Boundless Blue

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Pembrokeshire, 2021

Some twenty miles west of this peninsula there is a remote lighthouse sitting on some rocks called Smalls Lighthouse. Back in 1801 it was essentially just a hut standing on rickety wooden pillars.

Two men, Thomas Howell and Thomas Griffith, were sent to tend to the lighthouse during some horrific storms. They also just so happened to absolutely hate each other, known to argue in the street and fight in pubs. Griffith went and died, either from a freak accident or an illness—this bit is unclear—but either way this went and made things even more difficult for Howell.

Knowing the reputation they each had for hating each other’s guts, he thought that if he threw the body of Griffith out to sea it could wash up on the mainland and lead to accusations of murder. The storms continued to rage and after a while he realised sharing a lighthouse with the decaying corpse of his former enemy was not particularly pleasant. 

Instead he used his skills as a cooper to fashion a coffin, heaved Griffith inside, and tied him to the outer ledge of the hut. The storms persisted and smashed the make-shift coffin to pieces. Griffith’s body remained tangled on the outside railing by the window, and occasionally the howling wind would catch one of his arms and it would appear to wave. When Howell was finally relieved a whole four months later he was a shell of a man and his own friends didn’t recognise him. From then on all lighthouses required three people to man them.

Maybe that’s what this couple were talking about. I can’t say for sure though, they were too far away for me to hear them.