The sinking of the Iolaire on 1 January 1919 in the Minch Straight in Scotland was one of the worst maritime disasters in United Kingdom waters during the 20th century.

The Admiralty yacht Iolaire (which means Eagle in the Scottish Gaelic language) was carrying soldiers who had fought in the First World War back to the Scottish island of Lewis. She left the port of Kyle of Lochalsh on the mainland late on the evening of the 31 December 1918. Early in the new year, as the ship approached the port of Stornoway in the dark, she hit the dreaded rocks outside the harbour, The Beasts of Holm, and eventually sank. The final death toll was officially put at 205, of whom 181 were islanders, but as the ship was badly overcrowded and there was a lack of proper records the death toll could have been slightly higher. Only 75 of the 280 (officially known) passengers survived the disaster, 73% perished in the incident.

This was, and remains, the worst maritime disaster in United Kingdom waters in peacetime since the wreck of the SS Norge off Rockall in 1904, and the worst peacetime disaster involving a British ship since the RMS Titanic in 1912.

An Admiralty enquiry shortly after did not find a satisfactory explanation for the disaster. There is a recently-erected (in 2005) memorial at Holm, outside Stornoway, to those who lost their lives in the tragedy.

See also

• List of United Kingdom disasters by death toll

External links

• Siol nan Gaidheal on the disaster
• Scots At War on the disaster
• Highlanderweb on the disaster
• Ness Historical Society Article (via Archive.org)

Shipwrecks in the Minch | Yachts | World War I passenger ships of the United Kingdom

Iolaire