Flannan Islands: Mysterious Disappearance

[Bigphoot2]

I'm sure he was, but dosn't make him a good actor!

Maybe he was acting at being a nice guy.

 

[Krepostnoi]

My cousin's daughter met him when she worked in a bar - said he was great fun, very down to earth and friendly with everyone.

Is your cousin's daughter Limmy, and has Gerard Butler died?

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

The wife and I watched this last night. It’s bad. I really can’t write any more than that!

Just watched The Vanishing tonight. Atmosphere quite good, but the crazily over-elaborate plot didn't strike me as an even remotely plausible explanation for the disappearance.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

Just watched The Vanishing tonight.

I agree. That beardy Dutchman could never have whizzed up to Flannan and got all those men into his hole.

Mind you, there are Dutchmen . . .

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

I agree. That beardy Dutchman could never have whizzed up to Flannan and got all those men into his hole.

Mind you, there are Dutchmen . . .

Dutch? I assumed they were Faroese, Norwegian or Icelandic.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

I assumed they were Faroese, Norwegian or Icelandic.

I should have guessed that jokes based on an earlier film with the same name were likely to fall flat!

Yup. 1988 is ages ago! Though that is a film likely to stay with you, unlike the US remake, which is almost as old!

 

[Naughty_Felid]

I read somewhere that when the relief party first turned up at the lighthbouse they found "We're Going to Hang Out the Washing on The Sigfried Line" playing on an old gramophone.

That's why it's called the Flanagan and Allen Isles mystery.

 

[EnolaGaia]

I read somewhere that when the relief party first turned up at the lighthbouse they found "We're Going to Hang Out the Washing on The Sigfried Line" playing on an old gramophone. ...

??? ... Really? Or were you just setting up the pun?

 

[Naughty_Felid]

??? ... Really? Or were you just setting up the pun?

 

[Min Bannister]

Dutch? I assumed they were Faroese, Norwegian or Icelandic.

I assumed Norwegian too.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

I assumed Norwegian too.

I recognised the big bearded guy from the Icelandic noir series "Trapped".

 

[Sid]

I've sailed past that a few times (but not in weather like that!)

If it was a storm that is being held up as the reason for their disappearance, then it must have been a gigantic wave that caused the damage - this web-page well-describes the damage that was found afterwards!

https://www.abandonedspaces.com/pub...ved-mystery-of-the-three-missing-keepers.html

 

[ghughesarch]

If it was a storm that is being held up as the reason for their disappearance, then it must have been a gigantic wave that caused the damage - this web-page well-describes the damage that was found afterwards!

https://www.abandonedspaces.com/pub...ved-mystery-of-the-three-missing-keepers.html

Not particularly. The problem is that 'wave' has two subtly different meanings. The oceanographic one is a a solid mass of moving water. Most of the waves you see hitting the shore aren't, technically, waves, but remnants of waves. Worth bearing in mind if you ever read woo-merchants insisting that no wave 200 feet high has ever been recorded, therefore the Flannan keepers must have been abducted by aliens, or whatever. Technically true, waves aren't that high, but huge volumes of water do reach that high, and higher, when sea meets land in a storm, certainly enough to do serious damage at a high level.

 

[marksourbutts]

I think dear Gerard struck it lucky with 300 and has not really found his feet since. He has that air of someone who can't really believehis luck, who feels he might be rumbled at any time. I saw him in an American film years back with Billy Connelly{excuse spelling}some time travel nonsense, not even straight to DVD but straight to TV. It should be in the Worst Film Ever thread, but I forgot about it. I do love Billy Connelly, though,but not so much in films.

Timeline - A terrible adaptation of an excellent Michael Crichton novel. It completely glossed over or completely missed out the best bits of the book.

Staggeringly it did get a cinema release in the UK. I took my dad and we were both bitterly disappointed.

 

[hunck]

Mike Dash's excellent article is now here

https://www.academia.edu/251736/The_Vanishing_Lighthousemen_of_Eilean_Mor

Long story short, most likely explanation - washed off the rock by giant waves. Some mystery as to why all 3 vanished when it was against policy for all three men to be outside the lighthouse at the same time, & one man wasn't wearing his coat in [presumably] stormy weather in December - the other two were wearing oilskins.

 

[Kondoru]

Malcolm Stewart in his Ronay (1933) doesnt make a big deal of it. (Recently found a copy...<claps hands in glee>)

He thinks the big wave theory is most likley

But, certainly a mysterious place, his accounts of the rituals of the fowlers attest to a degree of dread.

 

[CALGACUS03]

Long story short, most likely explanation - washed off the rock by giant waves. Some mystery as to why all 3 vanished when it was against policy for all three men to be outside the lighthouse at the same time, & one man wasn't wearing his coat in [presumably] stormy weather in December - the other two were wearing oilskins.

Two of the keepers go down to the landing-place to secure it against an oncoming storm whilst keeper three, as was standard operating procedure, remains at the lighthouse. One man is swept into the water (or simply falls) and his companion doesn't have the strength to rescue him on his own.
He dashes back up to the lighthouse to alert the third man of the emergency who then accompanies him back to the landing place in such a rush that he doesn't stop to put on his oilskins.
Subsequently, during the attempted rescue, the other two keepers either fall or are swept into the water.

Or maybe aliens?

 

[Spudrick68]

Or Cthulhu.

 

[Analogue Boy]

So we’ve ruled out my pet theory of an attack by robot pterodactyls then?
That’s my junior school epic composition gone down the pan then.

But never mind. Here’s the new theory. They all spontaneously combusted in a furious drunken masturbation event that went too far. Too far, I tell you!

 

[Bigphoot2]

 

[JamesWhitehead]

They all spontaneously combusted in a furious drunken masturbation event that went too far.

I have just six copies left of the MP4s* they made at the time - allegedly.

*Silents, naturally.

 

[Kondoru]

Nope, no sign of combustion

or drink.

 

[ramonmercado]

I reckon they were eaten by a passing boatload of Cromer cannibals.

 

[hunck]

Malcolm Stewart in his Ronay (1933) doesnt make a big deal of it. (Recently found a copy...<claps hands in glee>)

He thinks the big wave theory is most likley

But, certainly a mysterious place, his accounts of the rituals of the fowlers attest to a degree of dread.

3 keepers vanishing from a lighthouse no big deal? It's probably unprecedented.

 

[Mythopoeika]

3 keepers vanishing from a lighthouse no big deal? It's probably unprecedented.

Unprecedented - that word again!

 

[hunck]

Unprecedented - that word again!

What's your problem with it? Has there been another instance of 3 lighthouse keepers disappearing?

 

[Mythopoeika]

What's your problem with it? Has there been another instance of 3 lighthouse keepers disappearing?

Relax, just referring to the repeated use of the word in the media these days.

 

[GNC]

Relax, just referring to the repeated use of the word in the media these days.

You'll be saying Flannan Isles was a shambles next.