The Smalls Lighthouse Tragedy

this video is sponsored by incog [Music] [Music] this is a story about Madness the old Smalls lighthous was a nightmare a rudimentary Tower purged on nine Oak pillars jutting out from a rock 20 mi west of the coast of Wales the men unlucky enough to work there were alone for weeks sometimes even months their only contact with the outside world was a boat from the mainland when the weather got rough as it so often did these men were on their own their only job was to keep their Beacon shining after a series of brutal storms

in the winter of 1801 a boat from the mainland finally made it to the lighthouse to relieve the keepers trapped inside as they approached the tower a man stood at the gallery his arm outstretched No Doubt relieved to see them they climbed the long rickety rope ladder and opened the trap door that led to the lighthouse living quarters the stench was unbearable inside they found a man one of the keepers Thomas Howell his face was gunt unrecognizable from the youthful man dropped off at the tower only a few months before he barely acknowledged their presence

they climbed higher to the lamp room and outside to the gallery wondering why Thomas Griffith the other keeper hadn't come out to greet them when they threw open the door they were confronted with the grizzly sight of a corpse lashed the railing mangled by the unrelenting Wind and Sea his arm outstretched waving to them in the Wind [Music] thank you to incog for sponsoring this portion of today's video I don't know about you but my phone needs a break lately I've been bombarded with Robo calls and texts begging me for money or sharing some exciting

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for you and it's not just a one-time thing they will continue to monitor these data Brokers to make sure your data stays off the market and remove it whenever it pops up this keeps you safe and cuts down on all that annoying spam take back your personal data with incog use code old boats at the link below to get 60% off an annual plan at incog docomo boots incog also offers a 30-day money back guarantee so there's no risk to try it out [Music] on a cold night late in 1773 thousand ton Clipper Pennsylvania was

enveloped in a furious scale only a few miles from her long awaited destination in Bristol she was thrown about by the massive waves after fighting for hours the ship smashed into the smalls a group of rocks 20 m off the coast of the Marlos peninsula in Penbrook Wales 75 people lost their lives for weeks shattered remnants of the great ship washed ashore a constant reminder that something had to be done to protect Mariners from the dangerous rocks John Phillips a Liverpool Merchant and ship owner made it his mission to build a lighthouse he boldly claimed

that he would build a lighthouse on the principal Rock of the smalls of singular construction as to be known from all others in the world as well by night as by day to be known the moment it is seen and not to be mistaken for any other he had been working on securing a lease for the smallest rock since at least 1765 but it wasn't until the disastrous winter 1773 that his idea was taken seriously and he was finally granted a 99-year lease from his Majesty's treasury on August 4th 1774 a musical instrument maker named

Henry Whiteside was contracted to design the ambitious Tower why was a musical instrument maker contracted to build a lighthouse on a rock in the middle of the sea your guess is as good as mine on June 17th 1775 James sers Henry Whiteside eight miners a blacksmith and two laborers set out on a ship called the unity to Begin work on their new Lighthouse the nearly constant rough weather meant that between June and October the men were only able to work for about 9 days sometimes men would even be left to camp on the Rocks while

the ship returned to the mainland for supplies October 5th they broke for the winter having only succeeded in boring an 18in deep hole for the center pillar began another and marked out the rest they also managed to build a small Hut to hold supplies they return in the spring and after several more months of grueling work John Phillips proudly proclaimed on September 1st 1776 that the lighthouse was completed the original Lighthouse was an octagonal structure supported by nine pillars mostly English Oak and a few made from Iron diagonal stays were added not long after completion

to further strengthen the structure it's also believed that at some point the iron pillars were replaced with Oak which was more trusted than the iron that was available at the time the structure consisted of two main rooms a living space and a lantern room above the living space contains storage for oil coal provisions and other supplies in addition to accommodations for the keepers unfortunate enough to be stationed in the tower there were additional births for mechanics or other workers who would periodically visit and help maintain the light the exact measurements are lost to history but

an engineer who visited the lighthouse in 1801 estimated that the tower stood approximately 72 ft tall a Cellar was excavated into the Rocks beneath the tower and fitted with a watertight door it was used to hold additional supplies but mainly coal the lantern room contained four oil burning lamps and glass reflectors that showed two colors a powerful white beam was visible up to 12 mi in clear weather and a less powerful Green beam was visible at a short range only from certain directions this was to help Mariners navigate between two clumps of rocks it was

a nice idea in theory but it was incredibly unsafe to sail anywhere close enough to the rocks to see the green beam no matter how precarious the tower might have appeared it seemed to do the job on December 9th 1776 Captain Anthony of the vessel Felix reported that while sailing from hurg to Liverpool he sighted the smalls light at 4:00 a.m. and followed it until dawn he praised the light's Effectiveness and said that it gave great comfort to him and his crew John Phillips may not have constructed a light known worldwide but he did manage

to create a beacon that provided critical navigational air to Mariners while his Tower was a godsend for passing ships for those who worked inside it was a nightmare [Music] life in a tower pached 72 ft above the churning sea is unsurprisingly pretty terrible from the moment Keepers began operating the smalls Lighthouse they reported a harrowing experience the tower swayed wildly with every wave there were serious concerns that the light would not be able to operate during the winter months if it even survived the winter at all the situation generated enough concern that Whiteside was summoned

to shore up his design in January 1777 together with the blacksmith Whiteside went to work adding Oak piles to the existing nine pillars to strengthen the structure they completed their work just in time for a major winter storm that left them stranded with the two permanent lightkeepers stationed there for over 2 weeks without adequate Provisions for four people the situation grew dire as they soon ran low on food and fresh water increasingly desperate and unable to contact the mainland for help Whiteside wrote out a message sealed it in a bottle and then closed that bottle

inside a crate and threw it in the sea amazingly this worked a local fisherman soon discovered the message and a relief boat was quickly dispatched to the lighthouse while all four men were rescued and safely delivered to the mainland the Small's Lighthouse went dark as John Phillips ran out of money but local Merchants Traders and ship Masters who relied on the busy shipping Lane were not willing to give up the vital beacon in 1778 operation was passed to Trinity house the official Authority for lighthouses in England Wales the Channel Islands and jalter necessary repairs and

improvements were made and the smalls Lighthouse became a vital part of Trinity House's network of lights but the beacon continued to be a challenging and dangerous assignment for the men task with keeping her light shining year after year the tower was hammered by storm after storm but still it kept standing though the light was occasionally knocked out on February 20th 1833 the lighthouse was hit by a particularly brutal series of storms most waves crashed cleanly through the pillars but one freak wave dwarfed the tower the wall of water smashed into the keeper quarters flattening walls

and smashing nearly everything inside the terrified Keepers had to wait 8 days before they were finally rescued one died later from his injuries over the years the tower was reinforced and repaired Whiteside structure proved successful it stood for over 80 years but by 1849 plans were set in motion to finally replace the old light house with a modern Stone Tower designed by James Douglas construction began on the new lighthouse in 1859 and was completed just 2 years later on August 7th 1861 the new tower stood 141 ft tall easily dwarfing the one that stood before

the new tower still stands today automated in 1987 the smallest Lighthouse is one of the most remote lighthouses operated by Trinity house while unmanned today for over 200 years constant work was required to keep the light shining what those Keepers went through in that isolated Tower was enough to drive most people mad the most chilling example of this came from two keepers stationed in the light in 1801 [Music] it's hard to imagine true isolation in 1801 a man stationed in a tower in the middle of the sea might as well have been stranded on the

moon there were no radios no Wireless messages there wasn't even an established set of signals to communicate with passing ships men tasked with keeping the Small's Lighthouse shining were completely at the mercy of those on the mainland who would periodically send a boat to refresh the tower's Provisions but they were only accessible when the weather was [Music] calm the winter of 1801 was particularly brutal storm after storm battered the smalls as soon as one Gale ated another one would whip up as was standard at the time two keepers lived and worked in the tower they

were Thomas griffi and Thomas Howell both from the town of SVA Griffith was younger with an imposing stature and how was middle-aged the two were well known to argue almost constantly they were frequently overheard in local pubs fiercely debating almost everything while the discourse was tense the two never came to blows stranded together in the lighthouse one can only imagine the nature of their relationship day in and day out as the storms raged on outside they worked together to maintain the critical light but then one night Thomas griffi was overcome by some unknown health issue

the man collapsed in the lantern room and struck his head on a metal stanson Thomas hell heard the bang and raced into the lantern room but to his horror he found the lifeless body of his fellow keeper sprawled across the floor suddenly Thomas how was alone he knew it would be weeks maybe even months before the outside world would fetch him from the tower something had to be done about his partner's body Hal knew their fraught reputation if he was found alone with his partner nowhere to be scene people could easily imagine that one of

their spirited debates grew too heated and resulted in a physical altercation the younger man could easily overpower his older counterpart and dump his body in the roiling waves a Burial at Sea was out of the question so Thomas how wrapped the body in a shroud and constructed a rudimentary coffin out of a cupboard he set the Box aside and went about his work work entering the events in the log and raising the distress flag to hopefully signal a passing ship but in just a couple of days the small keeper quarters were enveloped in the stench

of death the body had to be moved he pulled the coffin outside to the gallery and lashed it to the railing for days the storms raged rocking the creaky Old Tower as Thomas H tried to focus on its work waves crashed over the tower sometimes even dwarfing the Keeper's quarters as how cowered inside petrified that he would be swept away by The unforgiving Tempest all the while the body of his partner remained propped up just outside always visible through the large Windows as wave after wave battered the tower soon the rudimentary coffin broke away weaving

Griffith's body exposed to the lashing storm in a maob twist of fate his arm became outstretched constantly waving at how inside there were periods of calm when he was sure that a boat would appear to relieve him but Time After Time a boat failed to arrive how couldn't understand why no one responded to his signal the crushing isolation in constant Spectre of its coming death destroyed Thomas how but still he worked to keep the light lit finally the storms cleared long enough that a boat from the mainland was able to reach the tower horrified they

found the body of Thomas Griffith lashed the railing outside in Thomas how shell of a man cowering inside exhausted fatigued and at the edge of Hysteria he was brought back to the mainland a different man while youthful and energetic only a few months before even his friends and family could now barely recognize his hollow face he would never be the same what he suffered and how long he lived side by side with the corpse is unknown but it was clear that he had suffered immensely a pain so extraordinary that it's spoken about 200 years later

the incident demonstrated that two men were not enough and from then on regulations were changed to require remote lighthouses to be manned by at least three people in a cruel twist of fate how could have been been relieved much sooner during the brief breaks in the weather boats ventured out to check on the men in the lighthouse as they approached they saw a man waving to them from the gallery and they figured all was fine after all night after night the light continued to shine [Music] thank you so much for watching if you enjoyed this

one support the Channel with a like comment and subscribe if you haven't already thank you again to incog for sponsoring the video don't forget to click the link in the description to get an amazing discount I'd like to give a special shout out to my supporters on patreon and my channel members their support helps keep the channel afloat all right crew it's all I've got till the next one be nice to people [Music] [Music]