These twisted remains are all that are left of one of Scotland’s most heartbreaking losses of life.
Former Stornoway search and rescue helicopter winchman Chris Murray dived on the tragic Iolaire this week and took these amazing photographs of all that remains of the ship at the centre of the worst peacetime maritime disaster in British waters.
Today, stones collected from the home village of each of the 201 sailors lost on the infamous naval tragedy will be incorporated into a unique memorial on the Isle of Lewis.
Stornoway Amenity Trust, in partnership with The Nicolson Institute – and supported by Stornoway Historical Society – has been working on the Iolaire Memorial Project to create a memorial to mark the centenary of the sinking of the Iolaire on New Year’s Day in 1919.
The memorial will be situated in Carn Gardens, close to Stornoway Town Hall, and will consist of a slate engraving on a wall and a stone cairn which will include stones to represent each man lost.
Stones have now been collected in villages all over Lewis, Harris, Berneray (North Uist) and also from the home towns of the 20 victims who were not from the Isles – a project which has involved communities across the UK.
Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil collected stones to represent three young London men lost in the tragedy.
The memorial will be unveiled by descendants of some of the victims.
A procession of 201 pupils from The Nicolson Institute will walk to Carn Gardens where the cairn, the engraving and the bench will be revealed.
The Iolaire was carrying sailors who had fought in the First World War back to Lewis.
But as the Iolaire approached Stornoway, a few yards offshore – and a mile away from the safety of the harbour – she hit the infamous rocks “The Beasts of Holm”, and eventually sank. Only 80 people survived.
Mr Murray, a former Royal Navy diver, said little was now left of the ship.
“The boiler and the prop shaft are all that largely remain of the Iolaire, which is about 30ft down,” said Mr Murray, who received the Queen’s Gallantry medal for the rescue of crewmen from the fishing vessel The Hansa.
“In 100 years there will be nothing left. Anything of any value – the guns, the engine etc – was taken away by the Admiralty after she sunk.”
WWI is held to have ended in 1919 in the island on account of the Iolaire Disaster – a fact reflected on the Lewis War Memorial at Stornoway.