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I cannot remember much about the keepers at this period, Les Dennison must have left about the same time and in his place we had an extremely quarrelsome young lad, Arthur Strick, from Geordie land. He had been in the M.N. and I think thrown out. He had also got involved in a knife fight somewhere which settled him in hospital for a time shortly before he joined Trinity.
I do not think he was very successful in the courting stakes either, because one day he came to me and asked what I thought of his looks, and when I asked why, he told me that his girl friend had told him he had a face like the back of a bus.
I recall that he had some nasty little habits, but off hand cannot think of an instance, but one day whilst we were washing up after dinner and Ken had gone to bed, something happened and I flicked his face playfully, but he took umbrage immediately, flying up the stairs to Ken, and awoke him say that I had hit him.
Ken told him to go away and not be so stupid. I am not sure how many turns he did with us, but it was not many. He had a transfer away, and then resigned, but I believe there was trouble where he went. Another chap who came once or twice as an S.A.K. was Mike Hardy.
He was a Londoner, and quite useful, he reckoned that he had commanded coastal ships, but I find that extremely doubtful, as I am not even certain that he had an A.B.s ticket, but funny things happen at sea these days.
He reminds me of another similar fellow who we had on the Nab, called Busby. He was more of a scrap metal merchant, who during his turns ashore, did in fact collect scrap metal to sell. For this purpose he would buy an old clapped out banger with an M.O.T. for a few pounds, then at the end of the period sell vehicle itself for scrap.
About this time a keeper by the name of Jack Evans was nearing appointment to P.K. he had been at Dungeness Lighthouse for about 11 years. He realised that he would have to find a home etc when he was promoted, because he would be posted to a Rock Station.
He asked the Superintendent for a move that would enable him to do the best for himself, as he had already looked out a house in the Lidney Forest. He was given a choice of places, and he chose the Needles. This was nuisance to me as it deprived me of the In-Charge pay. However he did not arrive immediately.
In fact when he did arrive he only did one turn with Ken, because Ken was transferred to the Nab to replace Tom Whiston, who had become the first P.K. to the new Royal Sovereign.
Some quite startling events had occurred since Ken Chapman had left. We became aware that there had been an air and sea search off the Wolf Rock for a missing keeper, without success, but we did not know the circumstances.
Another keeper who had joined the station was John Watts. A strange deep thinking person, who obviously had a good education, but no ability to use it. He had been brought up during the war in South America, where his father managed one of the Duponts Munitions factories.
Upon his death the family had moved back to England. He was married but his wife suffered from illnesses which gave him a lot of concern. I don't think she got on well with his mother either. He had a great adeptness for memory, and one of his past times was to look at maps and try and re-draw them. A good mate despite his strangeness.
During the transition of Ken to the Nab and Jack being made P.K. we got a new keeper to the station, Mike Pascoe a Cornishman and ex Marine. It transpired that he had been on the Wolf when the keeper had gone missing, in fact had found that he was missing.
This man was a highly strung and violent man as we were soon to find out. From what I found out I have my own views on what took place and how the person went missing. I know nothing about the lay-out of the Wolf. The story told me by Mike, was that he was afternoon watchman, Ken Chapman had gone to bed having been on morning watch. The other keeper, whose name I don't know, had expressed a wish to go fishing.
This would have been from the winch room doorway, as the tide was washing the landing. I gather that the door was like a stable door, split half way in height. The keeper borrowed Mikes fishing gear, not having any of his own. Half way through the afternoon, Mike said he called the other keeper for afternoon coffee, but he did not come up. Later at tea time he went to fetch him, but could not find him.
He searched the whole building, and not finding any trace woke the P.K. They then both searched the building and could not find the other keeper. A message was then sent reporting the keeper missing. There was a lengthy search and interviews on site by police, but no conclusions were drawn as far as I know. I have my own. Mike always insisted that the door was closed when he went to look for the keeper, and his rod was missing.
There was a peculiar set of circumstances when Mike joined the service. It was rumoured that he had just come out of prison. He also had a friend in the service who was supposed to have done a stretch at Dartmoor for G.B.H.
Whilst on leave from a spell of Rock Duty as an S.A.K. Mike had stolen a bus in Plymouth and after pursuit by the Police was only caught when he tried to drive over a hump backed bridge and got stranded. At his trial he was sentenced to a period in prison, which was reversed when the bench was told that he was a keeper on the Wolf Rock and it was as good as being in prison. Whose recommendation that was I do not know.
During one discussion John Watts and I had with him, he stated at one point that his father had told him in regard to some matter, that he was lucky that the Death Penalty had been abolished. I do not know if this had any reference. to his leaving the Marines. His attitude and demeanour terrified John, because he would fly into outrageous tempers for the slightest thing that went wrong for him.
On one occasion I had been engaged about the tower doing general maintenance work. We had our morning coffee and I resumed what I had been doing. At 11.30 he called us to dinner which was an hour earlier that normal. In view that I was half way through a job I did not go down immediately. When I did, the other two were sitting back having eaten their meal.
I went to the oven expecting to find my meal had been put there to keep warm. Finding nothing, I asked where my dinner was, to which Mike replied, 'Out the window, you didn't come I thought you didn't want it' I told him that he could throw anything of the meal that was his away, but the meat was mine, and as far as I was concerned he had stolen it, and I would take the matter further.
John in the meantime; anticipating trouble, had left the room Mike got into a violent temper and threatened to knife me, saying, ' I've done it before and I can do it again.' He left the room and I made myself a meal. Later that afternoon he stopped me on the stairs and sobbingly apologised for what he had done. I did not make a written report, but later I informed the Superintendent of what had transpired, but as far as I know it was ignored.
Among Mikes other problems, was he suffered from piles. We had a flush toilet at the top of the tower, which was fitted with what I will call a yacht type flushing unit, sometimes referred to as a pump shift, hence the expression.. It had been installed in Victorian times when such things were new inventions, the lighthouse being built in 1858.
In fact many royalty may have sat on our throne. The visitors book records frequent visits by Queen Victoria's children especially Princess Victoria who I think became Empress of Prussia. Sea water was pumped up to supply the water source. With the passage of time I suppose the pipes had become furred up with deposits and the fact that there was a horizontal run of about 12 feet before leaving the building to go down a vertical soil pipe into the sea.
With the arrival of Mike on station, this soil pipe was repeatedly becoming blocked, until one occasion it could not be freed. There was man hole in the pipe at floor level, so I undid this. First of all I found that the pipe was furred up to about half its depth, and secondly I discovered that instead of toilet paper, Mike was apparently using huge toilet tissues, more like the size of table napkins.
When I tackled him on the subject and suggested he use them in smaller sections, he was unco-operative. We therefore had more and more blockages, but not always as bad as to take the man hole off.
When I went ashore on this relief a new keeper came off to replace John who had transferred to the Nab, also an S.A.K. Woosnam as Jack Evans had not joined us yet. Williams was the name of the A.K.
Continued in part 4.
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