page_title: Outer Hebrides
section_title: Shipwrecks
hierarchical_section_title: Outer Hebrides / Transport / Shipwrecks
caption_attribution_description: English: The Admiralty yacht HMS Iolaire under the name Amalthaea. It sank on the morning of 1 January 1919 on the Beasts of Holm, rocks outside Stornoway harbour.
context_page_description: The Outer Hebrides or Western Isles, sometimes known as Innse Gall or the Long Isle/Long Island, is an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. The islands are geographically coextensive with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland. They form part of the archipelago of the Hebrides, separated from the Scottish mainland and from the Inner Hebrides by the waters of the Minch, the Little Minch, and the Sea of the Hebrides. Scottish Gaelic is the predominant spoken language, although in a few areas English speakers form a majority.
  Most of the islands have a bedrock formed from ancient metamorphic rocks and the climate is mild and oceanic. The 15 inhabited islands have a total population of 26,830 and there are more than 50 substantial uninhabited islands. From Barra Head to the Butt of Lewis is roughly 210 kilometres.
  There are various important prehistoric structures, many of which pre-date the first written references to the islands by Roman and Greek authors.
context_section_description: The archipelago is exposed to wind and tide, and lighthouses are sited as an aid to navigation at locations from Barra Head in the south to the Butt of Lewis in the north. There are numerous sites of wrecked ships, and the Flannan Isles are the location of an enduring mystery that occurred in December 1900, when all three lighthouse keepers vanished without trace.
  Annie Jane, a three-masted immigrant ship out of Liverpool bound for Montreal, Canada, struck rocks off the West Beach of Vatersay during a storm on Tuesday 28 September 1853. Within ten minutes the ship began to founder and break up casting 450 people into the raging sea. In spite of the conditions, islanders tried to rescue the passengers and crew. The remains of 350 men, women and children were buried in the dunes behind the beach and a small cairn and monument marks the site.
  The tiny Beasts of Holm off the east coast of Lewis were the site of the sinking of HMS Iolaire  during the first few hours of 1919, one of the worst maritime disasters in United Kingdom waters during the 20th century. Calvay in the Sound of Barra provided the inspiration for Compton Mackenzie's  novel Whisky Galore after the SS Politician ran aground there with a cargo of single malt in 1941.
caption: The Admiralty yacht HMS Iolaire
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