Transcript of a Bell Rock Lighthouse story written and recorded by Jan Bee Brown.
This is late October 1915. And three men are working on the Bell Rock lighthouse.
Well, I say working: John Brown Henderson was snoozing away. Donald MacDonald has been on watch and Colin McCormack is taking over. Ah for the worst watch of all — two in the morning until six in the morning. Oh, and it's a stormy night out there! No light. Nothing to do.
It was tradition that the Wickies, certainly on the night shifts, would stay up for half an hour as they changed their watch to ensure that the one taking over didn’t go back to sleep. So it was, as Colin McCormack took over from Donald MacDonald, that the tea was brewed, and they were having a wee chat. Colin McCormack was wondering why they needed three men in a lighthouse that wasn't even lit. Surely he’d be more use at the Front? Hmm.
'Do you not know about the Smalls Lighthouse?', asked Donald MacDonald.
'No', said Colin, 'But I feel sure you're gonna tell me.'
Donald and Colin liked to wind each other up.
'Oh, 1801, it was', Donald started the story.
'1801, Smalls lighthouse, t20 miles off the Pembrokeshire Coast, and two Wickies: Thomas Howell, and Thomas Griffiths. Well, the terrible storm raging, been raging for a week. And, it's gonna be, well, weeks before they are relieved.
'Now, Thomas Howell and Thomas Griffiths, they don't get on. No. Hate each other. But … one sleeping, whilst the other's tending the light. They can barely pass the time of day. Now, Thomas Howell takes over a watch from Thomas Griffiths, and Griffiths goes down to sleep. He's been in a bad temper the last few days. In bad sorts. Howell's glad to have some time alone. But when time comes about and Griffiths should take over his watch, he's nowhere to be seen. Howell is furious. He stomps down to their quarters and there is Griffiths lying in the bunk! Huh! Thomas Howell lashes out: punches him in the face, and teeth fly across the room. But Griffiths doesn't stir. No. Griffiths is dead. And has been for some hours.
'"What to do?", thinks Howell. "People know that we don't get on. When we do get relieved, they'll think I murdered him! Oh! What to do?"'
'Well, of course, Howell has to tend the light. And this he does: tends the light by night and sleeps during the day, but oh!, he's having nightmares; the stench is becoming unbearable. Well, he was a cooper by trade before he was a Wickie, so he fashions a rough coffin out of Griffiths' bunk boards and takes it out on to the platform, and lashes it to the rail. And goes back to work.'
'But, as he watches that light, and as the storm continues to rage, he swears he can hear [tap, tap tap] [tap, tap, tap]. A tapping! A tapping at the window. A tapping at the shutters! "Oh! It must be Griffiths' ghost! Out there on the platform wanting to get in!"'
'Well! It was four months before they came to relieve Thomas Howell. And when they climbed the ladder, and pushed up the trapdoor in the Smalls Lighthouse, they found a madman! Thomas Howell, barely recognisable, took them out to the platform, and pointed at the rough coffin: smashed, by the waves. A skeletal arm hanging out, being blown by the breeze. [tap, tap, tap] A skeletal finger tapping at the glass.'
'That's why there's three men,' said Donald MacDonald. 'Right. Time for bed! I'll see ya, in the morning.'
A shiver went down the back or the spine of Colin McCormack. 'What to do? Well, I better read a book.'
What was there on the bookshelves at the Bell Rock lighthouse? Well, there was the Bible. 'Introduction to science'. 'Cooking for the working classes'. A geographical primer. A moral class book. And a 'Scotsman' and an 'Illustrated London News'. Well, he'd read those from cover to cover.
Oh, he was thinking about that story. As the wind howled around the Bell Rock light. And then he heard a terrible grinding, and a roar! And something — something was happening. He wasn't sure what it might be.
He ran up to the light, and looked out to see the HMS Argyll just a boat length from the lighthouse!
Wrecked! On the rocks, well, still in one piece, but barely — its engines had been ripped out, and there was a fire on board. 655 men! How is he going to fit them all in the lighthouse if he could get them off HMS Argyll?
Colin went running for John Brown Henderson. They ran down to the door and opened it. And they tried with all their might to get the giant hawser from the HMS Argyll around the lighthouse. Some kind of fixing; a life-line.
Well, just as they had managed that by tying a great hawser, the rope, to a barrel and floating it around, just as they were getting it fixed, suddenly a tug-of-war started. The men on the Argyll were pulling that hawser back in! And Colin got his foot caught in the rope, and was hanging, hoisted 30-feet above the rock, upside down by his ankle!
John Brown Henderson roared up the lighthouse: 'Donald MacDonald! Get a knife!'
And Donald MacDonald was woken from his sleep and did what he was told. And with the knife they hacked at that giant hawser as Colin was being pulled further and further out above the sea.
Just in time! John Brown Henderson grabbed him under the armpits. Donald MacDonald cut that rope. And they ended up in a great pile, on top of each other, by the lighthouse door.
But what was happening on HMS Argyll? Well, Captain Tancred, he had called three lifeboats out from Arbroath, from St Andrews, from Broughty Ferry. They couldn’t get close because of the storm, but HMS Jackal and HMS Hornet, they saved the day. They took 655 men off the HMS Argyll, at sea, in a storm, with not a single loss of life. The only injury: Colin McCormack's twisted ankle. Lucky, lucky men.
Colin left the lighthouse service not long after. Did he go to the Front, and serve in the First World War? Well, I don't know, but I'd like to hear that story.
Story created by Jan Bee Brown, 2020.