The Iolaire Disaster - Eric Hunter
Presentation on His Majesty’s Yacht, “ Iolaire”
Members were touched and enthralled by the reporting of a little known tragedy in this presentation about His Majesty’s yacht, “Iolaire”
Delivered as a sequence of events and causes, the story told how over 200 young men from the Isle of Lewis returning from the horrors of WW1,lost their lives in the early hours of 1st January 1919 when the yacht which had replaced their usual ferry ran aground on the vicious rocks named “ The Beasts of Holme” - they were just a mile from the safe harbour of Stornaway and only 20 yards from the islands shore.
There followed the sad story of the causes of this terrible event ; navigational errors, miscalculations and a catalogue of mistakes , all performed during atrocious weather and culminating in the loss of so many members of so many families.
The yacht has been designated a war grave because of the number of the lost who were never recovered
A final photograph was shown - of a very attractive young lady who had emigrated to America, as so many of the islanders did after this hammer-blow to their families. Mary Anne MacLeod became Mrs. Fred Trump – the mother of Donald !!!!
(Shirley Penman)
