Â鶹ԼÅÄ

Bha mi a’ bruidhinn mun t-soitheach-shaorsa, an William H Welch. Chaidh i air na creagan faisg air beul Loch Iubh. Ràinig triùir dhen chriutha An Uamhghaidh. Chaidh buidheann de chroitearan às a’ bhaile sin ann airson cobhair a dhèanamh air càch.

Bha feadhainn fhathast air bòrd an t-soithich. Chunnaic na croitearan feadhainn air an sguabadh a-mach. Gu fortanach, thàinig cuid seachad air rubha agus a-steach a bhàgh ris an canar An Camas Dubh. Chaidh cuid de na croitearan a-mach sa mhuir airson feadhainn de na maraichean a tharraing a-steach. Chuir boireannaich teine thuige air a’ chladach.

Bha na daoine a thàinig gu tìr ann am fìor dhroch staid. Bha iad rùisgte oir chaill iad an aodach anns na stuaghan. Thòisich duine no dithis air coiseachd leis a’ ghaoith. Ge-tà, chan eil baile sam bith an taobh sin. Gu fortanach dhaibh, bha an dithis a bha a’ ruith an taigh-sholais aig an Rubha Rèidh air cluinntinn mun tubaist. Choisich iad don Chamas Dhubh agus lorg iad feadhainn air an rathad. Thug iad na maraichean don chamas far an robh an teine. Shàbhail sin am beatha.

Bha na croitearan a rinn cobhair air na seòladairean Ameireaganach nan gaisgich an latha sin. Thug iad plaideachan far an leapannan fhèin airson na seòladairean a chumail blàth air a’ chladach. Ach nuair a chuala iad na croitearan a’ bruidhinn Gàidhlig ri chèile cha robh fios aig na maraichean cà’ robh iad. Dh’èigh fear aca, ‘A bheil mi anns an Ruis?!’

Chuala buidheann ann an Glaschu a bha a’ toirt taic do mharaichean Ameireaganach mun tubaist. Chaidh tè-stiùiridh na buidhne air trèana agus làraidh le còig màileidean làn aodaich. Ràinig i an t-ospadal ann an Geàrrloch oir bha na beò a-nise anns an ospadal an sin.

A-mach à còrr is seachdad duine air bòrd, cha do mhair beò ach dusan. Tha pìosan dhen long – an William H Welch – na laighe fhathast air grunnd na mara faisg air Eilean Furadh Mòr. Anns a’ bhliadhna dà mhìle (2,000) chaidh carragh-cuimhne a thogail mar chuimhneachan air an tubaist, air gaisge nan croitearan agus air an fheadhainn a chaill am beatha.

I was speaking about the liberty ship, the William H Welch. She went on the rocks near the mouth of Loch Ewe. Three of the crew reached Cove. A group of crofters from that village went to assist the others.

Some people were still on board the vessel. The crofters saw some swept out. Fortunately, some came past a point and into a bay called the Camas Dubh. Some of the crofters went out into the sea to drag some of the mariners in. Women lit a fire on the shore.

The men who came to the land were in a terrible state. They were naked because they lost their clothes in the waves. One or two started to walk with the wind. However, there is no village in that direction. Fortunately for them, the pair that ran the lighthouse at Rubha Rèidh had heard about the accident. They walked to the Camas Dubh and found some on the way. They took the mariners to the bay where the fire was. That saved their lives.

The crofters who saved the American sailors were heroes that day. They took blankets from their own beds to keep the sailors warm on the shore. But when they heard the crofters speaking Gaelic to each other, the mariners didn’t know where they were. One of them shouted, ‘Am I in Russia?!’

An agency in Glasgow that assisted American sailors heard about the accident. The woman who led the group went by train and lorry with five suitcases full of clothes. She reached the hospital in Gairloch as the survivors were now in that hospital.

Out of more than seventy men on board, only a dozen survived. Pieces of the ship – the William H Welch – still lie on the seabed near Eilean Furadh Mòr. In the year 2,000 a memorial was built in memory of the accident, the heroism of the crofters and of those who lost their lives.