Iolaire Memorial

The picture isn't the best and the monument is simplicity itself but it represents the most horrific of peacetime tragedies ever seen in the waters of the British Isles.
On Jan 1 1919 the yacht carrying passengers for Lewis and Harris hit rocks within sight of the lights of Stornaway. Carrying 284 (mostly naval ratings demobbed from the Great War), the ship quicly started to sink. Only fifty yards from land 205 were drowned. It would have been more but for John F Macleod who managed to get ashore with a line, to which a hawser was attached and caused the rescue of 30-40 men.
The last man rescued was Donald Morrison who was found clinging to the topmost mast the next day.