9/11 - nine years on

This tribute is published on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on 11 September 2001, under the auspices of Project 2996.

Jeffrey Dwayne Collman

Image: Family photograph, via http://guy-at-judson.blogspot.com.

Source: Aurora Beacon News, Aurora IL 9-23-2001
Jeffrey Dwayne Collman, age 41, of Novato, California, formerly of Yorkville, IL, a flight attendant for American Airlines, died in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City at 8:45a.m. on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

Jeffrey was a 1977 graduate of Yorkville High School in Yorkville, IL. Jeff was formerly employed, for over 10 years, at All-Steel in Montgomery, IL. He had then worked, for a brief time, at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, California before attaining his dream of being a flight attendant with American Airlines. Jeffrey loved his job and traveling to other countries around the world. He also loved to play and watch tennis. Jeff was a true people person who enjoyed visiting with and getting to know others. He became a flight attendant in 1997. Two years later, Jeff received the American Professional Flight Attendant Award and was considered a spirited and dedicated flight attendant. He liked to entertain children on his flights, and he was fond of playing tennis and traveling, friends said.

He is survived by his parents, Dwayne and Kay Collman of Yorkville, IL and Beverly Sutton of North Aurora, IL; his close companion, Keith Bradkowski of Novato, Ca; his brothers, Charles Collman of Fort Meyers, FL and Brian Collman of Las Vegas, NV; his sister, Brenda Sorenson of Aurora, IL; his step-brothers, Steve (Linda) Gengler of Yorkville, IL and Chuck (Lakshmi) Gengler of South Orange, NJ; his step-sister, Susan Bohan of California; a god-child, Marlene Wakelin; his half-sisters, Laura Kries of Brooklyn Park, MN, Caroline Sutton of Joliet, IL and Vickie Michel of Aurora, IL; several nieces and nephews, many loving aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. Jeffrey will also be missed by 100 other flight attendants.

He is preceded in death by his grandparents and his brother, Mark Allen Collman.
A memorial service was held on Monday, October 1, 2001 at the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Yorkville, IL with Pastor John Leaf officiating.

Father’s thoughts
Dwayne Collman's imagination gets the best of him when he thinks about the final minutes of his son's life on American Airlines Flight 11. He's filled with horror thinking about what the 41-year-old flight attendant from Yorkville went through as terrorists with knives steered the plane into the first World Trade Center tower. Collman knows his son received safety training in flight school, but he doubts it ever could have prepared him for the challenges he would face on the morning of Sept. 11. The grieving father is sure of one thing about his son, though, even if the details about his death are not certain:
"He would have fought like hell."

Jeffrey Collman, an American Airlines flight attendant for five years who grew up in Yorkville, died Tuesday morning when his hijacked plane, destined for Los Angeles, crashed into New York's famous landmark at 8:45 a.m. Though his body has not been recovered, his parents knew he was gone when he didn't call within a few hours after the tragedy. He had sent his stepmother, Kay, an e-mail the night before, telling her he would be flying from Boston to Los Angeles the next morning.

"I knew he was in that accident because every time there was something going on with airplanes, he would call and say, 'Hey, I'm all right,' " said Kay Collman. "So I knew that, when he didn't call, he was on that plane."

His parents [...] say Jeffrey Collman wanted to be a flight attendant because he loved to travel and meet people around the world. After working for years at Allsteel in Montgomery, he moved to California about five years ago to pursue that dream. Lifelong friend Dolores Humphrey, who went to school with Jeffrey Collman at all grade levels in Yorkville, said she feared he was killed when she heard the news because he often flew early-week flights from Boston to Los Angeles.
She said Collman never lost contact with his friends, even though his job took him around the world.

"Every time he got into town, he would call anyone he knew to meet for breakfast," said Humphrey, who last talked to Collman [5 days before 9/11]. "He would talk for a couple hours, then have to go fly somewhere else."

His stepmother said Jeffrey was the type of person who could "sit down next to someone on a plane and walk away knowing their life story." His father said Jeffrey loved tennis and flew around the world to watch professionals play. Kay Collman says her stepson never went anywhere meekly, and he loved his job so much that she's sure he didn't back down in the face of terror. "He took it seriously," she said, "and he would not have let anyone walk on him."

Humphrey said Jeffrey talked of flying even when he was a child, and his dream came true when American Airlines gave him a job. He was never afraid to fly, she said, always asserting that he was safer in the air than anyone on the ground. Collman's parents have begun to realize how their son died, and that he will always be remembered as a victim on one of the saddest days ever in the United States.

"It's completely different than just someone dying," Kay Collman said. "We'll have the pictures forever. We'll always see where he died. It's part of history."

Seattle Times, 17 September 2001
His partner, Keith Bradkowski, said Collman was courageous and safety-conscious. "He was so focused on safety," Bradkowski said. "If there was a threat, he would have done anything in his power to prevent it." He didn't normally work the Boston-to-Los Angeles route but made an exception to get vacation time at the end of the month. Collman grew up in Yorkville, Ill., and besides Bradkowski left behind four brothers and a sister. (Seattle Times)

Further information: the fate of Flight 11.

Memorial to flight crew

Source: www.maritimequest.com


Postscript
Blogger Nathanael V.  found out 5 years after 9/11, that Jeffrey Collman was a neighbour's grandson.

Sources
http://www.afacwa.org/memoriam/jeffreycollman.htm
http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=jeffrey_collman_1
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5767989

and as attributed above.

9/11 - nine years on

When this post is published, it will be exactly nine years to the minute that the first aircraft hit the World Trade Center in New York. The events of what is now referred to as 9/11 are only too well known.

My thoughts are with all victims, whether identified afterwards, or not. In New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

My thoughts are with the passengers and crew on the four flights destroyed. My thoughts are with the victims killed in the World Trade Center. My thoughts are with those emergency workers who lost their lives trying to save others'.

My thoughts today are with the families of those who perpetrated these atrocities, for they lost too. Even before the events of September 2001, they lost their loved ones to a delusion of hate that is not of the religion they claimed to be faithful to. Hatred leads to destruction - as shown seven years ago. Forgiveness is a pillar of Christian faith, as it is one of the Islamic faith. Whether those that lost a loved one in 9/11 can find it in themselves to forgive is beyond my scope.

But first and foremost, my thoughts are with Norberto Hernandez, whose tribute I filed on Northern Trip, the predecessor to Atlantic Lines, in 2006 and 2007. The searches for Norberto on Google are contaminated with references to the Falling Man, who was in fact another victim, Jonathan Briley. This confusion has led to much anger and anguish, something the families of both men could do well without.

Norberto, rest in peace.

This entry, as stated above is dedicated to the memory of



Norberto was a pastry chef from Elmhurst, working in the restaurant Windows on the World on the 106th and 107th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York. After the attacks, he was reported missing for a week until parts of a torso and an arm were found in a collapsed stairwell. DNA testing and finger printing reveiled that these were the remains of Norberto. It also invalidated claims that the image of the Falling Man was that of Norberto; this was another victim of 9/11 who will be the subject of a different tribute.



At the time of the attacks on the WTC, Norberto was aged 42 and had been married for 25 years. He was the fourth of ten children by his parents’ marriage, and also had six half-siblings through his father. His parents separated when he was young. Norberto himself had three daughters, three grandchildren and 37 nephews. He was a man of Puerto Rican origins, and had hoped to spend his final days there. Instead, after 9/11, a funeral service was held and his remains cremated in Puerto Rico.

His sister Luz described Norberto. “He was quiet, kind”, she said. “He was a handsome man. Everybody loved him, you know. Everybody.” Norberto’s nickname was Bible, as he was very dependable. Together Forever was his motto.

Norberto started work in Windows on the World at the age of 17, washing dishes. He was interested in cooking, so a manager paid for his tuition at cooking school. Norberto became pastry chef and worked up to 10 hours a day. His sister Luz said that he made cakes, desserts, cookies and bread. His cakes were fabulous.

Outside work, Norberto loved sports, and was a fan of a Puerto Rican boxer, Felix Trinidad Jr. Four days before the attacks, he rang his mother and asked her to play “I would cry but I have no more tears” four times.

In the immediate aftermath of the plane striking the North Tower, Norberto called his sister Luz. “He said: ‘Yeah, don’t worry, I’m OK”.They were disconnected, and when Luz tried to call back she could not get through. Other accounts from Windows on the World tell that smoke and dust filled the restaurant after the strike, and that people lay on the floor to escape the worst of it. Air was beginning to run out at the time of the last contact.

These are the facts that I have managed to pull together from the Internet.

From the little that I have learned of Norberto, he came through as a gentle giant. Although 6’2” (1.84m) tall, he was always listening, and talked later. His family suffered a double loss, as Claribel Hernandez (his sister-in-law), a secretary working elsewhere in the North Tower, was also killed in the attacks. Norberto was close in the family and responsible, which earned him the nickname Bible. He loved his work, and by the look of one of the images, loved to impart that knowledge to others around him.

September 11th, 2001, dawned as a brilliantly sunny morning in New York. Two planes were flown into the two towers of the World Trade Center, leading to their collapse within 2 hours. The destruction of so many lives was brought about by mindless hatred and madness, fuelled by religious zealotry which was not based on any writing in any scriptures in any religion.

Norberto may have heard of that on news reports, but it was probably quite far from him. He was a man that lived for his family, always there for them. A diligent worker, putting in up to 10 hours a day, loving his creations from the oven. Travelling to the WTC on the Subway every morning, his thoughts were probably far from what was to happen not that much later on that fateful Tuesday.

Two thousand nine hundred and ninety-six are known to have died that day, or in its immediate aftermath. Norberto’s ashes were scattered in his homeland of Puerto Rico. His memory lives on in his family, and in the memory of those that read this. He is deeply missed by those close to him.

To Norberto Hernandez

Rest In Peace


Links
http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/terror/sep19/three_lives.asp
This link is no longer operational

I have attempted to contact the University of Columbia to use the material in this link, but have not received a reply. As it is central to the tribute, I have used it, and acknowledge the writer, Sarah Clemence.

http://www.poetrykit.org/pkl/tw6/pg05.htm


This is a poem by Barbara Phillips, from which I have used some factual references to Norberto. It refers to him being the Falling Man though.

http://www.unitedinmemory.net/gallery.php

I have been granted permission by UIM to reproduce the commemorative quilt for Norberto.


http://www.queenspress.com/archives/coverstories/2001/issue38/coverstory.htm

The poster, pictured above, proclaiming Norberto as missing after the attacks, hung on a walkway of Manhattan for more than a week

Friday 10 September

The day started breezy, cold and wet, but as I type (5.30 pm), the sun is out and the wind has picked up further. Last night, I found a bag with four photographic films, which were nearing their expiry date. Fortunately, someone still had a use for them, so I posted them to the other side of the country where a degree student photography will be quite happy.

The nutty parson in Florida has apparently decided not to burn copies of the Koran. Well, aren't we all relieved. I think this 50-of-a-flock preacher has gotten way too much publicity, and whilst I'm an overuser of the Internet, I'm more than happy to acknowledge the power for the worse that the WWW has put on display here. Some 10-15 years ago in comparable circumstances, this numpty would never have gotten the publicity he got in 2010. I maintain my position that it should be possible to have an Islamic study centre in the vicinity of Ground Zero.  The perpetrators of 9/11 acted not out of religious conviction, rather, they abused religion for political motives. Whilst American foreign policy is at times breathtakingly horrific, it is never fair to blame or abuse individual citizens for that. One of my former Internet contacts, a lady from Virginia, broke off contact with me (as a European) over the abuse she received in Rome for being an American.

Unless I think of anything else to blog about this evening, my next two postings will appear simultaneously at 1.46pm BST tomorrow afternoon, that is 8.46 am EDT - the anniversary of 9/11. I shall resume normal posting on Sunday.

Thursday 9 September

Reasonable day, with a bit of sunshine about. Spent most of the day completing the penultimate chapter of the Napier Commission's report for the Isle of Skye. The factor for about half that island's estates was grilled over dozens and dozens of pages, some of it boring in the extreme, other items interesting. However, it was remarkable that nobody from the estate that Alexander Macdonald himself owned had come forward to give evidence to the Commission. Macdonald said he was 'very proud of his crofters'. However, the Commission was not hesitant to pose pertinent questions, and in all, the evidence does not do the landed gentry in Skye any favours. Much has changed since 1883.


Image courtesy BBC
On Wednesday, it was 50 years ago since the causeway was opened that linked the islands of North Uist and Benbecula. Previously, people had to cross the waters on foot, fording at the lowest point of the tides, dodging quicksand and some having to engage the services of a guide. Before 1960, some Uisteachs had been to Yokohama before they'd visited Benbecula.

Also on Wednesday, Princess Anne visited the Isle of Eigg. All power on that island is generated using wind, hydro and solar energy, with diesel generators only present as a back-up. Eigg was bought by its residents in 1997 for £2m, after the sitting laird turned out to have bought the island with no money in the bank.

Drawing - 9 September

Trying out softer pencils. Result is better; pity I only have 6 colours.

Wednesday 8 September

Brilliantly sunny day with some distant clouds to the south and a breeze. Temperature is once more 20C, which is more than respectable for the time of year, and for this location. Did a drawing (see previous post) outside, and helped to pot pansies. Last month's gale burned the tenderer plants outside, but this lot should make it a bit more cheerful.

I can understand why Islam is looked at askance in certain quarters of the USA. However, I can only describe as lunacy the highly publicised event at a church in Florida where copies of the Koran are to be burned on Saturday, the 9th anniversary of 9/11. I wonder how the same people would feel about an event, hosted by native Americans, where copies of the Bible were burned. I am saying that because it was a warped interpretation of the Christian holy scripts which was used to justify the genocide of said ethnic group on the American continent. 9/11 is nine years ago, and I was under the impression that a healing process was in motion. However, the hubbub surrounding the Cordoba Centre in New York (that's that mosque near Ground Zero) has showed that nothing of the sort has taken place, which worries me.
I spent yesterday morning compiling a new tribute for my 9/11 commemoration on Saturday, one of two that will me my sole postings for Saturday, both scheduled for posting at 8.46 EDT (1.46pm BST). I reread the events that befell flight AA 11, which flew into the North Tower of the WTC in New York, as my victim was a flight attendant on that plane. The horror of that day came back to me in full - and I was not even directly or indirectly affected on a personal level. I still see the face of my colleague who rushed out from his lunchbreak at 1.46 pm to tell us a plane had flown into the Twin Towers in New York.
I do not blame Islam as a religion for these atrocities. I blame the warped interpretation of Islam's holy scripts for that, which was used alongside frustration and dissatisfaction which is rife in the Middle East - as is an all-consuming hatred for the Americans. Idiotic pranks like the sort to be carried out by the Dove World Outreach Center serve no purpose other than to inflame an already present hatred of the Americans - and I leave it to others more qualified than I to point out the other dangers that will result from this action.

Drawing - 8 September

Raasay weeps

A harrowing tale of evictions from the island of Raasay, as I continue to copy, paste and clean up the findings of the Napier Commission, now sitting at Torran in Raasay. Raasay is the longish island off the east coast of Skye. Donald Mcleod, a 78-year old former fisherman from Rona, just north of Raasay, tells of the evictions of fourteen townships. Chairman Lord Napier is asking about this.

7837. We want to find out if you know about the evictions in former times. The first one began in the time of M'Leod himself about forty years ago. Do you recollect that?
—I don't remember the first removing, but I remember Mr Rainy about thirty years ago clearing fourteen townships, and he made them into a sheep farm which he had in his own hands.

7838. What became of the people?
—They went to other kingdoms—some to America, some to Australia, and other places that they could think of. Mr Rainy enacted a rule that no one should marry in the island. There was one man there who married in spite of him, and because he did so, he put him out of his father's house, and that man went to a bothy—to a sheep cot. Mr Rainy then came and demolished the sheep cot upon him, and extinguished his fire, and neither friend nor any one else dared give him a night's shelter. He was not allowed entrance into any house.

7839. What was his name?
—John MLeod.

7840. What is the name of the town were his father was?
—Arnish.

7841. Will you give us a rough estimate of the population of the fourteen townships?
—I cannot; there were a great number of people.

7842. Were they hundreds?
—Yes, hundreds, young and old. I am sure there were about one hundred in each of two townships.

7843. Will you name the towns?
—Castle, Screpidale, two Hallaigs, Ceancnock, Leachd, two Fearns, Eyre, Suisinish, Doirredomhain, Mainish.

[...]
7858. Did the people out of these fourteen townships that Rainy cleared go of their own accord?
—No, not at all. The people were very sorry to leave at that time. They were weeping and wailing and lamenting. They were taking handfuls of grass that was growing over the graves of their families in the churchyard, as remembrances of their kindred.

7859. Mr Cameron.
—Might that not occur even though the people left of their own free-will, if they were much attached to their kindred?
—No, they were sent away against their will, in spite of them.

Tuesday 7 September

Although the day started fairly bright, cloud increased through the afternoon and bits and pieces of rain started to bother us. The wind remained fairly strong through the day, leading to a slight delay on the ferry service to Ullapool. As my previous post indicated, I have been transcribing more evidence from the 1883 Napier Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of the Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands. The submissions at Glendale were a touch worse than from elsewhere in Skye, but I have yet to do Raasay and Portree.

Today saw the 70th anniversary of the start of the London Blitz, and the beginning of the end of Hitler's bid to invade Great Britain. It has been suggested that if he had kept up his attacks on RAF airfields and aircraft, the RAF would have been on its knees in a week or so. The Blitz, which was sustained for weeks and months, claimed thousands of lives, and not just in London. In 1941, a bombing raid on the Glasgow suburb of Clydebank was devastating, and the raid on Coventry in 1940 infamous. After bombing with aircraft, the Nazis switched to bombing with flying bombs (the V1) and rockets (V2) in 1944 and 1945. Again, it is suggested that Hitler's Germany was within weeks or months of developing a jet-propelled aeroplane, which would easily have outflown the propellor-driven planes that the Allies were using.

Napier Commission in Skye - Attitude

I am currently working my way through the Napier Commission's Report for the Isle of Skye. The landowner at the time (1883) in the northwest of the island was Dr Nicol Martin. His attitude towards his tenantry is eloquently portrayed in reply to:

7570. You think they could not pay the rent?
—I know they could not do it, and they would not do it. They are getting indolent and lazy besides. Look at this winter; they did nothing but go about with fires on every hill, and playing sentinels to watch for fear of sheriff's officers coming with warnings to take their cattle for rent. They went about with pitch-forks and scythes and poles pointed with iron or steel, and it was a mercy no one would serve the processes upon them, or they would have murdered him sure enough. You cannot get a sheriffs officer now to serve a process on any tenant in Skye.

Monday 6 September

Quite a nice day, but very breezy out here. I took delivery of an external harddrive with a terabyte (1 million megabytes) storage capacity. So I spent the afternoon transferring pictures and files onto it, including my collection of videos that I've shot with my photocamera. Cleaned up the laptop's harddisk at any rate, and I now have all my pictures (more than 26,000 at this time) in one place. I also have all the tags that people have sent me over the year in one place. I have everything backed up on CD-ROMs, but the disadvantage of those is that you cannot (normally) add to them. The external harddrive works just like a normal computer HDD.

I have also continued to transcribe the reports from the Napier Commission in the Isle of Skye, and you can follow progress on the link provided.

A reminder, as if I need to remind, that the 9th anniversary of 9/11 will be this coming Saturday. As per usual, there will be only one post from me - possibly two, if I get that other tribute sorted out before then.

Hurricane update - 6 September

Tropical storm Hermine has formed in the Bay of Campeche, west of the Yucatan Peninsula. The system is moving north and strengthening steadily. At the moment, the NHC has warnings out for 45 knots of wind, equivalent to force 9-10 on the Beaufort scale, although there is a possibility that Hermine could intensify to a hurricane.

A Hurricane watch has been declared from Rio San Fernando (MX) to Baffin Bay (TX)
A Tropical storm warning is in force from La Cruz (MX) to Port Oconnor (TX)
NWS Brownville is issuing Hurricane Local Statements. 

Sunday 5 September

After days of having up to half a dozen tropical cyclones to monitor, we're now back down to 1. Tropical storm Malou, which is churning its way up the Yellow Sea towards the Korean peninsula. Hurricane Earl is no more, just an early autumn depression east of Labrador. The remains of Gaston could turn back into a tropical depression in a day or so, to worry the Lesser Antilles; and something might brew up in the Bay of Campeche, in southern Mexico.

Here in Stornoway, it was Sunday, i.e. very quiet. Once more a sunny day, but with a breeze going, so not incentivised to sit outside. Instead I revamped my website http://www.adb422006.com, and renamed it "Across Two Seas", reflecting the fact that these days I undertake infrequent forays back and forth across the Minch and the North Sea. I have updated several pages, found a number of dead links that needed weeding out, and may add to the Walks page. The History page is still the heaviest part of the website, as that has and still is my main activity in Lewis.

Saturday 4 September

A brilliantly sunny and warm day, with the mercury reaching at least 21C. Spent much of the afternoon outside, until high clouds came over and obscured the sun. Not much of a breeze, until an approaching band of rain brought some wind as well. Two large cruiseliners in today, the Silver Cloud and the Princess Daphne. The former was tied up alongside the ferry pier, standing out a mile against the dark green of the trees in the Castle Grounds. The Princess Daphne is a very old lady of the seas, launched in 1955 as the Port Sydney. She  lay at anchor off Sandwick, ferrying its passengers ashore using tenders. I walked over to the Battery area of Stornoway to take pictures of the Princess and came across several cats, sunning themselves under trees and on top of an outside gasmeter.



Silver Cloud



Princess Daphne



Cats in the sun

Drawing

Thursday 2 September

A beautiful, sunny day, with not a cloud in the sky. The high-level clouds hardly registered. We reached 20C / 68F this afternoon, a respectable temperature for this part of the country. In other words, time for sitting out in the sun. The midges were present - out of the sun. Got my new box of pencils out, but nothing to show for it yet. In the past, I used to draw a fair bit, but not of late. I find drawing using a computer-mouse way too cumbersome. The box was cheap, £3 for 36 pencils, at B1 hardness. They feel harder than that. Once I've completed a drawing of sorts, I'll scan it in and post it on the blog.

Hurricane Earl is now approaching the US East Coast, so please call round at the National Hurricane Center's website for advice.

Typhoon Kompasu has wreaked havoc in South Korea, and three people have died in Seoul. Tropical storm Lionrock, having made landfall in China, has added to that country's woes with flooding this summer. More info on this BBC article.

John Macaulay, 7 Islivig

A tribute and account of the fate of Leading Deckhand John Macaulay.



John Macaulay was lost when SS Kenmare was torpedoed in the Irish Sea on 2 March 1918. He came from the village of Islivig in the district of Uig in Lewis. His remains turned up on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin, and lie buried in a grave in Balrothery. His grave is marked by a Commonwealth War¬graves Commission headstone.

This tribute is dedicated to his memory, and endeavours to tell the story of SS Kenmare, the German submarine U-104 which fired the fatal torpedo and John Macaulay’s final resting place.

John’s family history
John was the son of fisherman Donald Macaulay of Islivig and domestic servant Margaret Macaulay who were married at Miavaig on 4 April 1878. Both were aged 26 at the time. It is worth pointing out that in the Gaelic community, the name Margaret is sometimes converted to Peggy. They continued to live in Islivig after their marriage. Donald and Peggy were blessed with the birth of a son, John, on 7 December 1881. It has not been part of my investigations to find out whether they had any more children.

Thirty-six years later, on 16 January 1917, John (now living at 7 Islivig) was married to Catherine Ann Macaulay, a 29-year old nurse from 19 Brenish. She is the daughter of boat-builder John Macaulay and Isabella Matheson. The marriage was conducted at Seaforth House on Scotland Street in Stornoway.

By that time, John’s mother Peggy had died, and Donald, by that time aged 62, was a crofter. His son, John, was a seaman in the Merchant Service, but (1917 being a war year) also marked as being in the Royal Naval Reserve, as so many islanders were.

S.S. Kenmare
[A picture of the ship previously published at this location turned out to be that of a different vessel by the same name]
The Kenmare was launched on 16 February 1895 at Wigham, Richardson and Co. of Newcastle upon Tyne. She was powered by a triple-expansion steam engine, generating 437 hp. She was completed for the City of Cork Steam Packet Co. Ltd. Her dimensions were 264.5 x 36.5 x 16.9 feet, measuring 1,346 gross tons.

During the First World War, she found herself under attack by German submarines (U-boats) on four occasions. On 27 June 1915, SS Kenmare was attacked by gunfire off Youghall, but outran her attacker with minimal damage. Two years later, on 21 October 1917, Kenmare was off Holyhead, bound from Liverpool to Cork, when a torpedo passed only a few feet from her stern. A few weeks later, the Kenmare had to fire at a submarine that was chasing her. However, the last attack, on 2 March 1918, proved fatal.

That day, SS Kenmare was sailing from Liverpool to Cork with a general cargo at position 53°40’095”N 5°06’099”W. This is 60 km (approximately 35 nautical miles) northeast of Skerries, Co Dublin. At around 7pm, U-104 fired a torpedo without warning. It inflicted severe damage, and Kenmare sank by the stern within two minutes. Only one lifeboat was serviceable, and the three who had managed to get into it tried to find other crew members. Three more were saved. In spite of shouting being heard, the occupants of the lifeboat did not manage to locate these unfortunates as it was dark by that time and the sea covered in wreckage. Twenty-nine members of crew perished, 24 of whom were in a boat which overturned – the weather being poor and the sea rough at the time. The First Mate, four crewmen and one gunner (RNR man Joseph Broughman, aged 20) survived the torpedoing of the ship. This was remarkable, bearing in mind that the ship sank in just two minutes. Two other gunners, A. E. Aston and John Macaulay, did not survive. Apparently, the ship’s gun had been thrown from its mountings by the force of the explosion. The survivors were picked up by the steamer Glenside the next morning, and taken to Dublin.

Postscript
U-boat 104 had been in service for only five months at the time of the attack on the Kenmare. U-104 sank a total of eight ships, which accounted for a third of the number of ships (25) sunk by its commander, 32-year old Kapitän-Leutnant zur See Kurt Bernis, until he was killed in the sinking of his U-boat on 25 April 1918.

On 23 April 1918, U-104 was attacked by USS Cushing using depth charges. These damaged the submarine. Two days later, HMS Jessamine came across the submarine on the surface in St George’s Channel as its crew were attempting to repair the damage, caused by the depth charges. KLt Bernis dived his submarine, but depth charges from HMS Jessamine forced him to surface. The U-boat was finally sunk, taking 31 to the bottom with her. Ten sailors were left in the water, after their vessel went down, of whom only one was picked up by the warship. The other nine were left to drown in the sea.

Found in Ireland
John Macaulay was not saved from the sinking of the Kenmare. Although the one working lifeboat remained on the scene as long as possible, the shouting of the floundering seamen ceased after some 10 minutes. It is a matter of conjecture what happened during the next fourteen days.

Coast Watchman John Doherty and Constable Masterson found the body of John Macaulay on a beach at King’s Point (shown left) on 16th March. Two other bodies turned up on nearby beaches at Skerries and Gormanston, but only John Macaulay’s body could be identified. He carried a letter which is said to have identified him as George [sic] Mcauley of Stornaway. He is described as a fine young sailor of about 25 – however, at the time of his death, John Macaulay was actually aged thirty-five. All three were dressed in semi-naval uniform.

Inquests into the deaths of the three naval were held by Coroners Friery and Corry, and the evidence disclosed nothing further than that two of the men carried beads and scapulars, while a disc showed that McAuley was a Presbyterian. The bodies, which were only a few days in the water, bore no sign of violence, and the medical testimony was that death was due to drowning. A verdict of “found drowned” was duly returned by the Jury under foreman Mr George Mongey.

News found its way to John’s native Isle of Lewis, and was relayed by local weekly newspaper Stornoway Gazette, on 15 March 1918.

“It is with deep regret we have to record the death by drowning of Seaman John Macaulay (Iain Dhomhnaill an Taillear) [John the son of Donald the Tailor] Islivig on Saturday 2nd inst. His boat the “Kenmore” [sic] was torpedoed, and only six out of a crew of thirty-five were saved. John was one of the finest young men that could be met in a day’s march. To his young and sorrowing widow, and to his other near relatives and friends, the heartfelt sympathy of the whole community is extended in their very sad and sore bereavement.”

John’s mother had endeavoured to have the body transferred home, but the authorities would not sanction this. An account of the funeral was forwarded to his parents by the Acting Divisional Officer of Coastguard at Rush, and the Stornoway Gazette copies this; I insert additional information as supplied by the Drogheda Independent and Drogheda Advertiser in their editions of March 23rd, 1918.

The funeral started from the Coastguard Station, Balbriggan (shown left, about 1920). The military supplied four horses and the coffin was place on the timber, and we marched through the town of Balbriggan. The military firing party, with a piper at its head, led the procession; a military funeral party and a body of police followed behind the coffin with as many of the Coastguard as could be obtained; and a large crowd of the inhabitants followed to the churchyard. the piper played a lament and other Scottish airs suitable for the occasion. (Pipers’ Band of the Royal Engineers playing the Dead March) The military also took photographs of the funeral and if they turn out successful you will be sent copies. Your son is buried at Balrothery Churchyard, and the funeral service was carried out by the Protestant minister (Rev. H. B. Good, Rector, Rev. C. Benson L.L.D. and Rev. R. Scriven). Your son was given the grandest funeral that was ever seen in Balbriggan and I think it is particularly gratifying to know that full honours were paid to his remains. Three volleys were fired over the grave and the piper played between each volley.”

Postscript
It would stand to reason that such a grand occasion would be remembered for many years to come in a small town like Balbriggan. Not in this instance. British armed forces burned and looted the centre of the town on 9 September 1920 in reprisal for an assault in a pub on one of their members. This would have eclipsed if not erased the burial in the collective and popular memory of the inhabitants of the town.

In the 1930s, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission commissioned the erection of a grave-stone over John Macaulay’s grave at Balrothery, a gravestone which faces east. His was one of many such gravestones in Ireland that were put up by the Office of Public Works, a branch of the Irish Government. In the 1920s, the family ordered the installation of iron railings around the grave site. The spelling of John Macaulay’s name on the gravestone (Macauley) is noted, but the information on the stone confirms the identity of the casualty.



Catherine Ann, John’s wife, died in Stornoway on 17 April 1961, aged 73. From the limited resources available to me, I have not been able to find out if she remarried and / or had children.
John’s father, Donald Macaulay, passed away in the district of Uig in 1933, aged 80.

John Macaulay is remembered on the commemorative panel in Grangegorman Military Cemetery, Blackhorse Avenue, Dublin.

He is also mentioned on the West Uig division of the Lewis War Memorial at Stornoway


and on the Uig War Memorial at Timsgarry


Sources
• David J. Grundy, Skerries, Dublin
• Scotland’s People
• The Drogheda Historical Society, from the archives of The Drogheda Independent and The Drogheda Advertiser, Mellmount Museum, Drogheda, Co Louth, Ireland
• Stornoway Gazette, 15th March 1918 and 12th April 1918, from transcript of original copies, held on microfiche at Stornoway Library
• Comann Eachdraidh Uig, Uig Museum, Timsgarry, Isle of Lewis
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• Cork Examiner archives (now Irish Examiner), courtesy Brendan Mooney
• From book: The Irish Boats (Cork & Waterford), courtesy Brendan Mooney
• Uboat.net
• Portrait photograph: Loyal Lewis Roll of Honour 1914-1918, Stornoway Gazette, 1921 (held at Stornoway Library)

• Photographs of Balbriggan Coast Guard Station are the copyright of Mr. David Brangan and is reproduced with his kind permission.  

Wednesday 1 September

The evenings are now drawing in, and it gets dark well before 9 pm. Only a few weeks away from the equinox, and all that. The hurricane season has come to live, and it takes me nearly half an hour to update the bulletins on my Tropical Cyclones blog. Hurricane Earl is bearing down on North Carolina and the US East Coast, while Typhoon Kompasu is making for Seoul.

Went for a walk around the town this afternoon, but ended up midge-fodder. Part of the Nicolson Institute has been knocked down, affording views in the area not seen since the 1930s. Got a few bits and pieces in the shops before escaping from the winged fiends.


Harris Tweed project, island primary schools


Cairn Dhu, Matheson Road


Nicolson Institute (with one building knocked down)

Hurricane update - 1 September

This is a map of the island of St Martin in the Caribbean. As the scale shows, it measures about 12 by 12 miles. It is part French and part Dutch - see this Wikipedia article for more details.The reason I'm flagging it up is that the two governments are not talking to each other with regards the approach of tropical storm Fiona. This tropical cyclone is not as strong as Earl, at the beginning of the week, but could still pack a nasty punch in the shape of rain. The bemusing fact is that according to the National Hurricane Center, the French part of the island is under a tropical storm warning, meaning that winds above galeforce could arrive within 24 hours; and the Dutch part is under a tropical storm watch - like the other islands in the vicinity, minus French St Barthelemy which, like St Martin, is also under warning. I have emailed the weather services for both halves of the island asking them to have a look at this situation.

Hurricane Earl meanwhile is on its way to the US East Coast, which it will graze. The Canadian Maritime provinces will see a lot more of Earl than they'd like - most likely a category I hurricane by that time.

In the Pacific, typhoon Kompasu is making a beeline for Korea, which can look forward to a typhoon strike with winds of 95 knots, that's 110 mph, near the South Korean capital, Seoul. North Korea is expected to experience the worst of Kompasu. After passing over the Korean peninsula, the storm will veer east and pass within reach of Vladivostok in Russia.

Tuesday 31 August

It is 13 years ago today that Princess Diana died as a result of injuries, sustained in a car crash in Paris. Just after midnight on 31 August 1997, the Princess was rushed from the Paris Ritz Hotel in order to evade waiting celebrity journalists, paparazzi. Her driver, Henri Paul, was called up at the last moment, although he had been drinking that evening. The third person in the car was Diana's lover, Dodi al-Fayed, son of Mohamed al-Fayed, the Egyptian businessman who was the owner of the Harrods store in London. Just before 1 am, the Princess' car entered an underpass along the Seine River at high speed, and careered out of control into a pillar. The vehicle deflected off the pillar and came to a halt in the middle of the underpass. Dodi al-Fayed and Henri Paul were killed on the spot, but Princess Diana was still alive. She was transferred to hospital in Paris, but died at 5 am.

I have never seen such an outpouring of public grief, including by radio and television presenters. Ordinary people congregated outside Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace and left banks of flowers. The Royal Family nearly tripped up over the issue, with Queen Elizabeth II taking days to properly assess the situation and make a public statement. Princess Diana was a royal who appealed to average British people.

Fast forward to the year 2010. As I type this, the month of August is quietly coming to a close. I've spent the day compiling a tribute to a Lewis sailor who drowned off the Irish coast in 1918 after his ship was torpedoed. The U-boat involved was sunk a few weeks later, with 9 of its crew left to drown in the sea; 31 others went down with the sub. Only one crewmen was saved by HMS Jessamine. An understandable action - U-boat crews were responsible for some pretty atrocious acts after torpedoing ships in the First World War.The tribute will be published on this blog in the next few days.

Hurricane update - 31 August

Five tropical cyclones to watch today. Danielle is no longer a tropical cyclone, just a very deep area of low pressure southeast of Newfoundland.

Hurricane Earl is a category IV hurricane, now moving away from Puerto Rico. This system will approach the American East Coast, anywhere north from Cape Hatteras to Nova Scotia. The inherent uncertainty surrounding hurricanes is very visible, as Earl has the potential to directly affect any part of the aforementioned coastline. The hurricane is now carrying maximum sustained winds of 135 mph.

Tropical storm Fiona is approaching the Leeward Islands, which will have to suspend mopping up after Earl. This is a relatively weak affair, with winds at galeforce (force 8 to 9 on the Beaufort scale).

In the Pacific, Lionrock, Kompasu and Namtheun are doing a menage-a-trois, but the first two should be watched. Kompasu will make landfall near Seoul with winds of 90 knots, that's a trifling 105 mph near the centre. Lionrock will make landfall in eastern China at tropical storm strength, bringing deluges of rain.

Monday 30 August

A nice day, quite a decent temperature (for this neck of the woods), 16C. No coat required for walk to shop this afternoon. The pretty yacht that was in on Sunday has disappeared; AIS tells me it left after 10pm last night, destination "Home".

This is the Eleonora E, which is a replica of the 1910-built schooner Windward.

Here in Lewis, the battle for the Pairc Estate has hotted up and the gloves are off. Under Scottish law, the community can purchase the estate they reside on, whether the landlord wants to cooperate or not. Barry Lomas, owner of the Pairc Estate, most definitely does not want to part with his land - even less so now that a windfarm could be built on it, meaning its value would skyrocket. According to the Pairc Trust, which are spearheading the community buy-out bid since 2004, his family have ratcheted up an 85-year record of neglect.


Gravir, Pairc

Hurricane update - 30 August

No fewer than five tropical cyclones to watch at present, with one possibly about to form, and another about to cease being a tropical cyclone.

Danielle is turning into a non-tropical storm depression south of Newfoundland, and will head towards Greenland.

Earl is a category III hurricane, which is presently giving the northern Leeward Islands, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico hurricane-force winds. Its future path should give concern to the US east coast, although it is more likely that Nova Scotia gets a category II hurricane knocking on its door later this week.

Lionrock is a tropical storm in the western Pacific, bound into an unholy threesome with nearby storms Kompasu and Namtheun, in the vicinity of Taiwan. Kompasu is a 75 knots typhoon, Namtheun is a minor tropical storm, which will be gobbled up by Lionrock as that storm strengthens into a typhoon.

97L is a tropical disturbance which is trying to catch up with Earl - this gives the forecasters a headache as it introduces all sorts of uncertainties.

In summary: watch Earl if you're in the Caribbean or the US East Coast / Canadian Maritimes.

Stranded

The cruiseliner Clipper Adventurer (shown above during a visit to Stornoway in September 2007) has run aground on an uncharted rock in the Northwest Passage in the Arctic, southwest of Victoria Island. This according to MSNBC. Attempts to get free from the obstacle have failed, which have left the liner aground and listing slightly. The icebreaker Amundsen has been despatched to take the passengers to safety. Nobody is reported hurt.

Post Katrina

Found in an abandoned house in New Orleans after Katrina, books stuck together - suspended as shown in picture. Image posted under Creative Commons License, courtesy Incognita Nom de Plume. Please click on picture for more information in the comments section.

Today 80 years ago

Sixty miles southwest of Lewis, the villagers of St Kilda were packing up their belongings, before leaving the island of their birth forever. Some left a bowl of grain on the table, with the Bible open at the chapter of Exodus. A community, a culture, a way of life was coming to a close after thousands of years. Life on their outpost in the Atlantic had become untenable, to their minds, and the Hiorteachs had requested their own removal. The steamer Harebell took them to the village of Lochaline, on the mainland and on to Glasgow.

A lot has been written about St Kilda, with insights changing as the years and researches progress.  Someone has recently mooted the idea to repopulate the islands with permanent inhabitants - an idea that is as fanciful as it is unrealistic. Even today, with modern, powerful boats, it is not always possible to cross the sea to the islands. In the past, there would be no communication with St Kilda for 8 months of the year, due to the severity of the weather and the ocean. That has not changed.

Work is in progress to establish a St Kilda Centre at Mangersta in Lewis, where culture and history of St Kilda will be remembered. For it is no longer alive.


Image courtesy planetware.com

Today 5 years ago

The hurricane in focus on 29 August 2005 was of course Katrina, one of the most devastating tropical cyclones to affect the US mainland in modern times. Although it had weakened prior to landfall in New Orleans, its impact was devastating. I blogged about it a few days ago, so will just dedicate the entry to the memory of those lost in that disaster, in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast.


Gulfport


Biloxi

Hurricane update - 29 August

Tropical storm Earl is approaching the Lesser Antilles, and I relay hurricane warnings and watches:

Hurricane warning
Hurricane conditions are expected within 24 hours, all preparations to safeguard life and property should be rushed to completion
Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat, St Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla
Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy
St Maarten, St Eustatius and Saba

Hurricane watch
Hurricane conditions expected within 36 hours
US and British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Culebra and Vieques

Full updates will be issued by the National Hurricane Center every 3 hours, next update at 1200 GMT (0800 AST). 

Saturday 28 August

Overcast but fairly bright today. The odd shower this evening, and not very warm.
Spent the afternoon watching two rock climbers ascending the rockface of Sron Uladail in Harris.

Picture courtesy Perpendicularprespective.com.
As you can see, the rock overhangs by no less than 30 metres / 100 feet, and stands 180 metres / 600 feet tall. The climb took more than 6 hours and involved some incredible stances, use of fingers, feet and balance, not to mention miles and miles of rope. The entire event was televised live from the foot of the rock, which is a good few miles off any road.

Hurricane update - 28 August

Hurricane Danielle is expected to pass to the east of Bermuda, spreading tropical stormforce (galeforce and higher) winds over the island. Beyond that, the cyclone will weaken and transform into a normal depression, which is not anticipated to affect western Europe - it will head north towards Greenland.

Tropical storm Earl is headed for the Leeward Islands, and people in the islands of Saba, St Eustatius, Saint Martin / St Maarten, Saint Barthelemy, Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat, St Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla. This means that tropical storm conditions could affect these islands within the next 48 hours. By the end of that period, Earl is expected to be a category 2 hurricane, passing just north of the island chain.

Please relay.

Friday 27 August

Earlier this evening, the last summer sailing left Stornoway, bound for Ullapool. Each year, on Wednesdays and Fridays in July and August, the ferry has three sailings a day. It departs at 6.15, 12.40 and 19.00, to return at 12.15, 18.25 and 00.45. Not once has this schedule been kept. Even this evening, it wasn't until 8pm that the Isle of Lewis left port. As a result, it will not be back much before 2 am tonight. For all intents and purposes, summer is now over. Erm, did we have a summer at all? Reading back through my blogposts, there have only been odd days that it was dry, sunny or warm since the end of June. The last spell of more than one summer's day in a row was during the first week in June.

Still on subjects meteorological, there are presently four tropical cyclones around.
Danielle is a category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic, which may bring strong winds to Bermuda. It will bring high surf to that island, and to the US east coast. I have this feeling that although Danielle will not impact the North American mainland, we in Western Europe are likely to see Danielle as a deep area of low pressure during next week.  
Earl is a tropical storm, presently in the middle of the Atlantic, but with the potential to affect the Lesser Antilles. The French government has put the islands of St Martin and St Barthelemy on tropical storm watch. After passing the Leeward Islands, Earl will make its way west northwest.
Frank is a tropical storm, recently downgraded from hurricane status in the Eastern Pacific. This system peaked with winds of 80 knots (90 mph), but apart from heavy rains, has not affected any land. It will dissipate before reaching Baja California.
07W is a newly formed tropical depression in the South China Sea, 400 miles south of Hong Kong. It will slowly strengthen to a tropical storm before making landfall in southern China.

I should add that another tropical cyclone could form in the Atlantic. Its precursor presently lies south of the Cape Verde Islands.

Thursday 26 August

Thursday is Stornoway Gazette day, but our weekly paper did not have anything earth shattering to report this week. One little controversy centres around our ferry, which has been emitting thick, noxious fumes. Last year, its engines were refurbished to process a heavier fuel oil, and since then the boat has looked more like SS Isle of Lewis rather than MV Isle of Lewis.


The day started with wall-to-wall blue skies and benign sunshine, but cloud bubbled up to give us some slow-moving downpours. These have subsided after 6pm, and the moon is now rising into a once-more clear sky. I may nip out later to check for the Northern Lights.

On Saturday, a team of climbers will tackle the overhanging rockface of Sron Uladail in Harris, one of the largest overhanging cliffs in the country. It is situated in a remote part of Harris, but can be seen from a distance of about 10 miles from the B8011 road to Uig in Lewis. The climb will be televised, not just on terrestrial TV but also on satellite. This image of the mountain in question was taken in May 2005, when I was on a walk to nearby Kinloch Resort on the Lewis / Harris border. The overhang can be discerned directly above the white house in the centre of the picture.

Cat in bin

A woman was walking along a street this week and found a cat walking along a wall. She stroked it, then picked it by the scruff of the neck and dumped it in a wheeliebin. The cat's owner heard her cries from the bin some 15 hours later and rescued Lola. The CCTV at the house had caught the act on camera, and the culprit was identified. The RSPCA spoke to her about the treatment of the cat, which was none the worse for the experience.

The police has now spoken to her about her personal safety. The tape was put on YouTube, which elicited a furious response. A Facebook page was removed today, which called for the woman's death. She has now said what she did was stupid (and cruel).

It certainly was that, and I roundly condemn anyone for treating any animal like that. Not everybody likes cats, but there is no excuse for cruelty such as that. However, as the cat was unharmed, neither is there any call for threats to the culprit. Methinks the lesson has been learned, reinforced by all the publicity.

Wednesday 25 August

Reasonably bright today, with only patchy light rain. Not very warm, 14C this afternoon.

On Sunday, it will be five years ago since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. The resulting storm surge overwhelmed the flood defences around the city, flooding large areas and killing 1,500. Other fatalities occurred to the east of the point of landfall, where the coastline was razed by the surge. When Katrina made landfall, she was only a category 3 hurricane (still very powerful), but its attendant phenomena were still of a scale, associated with the category 5 strength the system had been only a day or so previous.

On September 11th, it will be 9 years ago since four terrorist attacks on the US mainland left more than 3,000 people dead. Once more, Project 2996 will endeavour to have tributes to all victims published by bloggers around the world. I shall publish my tribute to Norberto Hernandez at 1.46pm that day, the exact time the first plane hit the WTC in New York. If I'm able, I'll adopt another victim, whose tribute has not been published so far.

In 2012, it will be 100 years since the sinking of RMS Titanic. The last survivor died a few years ago, aged 97. It is through reading up on local history that I have learned that the sinking of the Titanic need not have been as catastrophic in terms of loss of life as it turned out to be. Eight years before the Titanic sank, the emigrant ship SS Norge struck Hazelwood Rock, just east of Rockall in the Atlantic. The Norge went down in 20 minutes, taking 700 to the bottom with her.

Not all eight of the lifeboats launched from the Norge stayed afloat; some sank at the moment of launch, but a handful were spotted by fishermen and taken to the United Kingdom. One lot of survivors was put ashore at Stornoway, and treated at the local hospital. Nine succumbed to their ordeal and lie buried at Sandwick Cemetery, a 15-minute walk from my position. One boat is thought to have drifted northeast to and beyond the Arctic Circle; but there is no confirmation of her fate.

Nobody has heard of the Norge. No rich and famous on board that ship. Just dirt poor emigrants from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Russia. In particular the Russian emigrants were the undesirables of that country. Jews, who had been packed away onto the western fringes of the Tsarist realm, and generally hated and detested in many circles of the Russia of 1904. The board of inquiry into the sinking of the Norge found that there were insufficient lifeboats for the number of people on board. A recommendation was issued that laws should be introduced, requiring ships to carry sufficient lifeboats, -rafts and other craft to accommodate all on board in the event of abandon-ship. This was not followed through.

This negligence was catastrophic for the passengers on board RMS Titanic on 14/15 April 1912.

Tuesday 24 August

Another day that did not qualify for the adjective "summerlike". Not that it was particularly cold, wet or windy, it just did not feel like summer. It certainly wasn't summerlike in Amsterdam on Monday, when a tree outside the Anne Frank House was toppled over by strong winds. The tree had already been marked as unsafe a few years ago, but as it was mentioned in Anne Frank's diaries as a tree of hope, it had been sured up to prevent it being a hazard. The horse chestnut tree, now 150 years old, went down in a summer storm.

I have never visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam - I do not particularly like this sort of venue becoming a tourist trap. Anne Frank, who was killed at Bergen Belsen concentration camp in Germany in 1945, epitomised the 110,000 Jews in Holland who lost their lives at the hands of the Nazis in World War II. Whilst I fully endorse the fact that the memory of all those folks should be kept alive, and their suffering remembered, I don't fancy the idea of hordes of people trooping through the premises who perhaps do not appreciate the severity of what happened. Yes, that's what the House is there for, to educate. Still, I'm not too happy about it. . Apart from that, I have also made a decision that I would not visit Auschwitz either - for the second reason (apart from the above) I would not visit Anne Frank House. Way, way too evocative. I do not think I'd be able to handle the experience, if I'm brutally honest. Visiting a place where more than 1,000,000 people were killed? In a process that had been industrialised? Oh heavens, no.

Monday 23 August

Local radio alerted me to the presence of a cruiseliner: the Ocean Countess, built in 1976, was at anchor off the Arnish Lighthouse, so I went down the road to take pictures.



Rally Hebrides went off quite well on Saturday, in spite of the late arrival of about a dozen cars. One spun out on the go-kart track, but nobody was hurt.

At the moment, the Sun is throwing a stream of particles our way, which means that if the northern sky is clear, you may be able to see the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis - if you're in the Southern Hemisphere, this will be called the Aurora Australis. I am hoping for a clear night tonight. I have placed a monitor on this blog, below the Stornoway forecast gadget, which shows solar activity.

Sunday 22 August

One of those quiet Sundays for which this island is famous. No weather worthy of any description (for a change), no traffic, and only one ferry quietly going and coming. I spent the day completing a website for somebody - I'm not linking to it, as it is part of a commercial enterprise.

The northern hemisphere tropical cyclone season has suddenly come to life, which I found out when I did the 9 am (GMT) hurricane update this morning. Four systems on the go, but only one named. One was already on the way out, and dissipated by 3pm. However, we now have Danielle in the Atlantic (only the Bermudans have to worry about this), Frank in the Eastern Pacific (beware if you're in Acapulco) and a meagre depression (06W) in the Pacific, which will spoil the holidays of the Chinese in Hainan Island. The NHC and JTWC will keep you informed of developments.

Saturday 21 August

Today was punctuated by an abnormal ferry schedule. After yesterday's cancellation of services, the boat had to play a large amount of catch-up, meaning it was running 2-3 hours behind schedule - a schedule that (extraordinarily) commenced out of Ullapool. When I was at the ferry terminal at 9.30 am, I noticed a fleet of rally cars coming off, which were going to take place in local races.

Otherwise, I had to sort out someone's computer, which was grinding to a halt, due to incompatibilities surrounding a firewall program. Removing that restored some semblance of normality. It's a bit galling if you're paying a subscription, so I'll look into it further.

Hurricane update - 21 August

A new tropical cyclone has formed in the Atlantic Ocean, which will strengthen into a hurricane by Monday. Danielle is expected to veer from a westerly to a more westnorthwesterly course, attaining a peak intensity of 95 knots by the middle of next week. At present, this system is not forecast to affect any landmasses.