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Apollo
August 6, 2012, 12:44am Report to Moderator Report to Moderator

Forewarned is Forearmed
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Posts: 14200
We seem to have missed out on a specific thread for this disaster, described as Scotland's' worst peacetime maritime disaster.
Quoted Text
More than 200 men died when the troop ship Iolaire sank at the entrance to Stornoway harbour in 1919.

Returning home in the early hours of New Year's Day, after surviving the battlefields of the Great War, the admiral yacht struck rocks just yards from safe haven.

Nearly 80 men made it back to shore, but almost every community in Lewis and Harris lost somebody in the tragedy which claimed 205 lives.

The actual story here arises from the discovery of a flare gun used to shoot brightly-coloured distress flares into the air by first officer lieutenant Edward Cotter at the time of the disaster.

Tragically, the coloured flares were mistaken for fireworks celebrating the homecoming and the New Year.

The small pistol was found while the wreck was being dived.

Relic uncovered from site of Scotland's worst peacetime maritime disaster | Highlands & Islands | News | STV
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