Weather: Force 5/6?
Location: Bara/Mingulay
Food: Straight to the afters - custard mmmmmmmm
Very Large Blog - Vanishing lighthouse keepers and ghost islands
Well today started early - very early - 4am I got a phone call that the computers in the lab for tracking the drill rig needed looking at so that the BGS team could identify if the rig was in the correct position. Got up and fixed this and was back in bed twenty minutes later - could sleep for an hour. Last thing I remember before falling asleep was thinking that Ii would never get back to sleep. Woke up at 9ish and went up on deck - the rock drill was recovered and was sitting on the deck - this meant that there had to have been a problem. After speaking to some of the BGS team I found out that during the night the weather had deteriorated and the motion of the ship and the pull of the wire caused the drill rig to be yanked off the seabed. Not wanting to damage their £1m drill rig the BGS team opted to recover the rig.
Today is change of linen day and Jacqui the steward who cut both Jim's and my hair last night certainly has a lot of work to do - as well as doing all the linen washing for over 50 people she also helps out with the catering team and has millions of other jobs that she must do each day!! I think Jacqui and the catering guys are probably the hardest workers on the ship!! They prepare breakfast, lunch and supper for over 50 people and the food is nothing short of exceptional!!!
The other main activity for the day was the recovery of two scientific moorings. A mooring is a collection of devices, connected to a wire and temporarily anchored on the sea floor. The devices that are usually attached to moorings include current meters to measure the direction and speed of ocean currents, sediment traps to catch settling particles from the water column or experimental chambers, e.g. to measure the solubility of certain substances in sea water. A mooring can be free floating or anchored for some days to weeks (short-time). Long-time moorings might be deployed for a maximum duration of two years. The mooring is connected to a weight on the sea floor which is released after sending a signal from a ship. The weight (e.g. old rail wheels) is unrecoverable. Floaters permit the mooring to come up to the surface to be recovered by a research vessel.
An example of a mooring showing a variety of equipment. The moorings we recovered were fairly small and in only 150m of water. There are a huge variety of moorings for monitoring a variety of oceanographic variables at nearly all depths of the oceans.
(Hannes Grobe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mooring_hg.png)
Recovering moorings requires good communication between the bridge and the deck crew and requires careful positioning of the ship so that the deck crew can use a grappling hook to drag the mooring close to the ship and attach it to a lifting mechanism to get it out of the water. This is made a bit more difficult by the weather conditions encountered up here but our crew are well-trained and have considerable experience recovering such equipment.
The first mooring was recovered with no problems but the second mooring proved a little more difficult and did not initially respond to the signal sent from the ship to release and come to the surface. Numerous attempts were made to communicate with the moorings but all failed and outside help had to be sort from the owners and eventually the moorings surfaced.
The first part of my day was spent working with Eamonn to try and get the survey display on the bridge working and we finally cracked it just after lunch - by that time I had walked up to the bridge about a dozen times and felt like I had earned the cottage pie we had for lunch. The "Helmsman" display allows us to plot lines that the ship can then follow whilst we use the multibeam to map the seabed - this allows us to effectively cover an area and get the best quality of data. We will use this to map some of the potential drill sites and for areas of specific interest to the BGS team. I want to map a wreck and see how good the quality is.
After lunch the weather had deteriorated enough for all operations and deployments to be halted. the wave height has increased to around 4.5m and the wind is strong enough and cold enough to be uncomfortable. Waves started to bash against my cabin's port hole.
Quite a few people assembled on deck to look at the spectacular rainbows that were forming over the sea - very impressive. Only problem is where there’s a rainbow there’s rain!!!
We are currently anchored off the Mingualy in the Barra Islands. I'm going to write a bit about the Barra islands- I thought they would be quite boring but when I started reading about them I found that despite being bleak and desolate they have quite a colored history (+ a lot of death) and some mystery......
Mingulay. Over the past few days I learnt that Scotland has an Anthrax Island, An Island where all the people died and an Island where all the lighthouse keepers suddenly vanished one night....... Island Life is not for me. If someone told me Godzilla had come from one of the islands around Bara it wouldn't suprise me........
Mingulay - The island where EVERYONE died (insert as many exclamations as neccessary here)
Mingulay (Scottish Gaelic: Miùghlaigh) is the second largest of the Bishop's Isles in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Located 12 miles south of Barra, it is known for its important seabird populations, including puffins, Black-legged Kittiwakes, and razorbills which nest in the sea-cliffs, which are amongst the highest in the British Isles.
There are Iron Age remains, and the culture of the island was influenced by early Christianity and the Vikings. From the 15th to the 19th century Mingulay formed a part of the lands of Clan MacNeil of Barra, but then suffered at the hands of absentee landlords.
After two thousand years or more of continuous habitation, the island was abandoned by its residents in 1912 and has remained uninhabited since. It is currently used for grazing sheep. The National Trust for Scotland has owned Mingulay since 2000.
Mingulay is now part of the small archipelago known as the Bishop or Barra Isles which are "composed of a cluster of islands surrounded by a boisterous sea, making the passage of one island to another a matter of very considerable hazard" and which form the southern end of the larger Outer Hebrides group.
There is one large beach on the eastern side of the isle where the only settlement of note (‘The Village’) was located and a tiny cove at Skipsdale (Old Norse: ship valley). Bagh na h-Aioneig (Scots Gaelic: bay of the steep promontory) on the western side is a deep cleft in the sea-cliffs once thought to be the highest in the UK which rise to 213 m (699 ft) above sea level at Builacraig.
The highest hills are Càrnan (273 m or 896 ft), Hecla (Old Norse: Hooded shroud) (219 m or 719 ft) and Macphee's Hill (224 m or 735 ft). The last was named when a relief ship sent by MacNeil of Barra was sent to discover why communications from the island had ceased. A crewman called Macphee was sent ashore and returned to report that the residents had all died of disease. Fearing the plague, his shipmates refused to allow him back on board. He survived for a year, and climbed the hill every day to look out for a rescue. When the island was re-settled The MacNeil granted him land there.
Evacuation of Mingulay
There were numerous reasons for the evacuation. In 1897 a boat from Pabbay was lost off Barra Head with its crew of five, which amounted to more than half the neighbouring island’s male population, and this did not encourage confidence amongst the fishermen of Mingulay. The lack of a sheltered landing meant that the island could be unreachable for weeks at a time, and loading and unloading goods was at best strenuous and at worst hazardous. This may have meant less at a time when possessions were fewer, but no doubt the population was also increasingly aware of their relative isolation. By 1912 the island was deserted.
Pabbay - The Island where all the able-bodied men were killed.....
Pabbay (Scottish Gaelic: Pabaigh) is one of the Barra Isles at the southern tip of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The name originates from the Old Norse papa øy, meaning priest or hermit island. At only 250ha, it never had a large population, and, after all the able-bodied men were killed in a fierce storm while out on a fishing trip on 1st May, 1897, it was abandoned in the early twentieth century.
The National Trust for Scotland have owned the island since 2000. With only two sheep left on the island (at July 2007) and few if any other permanent mammalian residents, Pabbay is home in summer to many ground-nesting birds.
The island was the site of a Celtic hermitage, and a Pictish carved stone dates from that period. Remains of an Iron Age settlement can also been seen on Pabbay.
Flannan Isles - The place where the lighthouse keeprs just VANISHED!!!!!
The Flannan Isles (Scottish Gaelic: na h-Eileanan Flannach) are a small island group in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, lying approximately 32 kilometres (20 miles) west of the Isle of Lewis (Coordinates: 58°17′0″N, 07°35′0″W). They may take their name from St Flannan, the 7th century Irish preacher and abbot. The islands have been devoid of permanent residents since the automation of the lighthouse in 1971. They are the location of an enduring mystery which occurred there in December 1900 when all three lighthouse keepers vanished without trace.
The story of the vanishing lighthouse keepers!!!!
The first hint of anything untoward on the Flannan Isles came on 15 December 1900. The steamer Archtor on passage from Philadelphia to Leith passed the islands in poor weather and noted that the light was not operational. This was reported on arrival at Oban although no immediate action seems to have been taken. The island lighthouse was manned by a three man team, with a rotating fourth man spending time on shore. The relief vessel Hesperus was unable to set out on a routine visit from Lewis planned for 20 December due to adverse weather and did not arrive until noon on Boxing Day (26 December). On arrival the crew and relief keeper found that the flagstaff was bare of its flag, none of the usual provision boxes had been left on the landing stage for re-stocking and, more ominously, none of the lighthouse keepers were there to welcome them ashore. Jim Harvie, captain of the Hesperus, gave a strident blast on his whistle and set off a distress flare, but no reply was forthcoming.
A boat was launched and Joseph Moore, the relief keeper, was put ashore alone. He found the entrance gate to the compound and main door both closed, the beds unmade and the clock stopped. Returning to the landing stage with this grim news he then went back up to the lighthouse with the Hesperus's second-mate and a seaman. A further search revealed that the lamps were cleaned and refilled. A set of oilskins were found, suggesting that one of the keepers had left the lighthouse without them, which was surprising considering the severity of the weather. The only sign of anything amiss in the lighthouse was an overturned chair by the kitchen table. Of the keepers there was no sign, either inside the lighthouse or anywhere on the island.
Moore and three volunteer seamen were left to attend the light and the Hesperus returned to the shore station at Breasclete. Captain Harvie sent a telegram to the Northern Lighthouse Board stating:
"A dreadful accident has happened at the Flannans. The three keepers, Ducat, Marshall and the Occasional have disappeared from the Island. The clocks were stopped and other signs indicated that the accident must have happened about a week ago. Poor fellows must have been blown over the cliffs or drowned trying to rescue a crane or something like that."
The men remaining on the island scoured every corner for clues as to the fate of the keepers. At the east landing everything was intact, but the west landing provided considerable evidence of damage caused by recent storms. A box at 33 metres (110 feet) above sea level had been broken and its contents strewn about; iron railings were bent over, the iron railway by the path was wrenched out of its concrete, and a rock weighing over a ton had been displaced above that. On top of the cliff at over 60 metres (200 feet) above sea level turf had been ripped away over 10 metres (30 feet) from the cliff edge. However, the keepers had kept their log until 9 a.m. on 15 December and this made it clear the damage had occurred before the writers' unscheduled disappearance.
Investigation
On 29 December, Robert Muirhead, an NLB superintendent, arrived to conduct the official investigation into the incident.
The explanation offered by Muirhead is more prosaic than the fanciful rumours suggested. He examined the clothing left behind in the lighthouse and concluded that James Ducat and Thomas Marshall had gone down to the landing stage, and that Donald McArthur (the 'Occasional') had left the lighthouse in heavy rain in his shirt sleeves. (Whoever left the light last and unattended was in breach of NLB rules). He also noted that some of the damage to the west landing was “difficult to believe unless actually seen”.
"From evidence which I was able to procure I was satisfied that the men had been on duty up till dinner time on Saturday the 15 December, that they had gone down to secure a box in which the mooring ropes, landing ropes etc. were kept, and which was secured in a crevice in the rock about 110 ft above sea level, and that an extra large sea had rushed up the face of the rock, had gone above them, and coming down with immense force, had swept them completely away.”
Whether this explanation brought any comfort to the families is unknown. The deaths of Thomas Marshal, James Ducat (who left a widow and four children) and Donald McArthur (who left a widow and two children) cast a shadow over the lighthouse service for many years to come.
Barra Head - by the sounds of it the safest island.....
From 1931, the island was inhabited only by the lighthouse keepers and their wives. The lighthouse is now automated and the island completely uninhabited. It is also known for its large seabird colony and was designated a SSSI in 1993.
The National Trust for Scotland have owned the island since 2000. They acquired it through a bequest by Miss J M Fawcitt in memory of her parents and brother.
The island is largely covered by maritime grassland, with some machair and heath. Barra Head and the neighbouring island of Mingulay form an important breeding site for around 110000 pairs of seabirds, and are especially important for the Razorbill Alca torda, the two islands having at least 2.0% of the breeding population in 1985 . Other species present include auks, gulls, puffins, guillemots, Black-legged Kittiwakes, shags and fulmars. As such the islands are designated as a Special Protection Area.
Pictures:
RRS James Cook's Bridge
Titus at the helm!
Titus at the controls again
Captain Robin Plumbley at the Controls (JC010 Pic Library)
Phil the Purser runs our high-class tuck shop known as the "bond". here you can buy sweets and toiletries and if we’ve escaped the UK by a certain distance - cigarettes.
Tootums - hahahahahahahah
BGS Team on deck watching the moorings recovery from the windswept deck.
Dan with the pinger control unit. The device is attached to a "speaker" which we place in the water. The speaker then sends messages on a certain frequency to the mooring which is equipped with a "receiver". When a certain command is sent the mooring detaches from their weights (which hold them to the seabed) and slowly rise to the surface where it is recovered.
Mark launching the grappling hook at the moorings
The mooring gets pulled towards the deck after being hooked by the grapple
The moorings come onboard. The yellow spheres are made of fiber-glass and are what give the moorings the necessary buoyancy to float to the surface when the acoustic release has been triggered - they also allow the moorings to stay vertical in the water column.
The science part of the moorings. The weather vein looking instrument is used to measure the direction of the current and also contains a device similar to a "egg-cup" wind speed recorder which measures current speed. The device in the centre is a CTD and is used to measure Conductivity - Temperature and Depth.
This is an acoustic release device. The unit listens for the release command sent from Dan's"speaker". Once the release command has been detected the latch at the bottom opens and drops the weights allowing the moorings to return to the surface.
A rainbow. unfortunately I left my ROV at home so couldn't go looking for the pot of gold!! |