The Isle of Lewis is still coming to terms with a maritime disaster that killed 201 men a century ago
Margaret Ferguson’s family home on the Isle of Lewis was crowded with portraits. There were more than a hundred, and each was of a man looking out from the canvas. Veterans of the first world war, each man drowned on the same night, on the same boat, a short distance from safety.
In heavy seas and a pitch-black night, an overcrowded steam yacht taking them home on leave, the Iolaire, struck a treacherous reef known as the Beasts of Holm in the early hours of New Year’s Day 1919. They were barely a mile from Stornoway harbour and 50 yards from the shore, and of the 280 men on board, only 79 survived.
Continue reading...from World news | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2TmV2h4
No comments:
Post a Comment