in 1801 on the Smalls Lighthouse off the coast of Wales. Gruesome and horrifying.
I think there was a movie too
The lighthouse you're thinking of is the Smalls Lighthouse!
@@counterfeitsaint7479Kaz Rowe did an excellent podcast on why lighthouse keepers were going mad. I remember this case, what horror.
“Horror movies in the Theater aren’t that scary”, Simon, the OG Exorcist movie would like to have a word with you.
Also, you should totally cover the Sker House in Wales on this channel!! Totally spooky and creepy.
I was too young for it at the time. We had to leave in the middle of the movie. Only movie (in a theater) I've ever left because I was too scared.
Just the music from The Exorcist makes me scared. One of the few movies that legit terrified me by the music alone.
@@gagrza I thought the Exorcist was great. Of course, I was a generation or so late so I had to watch the uncut director’s edition lol. For its day, the cinematography was impeccable and I can see how it would’ve scared the pants off of those who’d seen it first hand!!
@@stacyrussell460 I can see where you’re coming from! I’d be willing to bet that the Exorcist’s soundtrack is the most iconic in film history.
@@Dank-gb6jn it's up there for sure
The Wicker Man with Christopher Lee is AWESOME.
The Nicholas Cage version is, well, like having bees fly into your eyes.
Watch it, Fact Boy.
Seriously, the difference is night and day.
Simon wins a lot of points with me for being skeptical about paranormal nonsense on the internet..... All we're asking for is scientific, quantifiable evidence of ghosts, and anything that could be faked should be assumed to be fake.
SKEPTICAL
When you assume everything is fake that can be faked
you have to assume your test results are fake
no?
"Why are your sheep commuting? What're you up to?" I cracked myself up; thank you for the hearty laugh. Also, this all reminds me a lot of E.A. Poe's "A Descent into the Maelstrom"; though that story came out almost eighty years earlier and is settled within the Lofoten.
Still, if the storm hit on the seventeenth, the crew might have noticed the sea retreating; warning them of what lay ahead. If they decided to go down to the West landing during the literal quiet before the storm, they might have misjudged the time they had before the storm came crashing down on them. There is also the fact that the rope box was smashed and the boulder dislocated. Had they tried to attach it to the boulder when the rogue wave hit, it would explain its destruction, the missing men and moved rock.
A wave that large would have also shook the isle in its foundations; alarming McArthur, who was inside shuttering up the lighthouse that his friends were still out there, making him breach protocol and hurry for the rescue.
Very believable, I was thinking along these lines too. Other theories don't take the huge boulder and missing gear into account.
Your comment about tall waves is ancient history. Large waves, often called rogue waves, (AKA freak waves, monster waves, episodic waves, killer waves, extreme waves, and abnormal waves, are unusually large, unpredictable and suddenly appearing surface waves that can be extremely dangerous to ships, even to large ones.) were considered urban legends for many years until the Gorm Platform, a North Sea oil rig was hit by a 36 foot wave in 1984, then in 1995 the Draupner Platform suffered minor damage when it was hit by an 84 foot wave. In February 2000, a British oceanographic research vessel, the RRS Discovery, sailing in the Rockall Trough west of Scotland, encountered the largest wave ever recorded by any scientific instruments in the open ocean, with an individual wave height of 95 ft. 10 rogue waves of 82 feet or higher were recorded during a 3 week period in 2004. After such experiences such waves have been considered not only possible, but common. Since then, rogue waves have been recorded by ships, rigs and stations around the world.
If you do talk about Nessie, please consider mentioning her canonical little brother Champ who lives in Lake Champlain, Vermont. I have no idea how he would've gotten in there, but apparently he did.
A lighthousekeeper prooobably did more than just watch the bloody light, Simon! Considering how windswept the locations you find lighthouses at are, there's probably more maintenance work keeping the damn building together than keeping the light on xD In other words: Harder than you think, Simon. Harder than you think.
Simon - The original Wicker Man with Christopher Lee is a masterpiece of a film, we don’t talk about the Nicholas Cage remake as it’s a crime against humanity
Yes, the plot is so much deeper due to the Christianity vs Pagan aspect. It also made the finale more impactful. And all this is to say nothing of the quality in acting.
My question is: How isolated can somebody be to know the later movie but not know that there was an original one?
Coming here to support everyone watching the original - it's a work or art!
I still regret I saw the Nicholas Cage one, I always thought it should be classed at least as a misdemeanor 😂. The original Wickerman also has an absolutely spellbinding soundtrack.
The man who starred in "Raising Arizona" (which I love) should NEVER have been in a remake of WM. In fact, there should never have been a remake. Abomination.
Me: yes I agree with Simon, it was probably a wave or the wind that killed them, sweeping their bodies out to sea.
Me the Writer: But fairies and sea monsters make a much more fun and interesting story.
Aye 'tis was a Kraken, with arms as long as a sperm whale- but each arm had hundreds of suckers on it that were surrounded by razor-sharp teeth like that of a shark - and between them was a massive beak as deadly as a longsword, with a point like an ancient Spartan spear! In all seriousness, I caught (by accident) a giant squid - it was huge, crazy strong; it pulled our 42' Bertram backwards through the water - quickly! It was also very angry (the captain told me they don't like being near the surface of the water when it's daylight - they come up from the depths at night to feed on 1,000lb swordfish)! I cut the line as soon as I touched the leader, which is then an official catch, and I used a line that would degrade in 1-3 days or so, and a barbless hook that was bare steel so it would rust and fall out pretty quickly... I was glad to be able to release it unharmed, and watched it head straight down into the jet-black abyss... It was a really beautiful creature, and obviously really intelligent as well.
It was aliens.
@@hannahpumpkins4359 Hail Leviathan!
@@hannahpumpkins4359 That is incredible. I’m actually terrified of squids and have been since I saw 2000 Leagues Under the Sea at age 5, so I probably would have freaked out. But I would hope that part of me would have been fascinated by what sounds like such a rare occurrence to overcome some of my fear. Thanks for sharing your story 😊
Great Cthulhu!!!
10:34 "Seven hundred men have died!" Yeah Simon, where do you think all the ghosts on the island are coming from?
I love Past Writing and think we should bring it back. it makes thinks like work emails so much more entertaining:
"My Good Sir [Boss],
I write to you with glad tidings and am in no small part pleased to report the progress of this sprint has ben sound indeed. The team performed admirably under increased presure brought on by the unforeseen intrusion on their time from the local auditing office. Might I say frankly that while I appreciate the drive for correctness as much as the next God fearing IT Manager, their timing could not be worse! Still, the interruption was met and countered.
As reward for their dedication I took a small stipend and brought the fellows to a pleasing free house for a fine fare to satiate their terrible hunger. Morale is soaring and the men are positively brimming with desire to see the next tranche of our great endevour borne to fruiition.
We will speak on such matters at the next meeting of the managers.
Fine salutations,
Mr [Name], [Title]"
SOmetimes I can make the email last longer than whatever it is actually about. Also works great in the style of 'Confederate General writing to War Widow'
"Why are your sheep commuting? What are you up to?" I don't know why, but that slayed me.
Thank you so much for this! I’ve heard this story so many times but it constantly gets changed or added to make it more interesting so you never get the real thing. I love that you guys keep everything so factual ❤️
Thank you :)
51 minutes and not a single mention of Cthulhu. Not one! The Loch Ness monster got a shout out, and that thing isn't even a marine animal! What the hell, Simon?! And Katie. And Jen.
Stating the bloody obvious sounds like a great channel name. Some people could benefit because apparently some obvious things aren’t all that obvious to some people.
oh so close .. "Some people could benefit because apparently some obvious things aren’t all that obvious to some 'oblivious' people" :)
"Why are the sheep commuting?" I asked the same thing Simon.
Hey sometimes sheep just want to travel too
Sheep have a tendency to strip grassy fields clean, ripping the grass up by the roots. As such, they need to be moved around from field to field. Plenty of grass on a small island and not much there to eat it.
Not wanting to get too serious, but they do still carry out a pastoral practice known as 'transhumance' in the Hebrides.
They release sheep on remote islands for the summer, then bring them in to over-winter barns where they feed them on silage.
This makes lambing earlier in the season easier, safer for the sheep and more lucrative - early lambs get a higher price.
They transport them in open boats. It's a hard life.
Simon get all heated over supernatural theories is rapidly becoming my favorite part of these channels. I hope the writers keep putting those in for my entertainment.
oh yes
These cold reads are amazing. The "Oh yeah, why didnt I just read ahead?" moments always give me a chuckle.
The thing about proper protocol and what people do in emergency situations is that you can be trained to do one thing, but when it isn't a training scenario but a real one, you may react differently. To me, knowing human nature, it isn't that much of a stretch that the third one would leave if something crazy like a giant wave was happening, going on his instincts to try to help the others over the proper protocol to stay in the light house.
or even go down to tell them. I rough wetter there can be much noise, so screaming down from the tower will not be enough.
leaving to warn his buddies, with everyone later on conveniently forgetting that he ignored protocol to save their lives.
@@HappyBeezerStudios( A little late) and a 30 + meter wave could be seen from really far so maybe Hythe third was allready down by the other two wanting to warn them as it hit.... wich would mean that there being one freak wave would have been enough for the outcome.
Captain: Why didn't you build the lighthouse?
LIghthouse Bureaucrat: Too many ghosts.
Captain: But hundreds of sailors have died!
Lighthouse Bureaucrat: Where do you think the ghosts came from?!
simon. I live in Michigan USA. we have over 200, currently active light houses on the great lakes. some 350 total. I know of a few. that are bed and breakfast. ONE of which is on an island, by its self. a boat takes you and your spouse (HUGE ASSUMPTION) out to the rock. leaves you with food and your bags there for however long you rented it. suppose to be amazing. No I have not rented it. yes there is a phone on the island but kinda an interesting idea.
I didn't even know they still used lighthouses, with GPS and other automated autopilot being a thing now. They seem to be a relic of the past.
@@avostorm8111 mainly but 'small boats' personal water craft. some are just lit for the nostalgia. they really are a relic of the past. but a very popular and romantic relic.
Simon, We haven't yet disproven the Loch Ness monster, thank you. Signed. The Scottish Tourist Board.
Seriously though you could do a Megaprojects on all the efforts that have been made to find Nessie over the years with material from the Loch Ness Exhibition Centre at Drumnadrochit.
It's funny that the searches are still going though we've known it was a toy boat for decades now😂. Not to take away from and amazing lore and merch development achievements of the tourist board😂
I love your shows, your teams go into more depth than full hour long docutmentaries. Iv learned an insane amount of new details about so many topics i knew somewhat of, and a couple that i had done research into myself. After you take over maybe the History Channel next?
#simonsavesthehistorychannel
I know just enough about Flannan lighthouse to upvote this before I listen to it. I want to see Simon and Katie’s take. (But we all know it was a disabled Rutan scout trying to signal the mothership.)
Pfft. "Who" would get that idea?
3:00 - Chapter 1 - The mystery
6:10 - Chapter 2 - The history
26:50 - Chapter 3 - Theories & sticking points
28:45 - Chapter 4 - Theories (the not very likeley ones)
31:55 - Chapter 5 - Abduction
35:30 - Chapter 6 - Murder
39:50 - Chapter 7 - Rescue gone wrong
41:05 - Chapter 8 - The weather
49:35 - Chapter 9 - Aftermath
PS: 10:15 , it's conning a ship ; 26:25 - Nice way to have a title drop
I am assuming that 3 men were needed as it was a 24/7 operation until they were relieved. The light was oil based and required someone to make sure it was lit at night and during the day when needed (fog). As for the work required, everyday normal duties like cooking and cleaning were up to only 3 men in addition to routine lighthouse and island maintenance for weeks at a time.
I think those guys got swept away by a wave. I live at the coast. And here, almost every year, People get swept away by waves and wind. The most people are never found.
Don't let him fool you, Simon is getting his pilot's license to cut out the middle men and get his product straight from Columbia.
Having moved to Scotland I can confirm: night time at 4 pm is kinda the worst x.x in other news I very much love this channel :D chill like the informative ones (and informative) but more lively than the regular ones. And not nearly as depressing as Into The Shadows or Casual Criminalist
I suspect Simon starts his day with a bunch of coffee and cocaine (allegedly) and makes Business Blaze videos, and as his energy level goes down he makes videos in which he's increasingly less rambunctious.
dueing winter that sounds not to dissimilar to Germany.when the sun comes up at 10 and goes at 4.
but in summer it's the other way around, coming up at 4 and staying till 10
The density of mercury allows for floating very heavy things with very low friction. Essentially, a big toxic (but really good) bearing.
31:05 you should make make a video about cryptids like Chupacabra, Tsuchinoko, etc. and how their legends started, developed and what people believe nowadays.
Oh yes, there was also a Doctor Who (Tom Baker) story called Horror of Fang Rock based on this (or the poem based on it, or both) which ended with The Doctor quoting that poem. It was a fun one.
I'm all for Simons new channel - Stating the Bloody Obvious
I've seen these episodes of Dr who, I know exactly what type of aliens did this.
Working on a geophysics project with this in the background and heard the cursed words that all geologists revolt at: 'They're just rocks!' But I forgive. Because Fact Boy. Thanks for all the fantastic content!
A nautical mile is slightly longer than a regular mile, and quite a bit wetter. - Patrick O’Brien
Maybe some vikings caught in a twilight zone-type time warp kidnapped them and took them to Iceland? It's the outer Hebrides after all
One of the big mysteries- nice! Looking forward to more from this series, Simon!
Theory: One lighthouse keeper slipped and broke his leg as the weather was turning.. hence no coat. It was dry & he slipped when the first drops came down. The other two heard his cries and as the storm proper started they went out to pick him up (a two man job) and got washed away carrying him.
Unlikely but explains the coat issue and why all three were out. Eat poop mystery!
I considered something along those lines (actually being that the owner of the coat was already dead as he was the one with the notorious temper and the possibility of falling from a great height), but the lack of an entry about any injuries or deaths in the log book suggests otherwise. The only reason they wouldn't add an entry would be if they intended to hide the event, but even then they would add a false report about an accident.
Im actually excited for this one. Its such a weird story from the past but not so distant that it feels sus. I think theres a lot of validity to this story.
8:43 Most people don't know StoneHenge is all set with concrete footings, and the stones specifically set tp catch the sun rays, by modern, optical alignment scopes and heavy equipment in the early 1900's .. They literally took all the stones away, graded the site, set up datums, poured footings, and built it the way you see it now.
Simon should do a video on this! :)
Think about the physics of a wave hitting a cliff. A 50ft (20m)wave could easily hit it and be pushed up to 100ft(~33m) especially in a storm. Once the 2 guys didn’t come back, the one went to look without logging it and got killed too.
I didn’t know about the mercury and it’s plausible too
Thank you. I'm glad someone else realized this. You don't need a 30 meter wave. If they were trying to repair something, and a big wave hit and pushed up, then they might not be able to get good grip or footing when all that water was on its way back down. If the third man was somewhere that he could see it (Like, for example, a lighthouse which is supposed to see in all directions) He could easily see a fried hanging on to something for dear life and come running. One more decent-size but not huge wave later, and you have people talking about aliens and ghosts 100 years later.
Your honor, murders happen all the time everywhere. Btw, People in prison specifically have killed cell mates over snoring or gas.
This channel is a lighthouse of reason in a sea of irrational theories. Thanks Simon!
Simon's skepticism gives me life.
That's very good!
@@DeeDeeBaldwin It's refreshing nowadays isn't it?
I was just thinking about waves. The wave height in the open ocean, and how far inland (or up a rock) they go aren't so directly related. The angle and shape of the shore would impact this greatly. Look at blowholes!
The last manned lighthouse around Britain was Trinity House’s North Foreland lighthouse. That’s near Dover. I’ve been there when it was manned.
It was automated in 1998.
Last most southern -
St Catherine's
Niton
Isle of Wight.
Simon....do u ever get to leave that room you are in? Do they at least give you 1 hour a week outdoors like a prisoner?
It's ACTUALLY Simon
who's locked in the basement
he's just hasn't worked it out yet 😕😅
Not sure if it got mentioned but the rotating lights used to sit in a pool of mercury. According to the owner, this is where he got the logo for his hazardous waste clean-up. Their first contract was decontaminating Ontario lighthouses.
16:15 Simon, if a light keeper does write in, do let us know! I’m curious too
Oh no I'm old.. I have photos of me when we were able to climb all over Stonehenge... I'm in my 50s
Another great story Katy well written
The lenses for the light used to float in a bucket of mercury. This allows the heavy glass to move on a mostly frictionless sort of surface and spin really easily. The Canada Museum of Science and Technology has such a lighthouse on the grounds but people can't go up to the mercury pool, and it can make a mess when we have an earthquake.
Yes, its amazing - I've toured a few lighthouses in the UK (which are now run with LEDs and backup battery banks, and remotely operating) and some have the old tracks for the Hg floating bearing - a simple clockwork mechanism was all that was needed to rotate the multi-ton lens assemblies due to the lack of friction in a floating system. Modern systems spin a lighter smaller reflector inside the old system it seems - makes sense.
That's really very clever, but for the madness thing.
Gosh, I can relate to watching horror movies at home. Me and my SO was watching a horror movie in the dark when suddenly something moved on the floor in front of us! On with the lights and it was a big freaking toad! Scared the s#!t out of us
Ok, you kind of flew right past the reason: There is a chance for you to have had fcukkin TOADS in your house routinely?? Where do you live and what kind of a house do you live in? Not trying to be mean, but gahddamn! I'm just curious. Thanks!
@@meridien52681 I'm not sure my English vocabulary is good enough for a detailed explanation. But we were staying at my sisters house in the countryside. There's a lot of woods and a large lake in throwing distance. My sister said they used to bring buckets of lake water to their boiler room in the basement. (I don't know why) The guestroom was also in the basement. So the toad could have hopped through the separate door, into the boiler room and then next door to us. OR it was a tadpole/pollywog (
@@SweGrlMom I only know toads from hiking and being near water and in wild places, but I could only imagine a toad getting into a skyscraper apartment LOL! I pictured the toad getting into the elevator and getting off at the penthouse of a sleek modern apartment with sky views. I truly laughed until my sides were sore, I laughed so hard!! Your explanation makes perfect sense---thanks again, absolutely NO offense meant. I truly got my laugh in yesterday!
@@SweGrlMom P.S. Your English is excellent, don't worry.
@@meridien52681 That would definitely be more funny if it happened that way. 👍😀😂
Theory: the third man in the lighthouse saw the massive wave coming while it was farther out at sea, rushed down to warn his friends, and all three of them were unable to get up high enough before it hit.
EDIT: And then of course Simon states this theory himself 2 minutes of watch time after I posted it. Because fact boy has his feet on the ground and isn't an idiot.
I read the Captain of the Hesperus wanted to leave the replacement on the island by himself but he threw a huge fit and said, “Oh hell no!”
I would assume having 3 lighthouse keepers is so that one can be on duty for 8 hours, another can be resting or doing other duties, and the third can sleep.
I love Simon's analogy of us being like ants to intergalactic aliens. I agree, and my friend made the same argument in high school. That same friend now owns a few ant farms and one can frequently catch him wandering off the trail to poke at the ant hill and look for new specimens. Perhaps that's all we are, just some big Alien Ant Farm
You’ve been hit by, youve been struck by…. As great as Michael is, their version of smooth criminal is the superior one. Don’t @ me
I have to say I thought the Danny and Sam would be my favorite of Factboy's teams but Katie and Jen are quickly rising to the top. And honestly that is probably Simon's greatest skill, assembling good teams of people.
Also there are no Light house keepers, but some do still have maintenance teams that tend to them part time, and some are remote enough that they have to live at least part time on the premises. There are a lot of jobs in the world that are basically watching things that should always be working. If the risk of it it not working is greater than the cost of paying someone to sit there, it just makes sense to have a person around. Honestly this is how most power generation works.
lighthouse keepers in the netherlands do exist. they now also controle the ships on the sea so they have something to do until it is dark
1) Why 3 lighthouse keepers? Because the amount of work necessary to keep the light and lighthouse operational (remember this was in the days before the term "quality control" existed so equipment tend to fail more frequently compared to today) was more than what one person can do, but if you staff an isolated lonely lighthouse with 2 people, chances are they would murder each other in a matter of weeks. It was decide a third person was needed to prevent polarization of tempers that could escalated to violence.
2) The original Dr. Who episode, Horror of Fang Rock, was inspired by the Flannan Isle mystery.
3) Robert Mackenzie was not prevented from seeing the lighthouse because the weather was fair for several days before and after a passing ship had reported the lights was out. Mackenzie simply didn't do his job.
4) How complicated can working in a lighthouse be? You are mistaking modern automation with what was available in 1900. EVERYTHING was controlled manually. The fuel tank that powered the light had to be manually topped off about every 6-8 hours. The glass/lens and windows had to be cleaned EVERY day. The mechanism that rotates the light had to be inspected, oiled, and/or repair before nightfall. And those are just some of the daily chores of a lighthouse keeper.
5) The ship Archtor did NOT strike any rocks or suffered any damages. Your writer messed up.
Listing to this during an "in office" day at work and the little "Ooo!" from Simon after reading the heading "Abduction" made me laugh. I startled like three people. Good times.
Just wanted to come here and say "The Vanishing" is actually a pretty good movie! Nothing necessarily to write home about but Gerard Butler is always fun to watch. I think it's free or at least cheap to rent on Amazon prime.
Gerard Butler and remote Scottish lighthouse movie, sounds a perfect recipe for good stubble and mumbling.
Not sure if someone has mentioned it but the last thing you would want is a drunk lighthouse worker; especially in a dangerous place.
The drunk worker could get hurt or mess something up and injure one of the other workers.
Mate, did you say you could walk into the circle of Stonehenge in the olden days? I went up to the stones as a kid! I’m 51! Though, they let the pagans in once a year.
First, I am totally enjoying Decoding the Unknown. Second, I have seen and read about the missing light house keepers but never have I seen such a thorough take on it. Very well written. Simon's take was pretty much on the same page as I was and the minutes just flew by listening to this. Thank you.
I think there has to be 3 because if one dies, the other two can keep each other sane if they can’t store or remove the body for whatever reason. Then one person isn’t left alone for potentially weeks with a dead body. There was another lighthouse story which I can never remember the name of despite googling hundreds of times where this actually happened. The lighthouse keeper decided to keep the body because he didn’t want anyone thinking he had killed the other keeper. Eventually he was so traumatised he made a coffin and pushed it outside but it broke apart in the wind and storms and the body got caught on the rocks. When another crew arrived they said the wind made it look as if the corpse was waving to them.
Epic.
The Smalls Lighthouse in 1801 - the 2016 movie is "The Lighthouse"
There's bound to be an M R James story about a lighthouse... If not he missed a trick.
Oh the irony (if ghost were real) of the ghosts causing the mayhem preventing the building of the lighthouse, were ghosts of shipwrecked sailors.
I wanted to become a lighthouse keeper, applied to Trinity House but the year I left school the lights went automatic! 🙈
The outer Hebrides are insanely beautiful. It’s one of the most amazing places I’ve been. The callanish standing stones are very interesting as well.
The two men could have been caught by a wave and the third saw them in the water (rather than on the pier) from the lighthouse. IF he saw them in the water he absolutely wouldn't wait to put on his coat. Then in trying to rescue the two, possibly by swimming out himself with the life ring, then got into difficulty himself and couldn't get back to the pier.
It is unfortunately distressingly common that would be rescuers get into difficulty (often for the exact same reason) and only serve to become victims themselves, especially at sea.
Please don't do the Loch ness monster. Its overdone and the story has been wrapped up and I'm pretty sure everyone who's interested knows the ins and outs of it.
Love this video though looking forward to more 😁
You know that the video is going to be interesting when Simon is using Google maps in the video.
People who dislike Simon's narrative skills just hate themselves .
You can lose LED bulbs if you're getting unstable current from your power company, too.
"that's a thick one, like 14 pages!"
*Laughs in Danny*
14 pages is a "brief" blaze introduction. 😂😂😂
Wow how long ago was this recorded? Feels like the dislike button has been gone forever.
I still have one…
@@andreagriffiths3512 but we don't see the count anymore so it's useless
If you read Superintendent Robert Muirhead's report, a crane 70 feet above sea level had been washed away the previous winter. After the keepers disappeared, the big, heavy wooden box that held all the thick ropes and tackle for mooring boats and handling cargo was gone and the ropes were strewn all over the place, entangled in the crane and various other places. A life buoy had been completely ripped from its mounting. Several iron railings were mangled or missing. A block of stone that weighed about a ton had moved down slope a significant distance. Clearly, this was all done by one or more exceptionally large waves. There seems to be confusion between open water wave height, breaking wave height, and run-up (the maximum height a wave reaches uphill after hitting land). The highest open water wave on record was 62.3 feet high. The tallest wave ever surfed was 101.4 feet high, this was a breaking wave. The tallest wave ever recorded was caused by a landslide and was 493 feet high and resulted in the highest run-up ever recorded at 1,719 feet above sea level, so 110 feet is not much in comparison. A 110 foot run-up for a 50 foot wave is certainly possible, and 50 foot waves happen every day, all day. That being established, it's a simple scenario. There was a westerly wind on the day they vanished. That means the wind was coming from the open ocean side, so some big waves were hitting the western landing. Two men went down to check on their equipment, or maybe bring something up from the landing, and a rogue wave smashed into them. The third guy, most likely Donald McArthur, would have noticed this for sure. A wave that big hitting a few hundred feet away would've shook the ground, thrown water into the air in all directions, and made a big, booming noise. McArthur, being the hot headed soldier, ran out to try and save his colleagues who were most likely in the water and unconscious, if not dead, at this point. Who would stop for their coat in this situation? The way down to the landing is steep, so he could've slipped on his way down, or gotten hit by another big wave, or both. The end. These were dedicated, hard men who's jobs depended on their reliability. Losing equipment was unacceptable to them and their superiors. The 21st century office worker attitude does not apply here, at all. The 21st century entitlement to "safe" does not apply here, at all. Implying that their disappearance was the result of some kind of far fetched criminal act is an insult to their memory. They did their duty till the end, may they rest in peace. www.nlb.org.uk/history/flannan-isles/