New film attempts to answer what caused three lighthouse keepers to vanish into ...

His heart racing and his mind filling with fear, Joseph Moore hurried towards the Eilean Mor lighthouse, desperately yelling out the names of his fellow lighthouse keepers he’d expected to greet him.

But the only reply came from the gulls and petrels shrieking in the skies above the tiny, lonely island in the Outer Hebrides.

It was late afternoon on December 26, 1900. After celebrating Boxing Day on the Isle of Lewis, some 20 miles away, assistant keeper Moore had boarded the steamer Hesperus, a supply vessel that was taking him to Eilean Mor for his next six-week stint of duty.

Married with two young children, 28-year-old Moore had been delighted that his last period of shore leave had coincided with Christmas.

But the fortuitous timing went beyond that — it probably saved his life. A chilling new film, The Vanishing, starring Gerard Butler, is based on the true story of how the three men Moore had waved goodbye to on Eilean Mor only two weeks before disappeared without a trace.

They had no boat, and no bodies were ever found, leading some to suggest that supernatural forces had been at work in the Flannan Isles, the group of seven islands to which Eilean Mor, barely 500ft across, belongs.

The Flannans were much feared by sailors — and with good cause. Numerous ships had foundered on their unforgiving coastlines, which are often hidden by dense fog. In the aftermath, the bodies and bones of victims had littered the shores.

For centuries the only signs of human habitation were the ruins of a chapel devoted to St Flann, an Irish monk who lived there during the 7th century. In death, he was said to regard Eilean Mor as his own — a sinister, watchful presence that terrified shepherds who ferried their sheep over to graze there, but who never stayed the night.

When a lighthouse was built in December 1899, to guide ships through one of the wildest reaches of the North Atlantic, locals warned that the intrusion would unleash St Flann’s wrath.

So did these misgivings come true almost exactly a year later, when the lighthouse keepers went missing?

This maritime mystery is as intriguing as that of the Marie Celeste, and to this day goes unanswered. The first sign that something was amiss came when the SS Archtor, a cargo ship en route from Philadelphia, passed Eilean Mor at around midnight on December 15. The Captain noticed that the lighthouse was dark.

He reported this upon docking in Leith, near Edinburgh, three days later. But for some reason the information did not reach the Northern Lighthouse Board.

And so when Joseph Moore left Lewis to join his fellow keepers, he was expecting a hearty welcome and more Yuletide celebrations.

But, as the Hesperus approached Eilean Mor, he felt the first inklings of fear. The winter afternoon was dark but no light beamed forth. Something was up.

Even when the Captain sounded the steamer’s horn and sent up a distress flare to attract attention, there was no response from anyone in the lighthouse. There seemed little choice but to send Moore to investigate. He clambered onto the landing stage and raced up the long wooden staircase that zig-zagged up the cliff face.

He saw the gate to the lighthouse enclosure was closed, as was the door to the tower. Then he looked up and saw three giant black birds perched above. They seemed to be monitoring his every move.

Moore made his way into the silent lighthouse, heading first to the kitchen, which was normally the cosy hub of lighthouse life. Yet the room had a deathly chill about it. The clock had stopped and the ashes in the grate were cold. A poem about the incident, written in 1912 by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, describes an untouched meal on the table — there was cold meat, pickles and potatoes. A kitchen chair lay on its side, and the only sign

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