Sixteen Minutes of Silence Before a Mayday from an Empty Lighthouse

Sixteen Minutes of Silence Before a Mayday from an Empty Lighthouse

Silence turned into an eight-second human Mayday from an empty, locked lighthouse-after a sonar buoy had recorded a return near the northeast rocks sixteen minutes earlier. The lighthouse radio sat carefully placed at the base of the stairs, undisturbed by the storm surge; who set it there, and why did a voice name Pellar Point when no one was there?

In this episode, we lay out the timeline and testimonies collected during a fourteen-month inquiry, following the sonar return, the unmanned radio transmission, and the Coast Guard search to ask: how did a clear human voice call for help from a place confirmed to be empty?

Person: Kelly Larsen
Date: September 16, 2017
Location: Pellar Point Lighthouse
Event: Sonar return then Mayday transmission
Status: Coast Guard search found nothing

- The radio was found at the base of the lighthouse staircase with its antenna pointing straight up and the orange display on Channel 16.
- A flood line of seaweed and crab trap fragments marked four inches up the foundation wall, while the radio showed no water damage.
- Buoy PC-7, three hundred yards offshore, registered a sonar return near the northeast rocks at 11:31 PM that lasted several seconds.
- Sixteen minutes later, at 11:47 PM, the lantern room emergency relay transmitted an eight-second human voice: "Mayday, Mayday, Pellar Point - vessel in distress, Pellar Point rocks, northeast face."
- The Coast Guard dispatched a utility boat at 11:52 PM and conducted three passes, reaching the northeast face at 12:19 AM with no vessel, debris, or persons found.

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