Hello and welcome to December. The 123rd Anniversary of one of my favourite Mysteries of all time. Credit to Wikipedia, and The YouTubers Horror Stories and Mr. Nightmare for the information. Enjoy.

December 1900. A month that is now 123 years old. A month that never expected to go down in history so much. On this month that was unlike any other month that came before it, The Eilean Mor Flannan Isles Lighthouse, a 1 year old Lighthouse on an island named Eilean More, the biggest island of The Flannan Isles, a set of islands off The Coast Of Scotland was having it's 1 year anniversary that month, when all of a sudden, some very strange and unknown phenomenons started happening on the island, which would only get more and more strange as time went on and what ended up happening was a story that would become one of the most infamous and strangest mysteries in all of humanity. Welcome to... The 123rd Anniversary Of The Disappearance Of The Flannan Isles Eilean Mor Lighthouse Keepers... In December 1900...

Our Story begins on this day, 123 years ago. On the foggy morning of December 15th 1900, a Philadelphia cargo steamship named Archtor set off The Coast Of Philadelphia delivering goods to Leith Scotland. Little did the crew on the ship know however, that the little delivery journey they were heading on, would end up starting one of the most Mysterious Stories in History...

On their trip to Leith Scotland that day, before they made it to the mainland, they had to pass by the 7 islands off the coast of Scotland named "The Flannan Isles". The islands were named after the Bishop who discovered them "Saint Flannan". The islands were named after. The largest island the ship had to pass by, "Eilean Mor" contained a new lighthouse that was just built on the island the year before, and had just finished celebrating its 1 year anniversary operating the week before on December 7th.

The Lighthouse was operated and kept by three men. James Ducat, Thomas Marshall, and Donald McArthur. All three men were highly experienced seamen, which only made what the crew on the ship, Archtor, were about to see, even more strange.

Over the past year of its operation, the lighthouse seemed to operate perfectly fine and there was nothing that was weird about it or the island itself, until today. Unlike every other day of its one year of operation, this day was different. As the ship approached the island, the crew on the ship were greeted with a strange and unexpecting sight. The crew saw no light shining from the lighthouse on that foggy day and aside from the ocean waves crashing on the island's shores, the sounds of birds in the sky, and the breezing wind, the island was completely silent. Not only that, but the crew never saw anyone on the island outside the lighthouse. There was absolutely no duty seen on the island that day. According to the crew, the island looked as if it had been... Abandoned...

Despite the incredibly weird scenery on the island that it never had before, the crew didn't see this as too much of a big deal. Maybe the men were off duty, or they were sleeping in, or maybe the lighthouse was experiencing mechanical problems that the three men were trying to fix. No one on the ship thought the island's strange presence of absence that day was really anything to worry about. But what no one ever could've thought was that the island's very strange nature that day was one of the most haunting Mysteries humans have ever laid themselves on...

The crew managed to brush off the strange feelings the island was giving them that day and still went on to continue their journey. Even though the crew didn't see too much to worry about on the island that day, they still needed to report it to The Northern Lighthouse Board about the island's odd appearance that day when they arrived in Leith Scotland. They arrived in Leith 3 days later to deliver their cargo, and report to The Northern Lighthouse Board about the very strange presence on the island that day that puzzled them to no extent. Little did the crew know however, that doing this would only help contribute to one of the strangest stories to ever happen on the planet...

On December 18th 1900 when the steamship, Archtor finally arrived in Leith, Scotland to deliver its goods and to alert The Northern Lighthouse Board about what they saw on the island that day and how mysterious it was. The Northern Lighthouse Board were just as confused as the crew on Archtor were because the island should have been very active that day because there was nothing unnatural about it for the past year it was around. The Northern Lighthouse Board commissioned the island's tender vessel, the steamship, Hesperus to go investigate the island as soon as possible, but it was very stormy in the Flannan Isles since the day before they arrived, so the investigation date had to be postponed 8 days later on Boxing Day, December 26th. They really didn't want to postpone it, but it was the only thing they could do to avoid the dangerous weather.

The steamship, Hesperus had to wait 8 days to investigate the island until the day after Christmas. But little did anyone in the entire world know that what the crew were about to see 8 days later on that head-scratching Boxing Day, would turn this story from only a strange, questionable story, into one of the most MYSTERIOUS stories in the world....

December 26th 1900. A Day that is now 123 years old. A day that never expected to go down inhHistory so much. The Eilean Mor Flannan Isles Lighthouse's Tender Vessel, Hesperus set off The Coast Of Scotland and went to investigate the island after 11 days of sightings and reports of the island acting strange. And that's when it ALL went wrong...

Our story ends on this day, 123 years ago, the day after Christmas, Boxing Day, December 26th 1900, 8 days after The Northern Lighthouse Board comissioned the Lighthouse's Tender Vessel, Hesperus to investigate it and 11 days after the strange activity on the island was seen. The Lighthouse's Tender Vessel finally set off the coast of Scotland and steamed off to The Flannan Isles... Little did the crew and everyone else in the world, however, know that what they were about to discover that day would become one of the most MYSTERIOUS discoveries in ALL of human History...

As the ship approached the island, it looked exactly like it did 11 days earlier as the crew on Archtor described it. There was no duty on the island or in the Lighthouse, and no sounds on the island besides the breezing wind, crashing waves, and Seagulls. The island was completely silent. The crew were already starting to get weirded out by the island's strange presence and tried blowing its horn to see if anyone on the island would recognize them, but no one did. The crew started to get even more concerned. Now they knew something was wrong. Something was seriously wrong...

When the ship finally arrived at the island, no one was there to welcome them ashore. The ship's captain, Jim Harvie, ordered the 4th rotating Lighthouse keeper, Joseph Moore to investigate the island. Moore agreed to Harvie's orders and stepped onto the island and began climbing the stone stairs to get to the Lighthouse, but every single step that Moore walked up to towards the Lighthouse, every step made him feel... Uneasy... Aside from the crashing ocean waves, the blowing wind, and the calling of Seagulls, the island was completely silent. Moore's heart started racing more and more as he got closer and closer to the Lighthouse... Something was definitely wrong... But little did he and the rest of the crew know however, was that the worst was still yet to come... He was about to see first hand what NO ONE ON EARTH could've expected to see that day...

When Joseph Moore finally made it to the Lighthouse, the first thing he noticed was that the door was unlocked. What he would see next would make his eyes widen and his jaw drop more than they ever did in his life... As Moore opened the creaky door, he was immediately met with nothing but a dark, silent and empty Lighthouse. All the lights were off, the kitchen table was still full of food, one of the kitchen chairs was turned around, 2 out of the 3 rain coats were missing, and all of the Lighthouse's clocks had stopped. Now Moore KNEW FOR SURE that the Lighthouse was abandoned and something was seriously wrong. Shocked beyond belief, he quickly ran outside back to the ship and demanded the rest of the crew to investigate the Lighthouse themselves.

The rest of the crew, really surprised by Moore's tone and words, quickly followed him up the island into the Lighthouse, and as soon as they entered, they were as shocked as he was. To see such an empty isolated Lighthouse was straight up unusual. The crew searched all over the Lighthouse but found no sign of any of the keepers. The crew knew that this was a serious problem and they had no idea what in the world happened...

The empty dead Lighthouse was strange enough to make the crew feel the most horrified they ever felt in their lives, but what made this investigation even MORE strange was the Lighthouse log. The Lighthouse log was a book used to write daily information of the Lighthouse, but the final three days written in the log is where this story gets even MORE puzzling...

Throughout the entire log, the book was full of nothing but basic daily information on the Lighthouse, but from December 12th to December 15th, the Lighthouse keeper, Thomas Marshall wrote about a severe thunderstorm in the area. On December 12th, he wrote "Severe winds, the likes of which I've never seen in 20 years." Marshall described the powerful thunderstorm as so terrifying that it had all of the keepers crying on their knees, praying for the storm to go away. He also wrote how James Ducat was acting completely silent and Donald McArthur was crying constantly. What made this strange was that Donald McArthur was known for being a really tough seaman used to severe weather, so it didn't make sense as to why he was constantly in tears. And the log describing all of the keepers crying and praying for the storm to go away didn't make much sense in general because why were they all the keepers really scared of a simple thunderstorm when they should've been perfectly safe in the brand new Lighthouse.

The final Lighthouse log was written by Thomas Marshall on December 15th 1900. The first day the island was reported to be acting strange. The log's final words and the last trace of any of the keepers said were and I quote : "Storm ended. Sea calm. God is over all." As soon as the crew discovered what was written in that log during that three day span, they became even MORE shocked and puzzled and even MORE horrified by the fact that the keepers had most likely died from the storm as well.

Jim Harvie, along with the rest of the crew, horrified that they were dealing with a problem that was bigger than any other problem they faced in their lives, ordered Moore and the two other crew members to stay on the island while he reported their horrifying and strange discovery to The Northern Lighthouse Board. "A dreadful accident has happened at The Flannans. Ducat, Marshall, and "The Occasional" have disappeared from the island. The clocks had stopped, and other signs indicated that the accident must have happened about a week ago. Poor fellows. They must have been blown over the cliffs or drowned trying to secure a crane or something." Harvie reported.

As the other three men stayed on the abandoned island investigating even more, they continued to find even more strange clues that continued to weird them out. As they walked all over the island, they found that the western landing stage was severely damaged, ropes that were supposed to be in a crate 100 feet above sea level were strewn about on the landing stage, iron railings were bent over, the iron railway was torn from its concrete, a huge rock weighing nearly a ton was moved a large distance from where it was before, and the turf had been ripped from the island as high as 200 feet. The entire horrified crew believed that the men had died during the severe thunderstorm, as they could've been blown off the island or washed over by a huge wave while trying to do duties on the island. But the crew wondered why all three men were gone when one of the Lighthouse rules was for one man to always stay in the Lighthouse when the other two were outside. The crew speculated that one of the men left the Lighthouse because he realized that the two other keepers were in trouble and he went outside to help them and left his raincoat in the Lighthouse in a hurry, only leading to all of their deaths, falling off the island and plunging into the ocean, never to be seen again. It was most likely believed by the crew that all three of the men had died in the storm they were terrified of, but there was actually one more realization that the crew came to later on that would made this story take an even DARKER turn and chilled them all as well as everyone else who heard it to the bone!

THERE WAS NO STORM IN THE AREA FROM DECEMBER 12TH TO DECEMBER 15TH...

There was NO storm in the area until December 17th, 2 days after the storm was said to have ended in the Lighthouse log, and 2 days after the strange presence on the island was first seen. So that begs the big question that immediately comes to anyone's mind who realizes that... What WERE those three men talking about!?

Their bodies were never found and the cause of their deaths are still unknown 123 years later. There have been many stories and theories about the mysterious disappearance about the mysterious disappearance of the three keepers. These theories range from more possible ones such as the keepers being washed off the island by a giant rogue wave, or were swept out to sea because many of their supplies were in a certain part of the island known as a "geo". A geo is when cliffs are exposed to erosion by huge waves that form deep depressions on the cliff side. The geo incident theory could also explain not only how the keepers met their end, but why some ropes and a crate were moved to a large distance on the island. The theories go way beyond being more possible incidents like being swept out to sea, to more hypothetical sounding ones like sea monsters, alien abductions, ghost ship abductions, but one more theory that's probably the most possible one could have been the terrifying theory was that a Mass Hysteria broke out on the island.

Mass Hysteria is a phenomenon that transmits collective illusions of threats, whether real or imaginary, through a population and society as a result of rumors and fear. Some people theorize that the men were in a supernatural psychotic state during the time this happened because just when it seems like this story couldn't get even more strange, the island the Lighthouse was built on was strange even before this story happened.

It has been believed over many centuries that the island and the other Flannan Isles Islands were haunted by evil spirits. The islands were named after Irish explorer and saint, Saint Flann who discovered the islands and built a stone chapel on Eilean Mor and he reported the island to be haunted by evil spirits.

What supports this theory even more is that some people speculate that the storm Thomas Marshall was referring to in the Lighthouse log was actually THEM. The silence by James Ducat represented the wind and the crying from Donald McArthur represented the rain. Some people believe that they all killed each other in a supernatural psychotic state from a Mass Hysteria episode...

In 2018 a movie was made about the mysterious incident called "The Vanishing" which tells the story of the three men working a perfectly normal month on the island and everything seems to be going just fine, until one morning, they find a boat on the shore of the island, with a body and a chest in it. When the crew goes to investigate the strange sight themselves, it turns out that the person in the boat is still alive and tries to drown Donald McArthur before he kills him. After disposing of his body, the three men find out that there are a few bricks of gold inside the man's chest and decide to secretly keep it for themselves. However, later on, a steamship comes to the island with people that knew the man and were wondering if the keepers had seen him, to which they answered no, but later, the crew heard them talking about the gold and the dead body in secret, and started worrying that they'll certainly be thrown in jail and possibly die now that they're big secret was revealed, and ended up killing anyone who came onto the island, even a child which traumatized James Ducat since he loved his child more than anything in the universe. Ducat then starts turning into a psychopath and blames McArthur for all of this and tries to constantly kill him throughout the month, but Marshall constantly tries to calm them down, but Ducat finally ends up killing McArthur in the kitchen and feels more guilty than ever about it. Marshall tells Ducat that the last thing they could do at this point was to sail off alone with the gold and they'll never be caught, at first, Ducat agrees to Marshall's last option, but still feels guilty about everyone he killed, and tries to kill himself at sea, but he couldn't and demanded Marshall to kill him, which Marshall does and he sails off alone with the gold, never to be seen again...

Despite all of the strange sights and clues they found on that horrifying Boxing Day, The Northern Lighthouse Board nor could anyone in the world had no idea what they could do about the disappearance, so instead of investigating even further, because they thought they wouldn't find anything else, they along with everyone else hesitantly moved with their lives...

But the strangeness in our story doesn't end there. There have been many more strange and mysterious reports on that island over the past 121 years. Over the decades, many people who visited the island or who worked there to take over as the Lighthouse keepers constantly reported hearing whispers and cries crying out the names of the three men who disappeared, along with experiencing many paranormal and supernatural events on the island. Even 123 years later, the mystery of the strange disappearance on The Flannan Isles Eilean Mor Lighthouse Island seems to still continue on today...

It's been 123 years since the Lighthouse keepers' disappearance, and to this day, we still haven't solved or figured out anything about what happened to those three men and we may never will. 123 years later, it still remains as one of the most terrifying and legendary Mysteries in History...

What do YOU think happened to James Ducat, Thomas Marshall, and Donald McArthur in that very mysterious month,1213 years ago?

The end...