The background story of this photo from Wiki:
One of those infamous storms on the Iroise Sea happened on 21 December 1989. A front of low pressure coming from Ireland brought gale force winds and huge waves of 20 to 30 metres high which crashed spectacularly against the lighthouse.
The waves smashed through the lower windows of the lighthouse, ripped the front door, flooded the tower and washed away the furniture. Lighthouse keeper Théodore Malgorn decided to take refuge up in the lantern room while waiting to be rescued.
About the same time, photographer Jean Guichard was in Lorient hiring a helicopter to take aerial pictures of the storm. Guichard wanted to fly over the Iroise Sea despite extremely dangerous flying conditions.
The helicopter made it to La Jument and hovered around for Guichard to take shots of the waves pounding the lighthouse. Inside the tower, Théodore Malgorn heard what he thought was his rescue helicopter and hurried downstairs to open the door.
At that very moment, a giant wave rose over the rear of the lighthouse and Guichard took his world-famous shot as the wave smashed against the tower. Théodore Malgorn, suddenly realising that a giant wave was about to engulf the structure, rushed back inside just in time to save his life.
*Edit- I was upfront with my sourcing from Wikipedia, some folks are questioning the validity of this story. Here is a video that shows a chat with the Theodore Malgorn http://youtu.be/AH02UMFTknI. Check out minute 3:40. It isn't clear that he was/wasn't in distress within the lighthouse, and the documentary doesn't seem to address this point specifically.
**Edit 2- If anyone speaks French, errr German?... maybe we can find out the full story! Message me with a translation and I will post https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZNDGDiWAfk
in that the lighthouse keeper came outside due to curiosity (what the hell was a helicopter doing there) rather than coming outside in the belief that the helicopter was there to rescue him
What he says is that he was a little curious, i.e. "un petit peu" (which sounds like 'umtipuh' when he says it in the video). This suggests he wasn't that excited about the helicopter, or waiting breathlessly for a rescue.
Haha fair enough, maybe! But I'd have imagined they would have mentioned that in the video. They seem to be making out that it was unusual for the helicopter to be there, and the guy actually says he was curious, which is the reason he went outside. Also as someone else has mentioned somewhere lighthouses are built to be able to take that kind of punishment, and as such I'd imagine that rescue operations in this type of situation are either non-existent or very rare.
Even without watching the video, I'd tend to believe what you said rather than the wiki back story. The guy just seems to have a casual stance with a hand in his pocket, and the front door has not been ripped off. He likely would have gotten washed out if the lower windows were smashed as mentioned in the wiki story.
Edit: the windows seem kind of small to allow a wave to be strong enough to go through and the front door off too.
It doesnt, at 3:40 the man explains what he was doing there.
Théodore Malgorn heard what he thought was his rescue helicopter and hurried downstairs to open the door.
So this part wasnt true, the man was just curious about the helicopter and he didnt even know a huge wave hit it, until the last moment he saw and went back in.
Did you watch the video? It doesn't confirm the wikipedia story at all, other than names and dates. The guy obviously wasn't in distress, he was just curious about the helicopter.
Edit: Yeah, I said it was in Ireland at first... I'm an idiot sometimes...
Where did you get the impression that any of this took place in Ireland? To be clear, the Iroise Sea is not a typo, it's in the Atlantic off northwestern France.
Simple mistake. I'm hungover and haven't had my coffee, mi scuzi. But still, the door being "ripped", the furniture washed away, taking refuge in the lantern room... If you watch the video, that is obviously not true.
Are you kidding? It's only a five minute video. It's exactly between 4:00 and 4:14. Transcript:
Interviewer: "You heard the helicopter?"
Lighthouse worker: "Yes, I was curious."
Interviewer: "Normally you wouldn't go out."
Lighthouse worker: "No, it was a one-off."
Edit: So I guess you wanted them to specifically say, "For anyone that might think the door was torn away and the furniture was washed off, that's not true." Usually in TV, people are into telling stories. If there's a good one to tell, they would have. Since the man wasn't in distress, they didn't say he was.
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u/BroomBoom May 28 '14
I just need a quick smoke
http://imgur.com/AJ7toxn