Great Disappearances

[Harry D]

The case of Jared Negrete sounds like a tragic accident. My guess would be that he got bored waiting and tried to join the rest of the troop. Where he was is a dangerous place. On the other hand, he's been missing for more than two decades. You have thought his remains would have been found by now, but rock crevices can hide a lot.

Indeed, Paul, although I'd argue he was scared rather than bored, being left alone in the middle of the wilderness, like that. I'm betting that wasn't Scout Law! It's amazing that they were able to retrieve his camera so soon into the search but haven't been able to find any trace of Jared since.

Also, what was the deal with the "selfie"? They weren't exactly the rage back in 1991, so why did he decide to photograph himself? Apparently it was taken at nighttime when Jared was separated from the troop. From what I've read the photo itself is quite haunting but for the life of me I cannot find it online.

[Harry D]

Wouldn't the lighthouse keepers bodies have been swept back to shore?

[Chris]

All I recall Chris was that Tom Baker was Dr. Who at the time, and the plot dealt with the survivors of a wrecked yacht and the lighthouse crew. It was some time ago (about 1990) when I saw the episode - and I haven't been following the series much in recent years (and through several new versions of the good "Doctor". I don't think the invaders were Daleks.

The alien was a Rutan. A sad reminder of how inferior the series is currently, for all the technical wizardry and media hysteria:

http://cdogzilla.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/horror-of-fang-rock-dont-fire-until-you.html

[Mayerling]

Yes, with an early Schermuly.

But seriously, here's Mike Dash's article "The Vanishing Lighthousemen of Eilean Mór":
http://www.mikedash.com/assets/files...hthousemen.pdf

Excellent article on the tragedy - and a sensible one. I did think of a possible area of further probing on a side issue - Donald MacArthur was substituting for one William Ross, who was home on sick leave at the time. One wonders what Ross's thoughts were of the tragedy, as he would have been the third dead man if he had not been on sick leave.

Secondly, I was wondering if the story may have influenced a current author coming to the end of his career. The French writer, Jules Verne, would publish (as the last completed novel he wrote in his own lifetime - several would be completed by his son Michel after he died) "The Lighthouse at the End of the World", about a lighthouse tragedy in the waters of the Straits of Magellan. This book was published the year Verne died (1905), and the death of two of the members of a lighthouse crew is due to a ship or latter day pirates and ship wreckers, not to rough seas or high waves. Yul Brynner and Kirk Douglas made a movie version of the novel, "The Light at the End of the World" in the 1970s.

Jeff

[Mayerling]

This book should be on everyones book case.

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Rob

I would agree with the bit in the biographical blurb (and you right, he is a handsome fellow), that many times details are dropped that would explain a situation leading to a vanishing that occurs. Years ago I wrote an article on the disappearance of Walter Powell, that Member of Parliament from Malmesbury, who vanished in December 1881 in his balloon "Saladin". The full story was far more interesting than the bits that were pushed together by Charles Fort and other writers regarding the incident. Powell, with the brother of another member of Parliament (a Mr. Agg-Gardiner), and a young military officer, were in the balloon on what initially was a beautiful day, but the weather got really bad. The storm that arose was quite violent. Still, there was a moment when the balloon was close enough to the ground for several men to hold onto it's anchor rope, and Agg-Gardiner and the officer jumped out (the officer breaking a limb). Powell apparently froze, and the party on the ground were unable to hold onto the rope. Once they dropped it he was stuck and doomed. Most of this was left out of any discussion of the incident by the commentators like Fort and Wilkins. It actually became a matter of where and how exactly Powell died, not an issue that he entered another dimension or was whisked away by an 1881 UFO or anything like that.

I concluded that Powell's interest in aviation was a tragic loss to the nation in the next twenty to thirty years, as he had a fairly safe seat in Parliament, and had he lived he would have become a crusader for government backing of aviation projects (for example, Sir Hiram Maxim's flying machine of the 1890s, or even better the work of Percy Pilcher (killed in a gliding accident with the "Hawke" in 1899). Pilcher wanted to get a gasoline engine attached to the "Hawke" and (had Powell been an active voice in the government in the late 1890s) he might have gotten government assistance.

Of course my conclusions were my own opinions, but I felt fairly secure about them once I knew who Powell was and how he developed his interest in ballooning. But none of that appears in most accounts of his unfortunate disappearance (read demise).

Jeff

[Rosella]

Thanks for the post on the missing lighthousemen, a new mystery to me. It certainly looks as if all three ventured out to help each other (perhaps one got into severe difficulties first) with storm damage perhaps, and were swept away.

In the case of the Westerfield brothers' disappearance, I believe there was some question as to whether they had actually entered the cineama in question. Their stepfather (who supposedly dropped them off that afternoon) seems to have been a person of interest to the police, but they could never get the evidence to charge him.

[Mayerling]

Re: Fang Rock episode

Yes, with an early Schermuly.

But seriously, here's Mike Dash's article "The Vanishing Lighthousemen of Eilean Mór":
http://www.mikedash.com/assets/files...hthousemen.pdf

All I recall Chris was that Tom Baker was Dr. Who at the time, and the plot dealt with the survivors of a wrecked yacht and the lighthouse crew. It was some time ago (about 1990) when I saw the episode - and I haven't been following the series much in recent years (and through several new versions of the good "Doctor". I don't think the invaders were Daleks.

Jeff

[PaulB]

This book should be on everyones book case.

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Rob

What a damned handsome fellow!

[sdreid]

One I recently noted as a 50th anniversary was the disappearance of brothers Allan and Terry Westerfield, ages 7 and 11 respectively. They were dropped off in front of a North Carolina theater on September 12 of 1964 and never seen again. It is presumed that they were abducted and murdered but nothing has ever been found.

[Ginger]

Mike Dash's article "The Vanishing Lighthousemen of Eilean Mór":
http://www.mikedash.com/assets/files...hthousemen.pdf

Oh, thank you! That's far and away the most detailed account I've ever read of that incident!

[Ginger]

This case has fascinated me for years, but I've long had the suspicion that all is not what it might seem with regard to investigations since 1937.

It does seem rather counterintuitive to me that the only piece of the airplane left on the beach would be an aluminium cover for the navigation window, one which could be traced not just to that type of plane, but to that very plane. It's not outside the realm of possibility that they wanted a piece of metal, and that was easiest to pry loose, but still...

[Chris]

Actually I thought Dr. Who solved that as an alien invasion which he defeated.

Yes, with an early Schermuly.

But seriously, here's Mike Dash's article "The Vanishing Lighthousemen of Eilean Mór":

http://www.mikedash.com/assets/files/Vanishing%20Lighthousemen.pdf

[Rob Clack]

This book should be on everyones book case.





Rob

[PaulB]

You don't think WHAT, PaulB?

I will admit, I have a morbid fascination with missing people cases. One recent case I read was Jared Michael Negrete, a 12 year-old Boy Scout who went missing in California in 1991. Him and the rest of his troop were hiking up Mt. San Gorgoni, when Jared became tired and was told to stay behind while the rest of the troop continued the hike. When they returned, Jared had disappeared. A search of the area managed to recover his camera, which contained snaps of the landscape and a self-portrait of his eyes and nose but Jared himself was never found.

I think it is questionable that an alcohol leak caused the crew to abandon ship. The theory is that the alcohol gave of fumes which eventually exploded, blowing the hatch covers off but otherwise doing little actual damage. The problem with this theory appears to be that it doesn't answer all the circumstances, but more importantly the explosion had happened, the fumes would have escaped, and if there was no evidence of fire or further danger the crew would have waited to see what would develop. There would have been no need for a very hurried evacuation.

The story of five decomposed bodies turning up off the coast of Spain appears to be a myth. I know of nothing that corroborates the story.

The case of Jared Negrete sounds like a tragic accident. My guess would be that he got bored waiting and tried to join the rest of the troop. Where he was is a dangerous place. On the other hand, he's been missing for more than two decades. You have thought his remains would have been found by now, but rock crevices can hide a lot.

[Harry D]

I dont think so, Harry.

You don't think WHAT, PaulB?

I will admit, I have a morbid fascination with missing people cases. One recent case I read was Jared Michael Negrete, a 12 year-old Boy Scout who went missing in California in 1991. Him and the rest of his troop were hiking up Mt. San Gorgoni, when Jared became tired and was told to stay behind while the rest of the troop continued the hike. When they returned, Jared had disappeared. A search of the area managed to recover his camera, which contained snaps of the landscape and a self-portrait of his eyes and nose but Jared himself was never found.