Towards the end of January 1953, a dark and stormy night saw fierce gales lash the north western parts of Britain, bringing rain, hail, snow and windspeeds of over 100 mph. Just after midnight, on the 30th January, the SS Clan Macquarrie, en route from Dundee to Glasgow on the last leg of a round trip to Malabar and Bombay, was blown onto rocks on the north west side of Lewis, near the village of Borve. In spite of the ongoing hurricane, hail, and snow, it was hard to miss the large freight ship beached so close to the shore, and the Borve post office contacted the Stornoway Coastguard Station to raise the alarm. The Stornoway (Isle of Lewis) Life Saving Appliance Company promptly leapt into action, and the first group of volunteer life-savers left Stornoway for Borve at 00.43am. The rest of the group followed in a lorry containing the heavy gear. The advance party arrived at Borve an hour later, and with the aid of locals who had come out to help, they carried the lighter equipment a mile to the beach, through thick-falling snow, and winds so strong it was difficult to stand up at all. The lorry following behind managed to get within half a mile of the beach where the rocks were now covered in oil, and the wind was whipping the snow and sand together. Somehow the heavy equipment was dragged down to the beach by the lifeguards and the locals.
The aim of the life-savers was to get a rope over to the ship, now firmly lying aground, in order to rescue the 66 men aboard the Clan Macquarrie. Two attempts were made to fire a line attached to a rocket across to the ship, but the wind just blew the rockets away – the first rocket was blown 50 yards behind the launcher, exactly the reverse of the intended target. By about 4.00am it was obvious that given the weather conditions, nothing more could be done for the moment and the men ashore found some shelter and had a rest. The Macquarrie crew trapped aboard for the time being, must have passed a very stressful night.
By dawn the wind had lessened slightly, although the blizzard continued, and a third rocket attempt also failed. It was not until about mid-day that the crew of the Clan Macquarrie themselves managed to float a line off the ship, heading towards the beach. Amazingly the end of the line was within grasp of the company ashore, and the moment they had the rope, they could send rescue equipment over to the ship.
At 12.20pm, the first of the 66 crew was brought off the ship by breeches buoy, and landed safely on rocks near to the beach. Between the lifeguards and the local men working in shifts, the rate of rescue was about one man every 2 ½ minutes, with the Master, Captain Dennis de Vall, the last to leave, coming ashore just after 3.00pm. Since 18-year-old 4th Officer, Ian Stevens, had taken care to bundle the ship’s cat inside his life vest, a total of 67 lives were saved in around three hours. The crew were then taken by bus to the Stornoway Sailors Home. The L.S.A. Company packed up all their gear, and were safely back in Stornoway by 8.00pm.
The entire incident was so extraordinary, that it was mentioned in the House of Commons in February, and thus recorded in Hansard :
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1953-02-11/debates/7ddd9eb2-fe40-4861-92ad-3593edb76c01/SsClanMacquarrie(Rescue)
Furthermore, in recognition of this amazing and quite heroic rescue, the Ministry of Transport awarded the shield for best wreck service performed by H.M. Coastguard and Companies of the Coast Life Saving Corps during the year ended 31st March, to the Stornoway (Isle of Lewis) Life Saving Appliance Company.
The Clan Line Directors were also rather pleased with the outcome. The Clan Macquarrie itself was subsequently refloated and brought back to the Clyde under tow, for drydocking. But perhaps more importantly the Directors wanted to say thank you, most especially to the Borve locals who had come out on a terrible night, and worked for hours to help with the rescue. So the directors donated funds for a village hall to be built in Borve. Opened later in 1953, it was named Borve Hall.
On a side note, seventy years later, the Clan Macquarrie rescue is still the largest (and possibly fastest) breeches buoy rescue in history.
By the early 2000s, Borve Hall was tired and run-down. It was also too small for all the activities that the local community wished or needed to accommodate. The community set up a fund-raising committee and began to raise money to build a fine new and much larger community centre. In 2005 the committee chair reached out to Peter Buckley, then Chairman of Caledonia, and asked if there was a possibility of a donation towards the new building, which was going to be called the Clan Macquarrie. Peter was not inimical to the request, but his papers show how carefully he checked the figures the committee sent along to him. A message left by Gill Meredith, Peter’s PA, noting a call from the committee chair, in 2007 ends on a despairing note:
“Peter, you have these papers somewhere, but I don’t know where on your desk. I had a sort of look but without success.”
Gill also left a note regarding another email from Borve in 2007 “I searched your papers on the floor, but could not find the originals”.
Peter evidently had a system, but it now foxed even Gill’s methodical approach. However, the final donations were sent out in October 2008. The committee chair sent their thanks for the final cheques to Peter, via Gill, and work on the new building began.
In late summer 2009, the committee chair sent an invitation to attend the official opening of the new Clan Macquarrie Community Centre. It was Gill’s sad duty to have to let them know that Peter had died very suddenly towards the end of 2008. Gill was certain that Peter would have attended the opening if he could have done; and considering the amount of time and effort he had put into finding money to make up the Caledonia donation, he would have thoroughly enjoyed himself, if he had been able to go.
The Clan Macquarrie Community Centre continues to be at the heart of the Borve community and has a full and lively diary of events. The old Borve Hall was offered for sale locally in early 2023. Potential buyers had to say what they wanted to do with the hall and/or the land on which it stood.
Overall the story of the SS Clan Macquarrie is a fairly happy one. While the rescue was immensely difficult, everyone survived, and even the cat was lucky in that respect. For the Chief Officer, George Emmett, the storm at sea and protracted rescue may well have been very frightening, but his story didn’t end there. George had been the second-to-last person to be rescued from the ship, and along with a handful of the most senior officers, he remained in Stornoway while the company tried to see if it was possible to refloat the ship. The other officers soon left, leaving George with the ship until a refloat was achieved, some time later. Periodically George made reports on progress to Head Office, by telegram from the Post Office in Stornoway, and it was there he met Mairi, the postmaster’s daughter.
George and Mairi fell in love, were married in Glasgow in 1954, and lived happily ever after. For this couple at least, every storm cloud really did have a silver lining.
With many thanks to the daughter of George and Mairi, for additional information and the photograph of her parents on their wedding day.