On 26 December 1900, relief keeper Joseph Moore found the Flannan Isles lighthouse gate unlocked and the three keepers—James Ducat, Thomas Marshall, Donald MacArthur—gone.
Inside: an overturned chair, two coats still hanging, a cold fire, a logbook that stopped days earlier.
The western landing looked damaged, so it seemed the Atlantic had taken them.
Moore climbed the spiral stairs alone. In the lantern room, a footprint marked the dust—still wet.