Iolaire
 |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Iolaire was a 634 tons (GRT) armed steamship with clipper bow of the Admiralty , which sank on January 1, 1919 during a troop repatriation in the sea area of the Strait of The Minch ( Scotland ).
The Iolaire was built in 1881 in the Fergusons of Leith shipyard. The baptismal name when it was launched was Iolanthe . Over the years the ship's name has changed several times. In 1918 the steam sailing ship of Amalthaea was changed to Iolaire ( Scottish Gaelic for "eagle") shortly before the sinking .
Historical background
The Iolaire should after the end of World War I 260 surviving soldiers as passengers on the Isle of Lewis transport, one of the Outer Hebrides belonging before Scotland island with 30,000 inhabitants, of whom mostly in the 6,000 men conscientious Royal Navy had done. The ship was used for transport because the regular mail ship Sheila was too small for this.
The Iolaire, on the other hand, was not equipped for transport; with 80 life jackets and 100 places in lifeboats, it did not have the necessary safety equipment . Despite a dispute between the captain and a troop officer, it was decided to circumvent the regulations because of the symbolic return home at the turn of the year. The Iolaire stood at 19.30 in the lake to the north by the Inner Sound to the 97 km distant Stornoway .
The course of the disaster
In clear weather conditions, the journey went on until midnight without any special incidents, after which there were strong southerly winds and heavy rain. At that time the ship was traveling through a strait called The Minch , where rough seas prevailed. At 1.30 a.m. on New Year's Day 1919, the Iolaire approached the port of Stornoway.
At the entrance to the harbor, the faster turned Iolaire starboard starting to aft fishing boat Spider crossing, which also ran toward the harbor. During this maneuver, the Iolaire came off course to the east and rammed the rocks called Beasts of Holm in the harbor entrance. The distressed vessel, who was still swimming, fired signal rockets at 1.55 to draw attention to the distress at sea.
After ramming the rocks , the ship leaned to starboard. Due to the bad weather conditions and the overcrowding of the ship, some attempts to water the lifeboats failed and they hit the side of the ship's side.
John Finlay Macleod of Port of Ness , meanwhile, managed to swim ashore with a throw line. In this way, around 40 men were able to follow ashore, while the others had to remain on the damaged vessel. At 3:00 am, the chimney went overboard as a result of an explosion and the hull of the Iolaire broke. Another man climbed the mast still sticking out of the water . He was rescued at 10:00 a.m.
Of the total of 284 men on board the Iolaire , 205 died in the accident. The accident shocked the island's population on the one hand because almost every family on the island was affected, on the other hand because it took place so close to the coast and still claimed so many victims.
The ship's command, consisting of the captain and the officers, who were killed in the accident, were initially acquitted posthumously by an Admiralty Board of Inquiry, but a civil investigation a month later came to the conclusion that the officer in charge had violated his duties of care in two ways. Instead of overtaking the fishing boat Spider , he should have reduced speed, and the overloading beyond the rescue capacity was reprimanded.
On the 100th anniversary of the catastrophe on New Year's Day 2019, Prince Charles laid a memorial wreath at the memorial.
Web links
- Ness Historical Society Article ( January 22, 2003 memento in the Internet Archive )
- Case records associated with the Board of Inquiry into the Sinking of HMY Iolaire