Stories_From_Gobhaig [CM:] Calum MacLennan [TC:] Tracy Chipman [CM:] Would you rather it in Gaelic or English, or what? [TC:] Em, why don’t you tell me a little bit about it in English first just so I have... [CM:] Well this dog he was really clever and the crofter and his wife was, were planting potatoes. And they were doing it by spade and they were taking a whole week on the job. So, the cailleach used to put the tatties on the stove ready for when they came home, you see. And whenever they were properly cooked the dog would come out and start barking. But, this day they thought: “Well, the tatties should be ready by now, but there was no sign of the dog coming out to bark.” You know, when they were cooked so, they kept looking at the house and, then they saw the dog coming out. It was a bright sunny day and shielding his eyes with his paws against the sun, so he could see where they were, to call them back in, you know. And the cailleach says: “Oh I think we’d better go in and investigate.” When she went, when she came home the potatoes were burnt to a cinder in the pan. She wondered: “Oh I wonder what happened to the dog today, never realised the tatties were ready.” So when they looked the clock had stopped. [laughs] [TC:] [laughs] Ohh, very good. Do you want to give that one in Gaelic? That’s quite good. [CM:] Aig àm a’ Chogaidh bha, bha airmen ann an campa shìos ann a sheo agus ’s e Sasannaich a bh’ annta, anns a’ chuid mhòr dhiubh co-dhiù, cha robh Gàidhlig aca. Agus bha dà chailleach anns a’ bhaile co-dhiù ’s bha iad air cearcan fhaighinn. ’S ann a thòisich na cearcan, ’s ann bhon aon duine a bha iad air na cearcan fhaighinn agus thòisich na cearcan a’ dol dhan aon dhòigh. Agus, bha fear aca a bha an-còmhnaidh a’ tighinn a chèilidh air tè dhe na cailleachan agus ’s ann a chur iad, ’s ann a chur i an t-airman a dh’iarraidh na cearcan [XX] gus nach tèideadh iad dhan bhothan-chearc an tè eile. Ach, co-dhiù, thòisich e gan crodhadh dhachaigh agus tha ... thàinig a’ chailleach eile a-mach a throd ris son a bhith a’ falbh le na cearcan aic’. Agus cha robh esan a’ tuigsinn cò mu dheidhinn an robh i. Ach co-dhiù, on ’s e àm a’ Chogaidh a bh’ ann bha an t-uamhas de mhèinnean a’ tighinn air tìr air a’ chladach agus bhiodh iad an-còmhnaidh a’ sprèidheadh nuair a bhualadh iad air a’ chladach, agus bhiodh iad a’ cur eagal gu leòr air daoine an uairsin. An oidhche-sa co-dhiù, mar a bha mi ag ràdh, bha a’ chailleach, an t-airman a’ cur a-steach nan cearc agus thàinig a’ chailleach a throd ris agus cha robh ise ga thuigsinn agus cha robh esan ga tuigsinn ach rinn e a-mach gur ann a’ feuchainn ri na cearcan a [bhuaithe/?] a bha e, agus thuirt e rithe: “But they’re mine!” “Mine,” ars ise, “neo submarine tha mi coma cò aca, leamsa a tha na cearcan.” [laughs] Did you understand that? [TC:] An siud ’s an seo. It happened during the war... [CM:] Yes. [TC:] And there were, was it a submarine? Or a boat? [CM:] No. Airmen were stationed here when the war was on and they were English and they couldn’t understand Gaelic. And these two wifies they had bought hens from the same source, you know, and they had a habit of going from one henhouse to the other, you know, the whole lot of them. So this day he was, the airman, this particular airman, was pally with one of the cailleachs and she told him: “Go and get the hens before they go into the… the wrong henhouse.” And he was trying to shoo them back to their own place. And the other cailleach came to … came to warn him against taking her hens, you know, and he couldn’t understand her and she couldn’t understand him and she was crying and shouting at him and, but he says: “But they’re mine!” And you know, mines were being washed ashore here and bursting at all hours of the morning when the war was on. That’s the only thing she understood, you know, ‘mine’, and she says, “Mine or submarine, they’re mine!” [laugh] [TC:] Ha! That’s very good. Hilarious. And were those two cailleachs just in here? Near here? [CM:] Aye, yes. Other thing, something about a relation of ours over in Lewis, and he called there one day and the bodach in the house was telling him he found this plank of wood washed up on the beach and he took it home. But every night he was hearing some hammering or queer noises round about this plank and, eventually, oh, he… this was going on for a while and he decided there was something queer attached to the plank. So, he had a cow that was going to calve, and he went and sawed the plank and put it underneath the cow, you know, to put bedding on top. So he says: “That’s the end of the plank anyway.” But shortly after that, somebody died suddenly, and at that time they were making the coffins themselves and they couldn’t find a suitable piece of wood, you know, to make the coffin, so they had to rip th cow’s stall out to get wood for the coffin. So, it’s probably quite true. Things like that do happen. [CM:] ...cluinntinn aig m’ athair, bodach a bhuineadh dha thall ann an Leòdhas agus bha e aon triop a’ dol a dh’iarraidh bò agus ’s ann… thadhal e son an oidhche a thoirt seachad còmhla ris a’ bhodach agus bha e ag innse dha gun d’ fhuair e plank air a’ chladach, agus thug e dhachaigh e. Ach goirid às dèidh sin ’s ann a thòisich e air cluinntinn fuaimean annasach timcheall air a’ phlank a h-uile oidhche agus, och cha do shaoil e càil dhe an toiseach ach bha e ga chluinntinn gu math tric is smaoinich e mu dheireadh gun robh rudeigin timcheall air a’ phlank a bha seo agus ’s ann a dh’fhalbh e agus shàbh e e agus rinn e stàile dhan a’ bhoin leis. Agus thuirt e ris fhèin, ge b’ e [XX] bh’ ann, cha chuir e an còrr dragh.” Ach goirid às dèidh sin ’s ann a bhàsaich cuideigin, aithghearr, a bha anns a’ bhaile agus bhiodh iad fhèin a’ dèanamh na cistichean-laighe an uairsin agus cha robh fiodh ri fhaighinn agus thàinig orra am plank a bha sa stàile na bà is a’ chiste-laighe a dhèanamh dhi. This cailleach in Uibhist, agus bha i… cha bhiodh i rèidh ri duine dhe na nàbaidhean. Bhiodh i an-còmhnaidh a’ trod ri cuideigin. Ach, latha-sa co-dhiù, ’s ann a dh’fhàs a’ chailleach bhochd, tinn agus bhàsaich i. Agus ’s ann anns a’ Gheamhradh a bh’ ann nuair a bha iad ga tiodhlacadh, bha iad a’ falbh dhan chladh leis a’ chailleach a thiodhlacadh, ’s ann a… bha cnaicearachd de dealanaich is tàirneanaich ann. Thuirt an dàrna fear ris an fhear eile dhen fheadhainn a bha aig a’ chladh: “Feumaidh gun d’ ràinig i.” [laughs] [TC:] Now go on, tell me. [CM:] Now this old cailleach she was forever rowing with the neighbours. And she was forever causing a disturbance in the village and, och she died eventually and they went to bury her, and it was winter time and when they were leaving the cemetery there was an awful peal of thunder and lightning. And one of the bodachs said to the other: “Oh, she must have reached.” [laughs] [TC:] I know when I was on Barra that I would hear, or I would hear a few stories about Mingulay, and some of the other islands out around Barra. And I wondered, do you … because in Uist, I hear stories like Rona, right enough, I heard some stories about Rona and I know that there are some folk on Fladda that have some stories, em, about Fladda. But it’s been hard to try and find stories about, say, the Monarchs and St Kilda. [CM:] Aye aye. [TC:] Now, because you … when I’m on Berneray I hear Splash knows a few stories about Pabbay, but there’s quite a few islands around Harris. [CM:] Yes. [TC:] And they used to, quite a few of them were habit— were… [CM:] Oh yes, nearly every one of them. [TC:] Do you have stories from any of the islands? [CM:] Pardon? [TC:] Did you ever hear any, are there any stories left from those islands about something that happened to folk there or about… because, people lived there quite a long time ago so there might be stories of battles or whatever that has happened on some of them … or St Kilda for that matter. [CM:] Oh yes. There was one about Taransay. The Morrisons from Ness, they used to come raiding down here, you know. This time they came to Taransay and they were raiding cattle and horses and all that. And at that time they were fighting with bow and arrows and they chased this fellow and he stood on a rock, just opposite Seilebost there. They chased him on to the shore and he jumped on to this rock and one of the, one of the Morrisons pranged him with an arrow and it stuck right in his bottom! He jumped into the sea and swam to Seilebost and they didn’t, they didn’t get them anyway. But, oh about twenty years afterwards he went up to Ness for a horse and they were all wearing, probably, skin hide kilts at that time, and so he went to this house and he was going to stay for the night. And oh he was suspicious of this bodach in the house, he thought he knew him, you know. It was him that had shot him! Oh he studied this thing for a while and thought to himself, you know, I won’t part with him without telling him who I am, you see. So before he went to bed, he says: “We’ve got a habit in Taransay of warming your bottom against the fire, you know, before we go to bed.” So he lifted up his kilt, you know, and the other fellow saw the scar [laughs] and he says: “Oh, I think we should forget about that now.” [laughs] [TC:] Very good. Aye, go on and tell it in Gaelic. [CM:] Bha uair a bha na Moireasdanaich ann an Nis a’ tighinn a-nuas ann a sheo agus a ghoid chrodh is chaorach is each agus rud sam bith a gheibheadh iad. Ach an triop seo chaidh iad air tìr ann an Tarasaigh agus ’s e bogha is saighead a bhiodh aca an uairsin ri cogadh ’s bha iad a’ ruith nan Tarasach co-dhiù agus … leum fear aca gu clach, dìreach [XX] Tharasaigh air tìr air a bheil ‘Sgeir Leumach’. Agus loisg fear air le bogha is saighead is chuir e an treagh na thòin. Agus leum e a-mach air a’ mhuir is shnàmh e an caolas is chaidh e air tìr ann an Horgabost air sgeir air a bheil ‘Sgeir Eòghainn’ aca chun an latha an-diugh. Agus, thug e an treagh às a thòin an uairsin agus chàir e e agus… ach bliadhnaichean mòra às dèidh sin ’s ann a chaidh e suas a Nis a lorg each agus an taigh dhan deach e son fàthachd na h-oidhche, ’s ann a rinn e a-mach gun robh e ag aithneachadh a’ bhodaich a bha san taigh, agus gur h-e a bha air losgadh air ann an Tarasaigh. Cha robh e cinnteach gu dè dhèanadh e co-dhiù ach bha e [XX] gun leigeadh fhaicinn dha cò bh’ ann agus [...] tha mi creids. Agus mun an deach iad a chadal, thuirt e ris: “Tha fasan againn ann an Tarasaigh a bhith dèanamh rud air a bheil garadh cùl-chas aca mun tèid sinn dhan leabaidh,” agus thog e an t-èileadh air a thòin agus nuair a mhothaich am bodach Niseach dhan làrach an lot a bh’ air, thuirt e: “Oh ’s fheàrr dhut a dhol a sheo dha do leabaidh, chan ann droch choinneachadh seo idir.” [TC:] Go from the start, that’s your family? [CM:] Aye, Clann ’illInnein ’s ann à ’ic an t-Sàil a thàinig iad, thàinig iad nan cìobairean a Phabaigh agus bha iad ann am Pabaigh, bha tòrr dhaoine ann am Pabaigh an uairsin agus bhiodh iad, bhiodh iad a’ dèanamh uisge-beatha ann. Agus bhiodh na gèidsearan, ’s e a bh’ aca orra an uairsin, bha amharas aca gun robh iad a’ [XX] ’s gun robh iad a’ tighinn a rannsachadh an eilein agus am fear a bha a’ dèanamh an aiseig, am fear a bha a’ dèanamh an aiseig bhiodh e,bha dà sheòl aige san eathar: fear ruadh agus fear geal. Agus nuair a bhiodh duin’ ann nach robh e ag aithneachadh bhiodh e a’ cur an dàrna chuid, fear geal an [XX] neo an fhear dubh, eh an fhear ruadh, an àird gus an aithneachadh iad ann am Pabaigh gun robh cuideigin de shrainnsear air bòrd aige. Ach bhiodh iad an uairsin air a h-uile càil fhalach mun [freakadh/?] daoine. Agus, an triop-sa ’s ann bhrist fear an aiseig, bhrist e a chas anns a’ chladach agus ’s e cuideigineach eile a bha a’ dèanamh an aiseig agus thàinig an gèidsear ann gun fhiosd agus an seòl ceàrr aige an àird agus shàr e iad leis an uisge-beatha agus chaidh an clearaigeadh a-mach air Pabaigh an uairsin. Chaidh feadhainn aca a Tharasaigh, is feadhainn a Scalpaigh agus... sin na daoine air an robh Clann ’illInnein bho bheil mise agus a h-uile duine eile an tùs. Thàinig iad às a seo nuair chaidh an sgapadh agus sguir iad ga dhèanamh, cha do sguir iad ga òl idir! [TC:] …About the fairies at Luskentyre? And Luran, he was the shepherd? He was watching, he had the sheep in the hillock. On the side of the hill there’s kind of a shelter, a wee hole, well a hollow actually, and the fairies came out and were pinching his sheep. [CM:] No, I’ve never heard that. [TC:] You’ve never heard that? Oh, its quite good, I don’t know it well enough to … but … it’s about this fairy and Luran was the shepherd, then somehow or other Luran ends up stealing their wee cup that they drink out of, they were having a wee party. [CM:] Yes. [TC:] And he steals the cup and they can’t catch him because he’s very fast, and that’s why the wee rhyme is: Luireann the fast-footed one. And… [CM:] Oh I’ve heard the rhyme right enough but … [TC:] Yes, and so the fairies starting singing, start saying a rhyme about how Luran eats the hard breath– bread, so he’s very fast, but if he eats the soft porridge, he’ll be even faster. So it tricks him and he thinks, right, if he starts eating soft porridge, he’ll be faster yet. So he eats soft porridge and he gets fat and he gets really lazy and slow. [laughs] And then the fairies are able to catch him! [CM:] [laughs] Aye aye! [TC:] It’s quite a good, quite a clever wee story about the fairies, and I don’t hear a lot of fairy stories, every now and again. [CM:] …solicitor down in Edinburgh. And he was, in [XX] with the Jacobites at the Jacobite Rising and she was anti, very much anti-Jacobite. And this time they were having a meeting in the house, in the solicitor’s house, and of course she was excluded from their presence there. And she hid behind a sofa, but eventually they noticed she was there and they … her husband got, got … somebody to take her away and imprison her in … oh I can’t remember what island was she on at first? And, he went around his friends then a couple of days after that and told them she had died, and they held a mock funeral in Edinburgh, and … He then, she had been put, I can’t remember which one of the islands she was imprisoned on. And then, she was years there and she got transferred to St Kilda in case they caught up with her. And she spent her whole time there in a wee bothy on her own, and the St Kildans were feeding her. You know, they were given her their share of the birds and everything they were getting themselves. But she, she didn’t mix with them at all, she was very much a loner there and she wasn’t friendly by any means. But she used to send the St Kildan tweeds to market down in London or somewhere down south there, and she used to put a slip of paper in the roll of tweed, you know, to let somebody know that she was, she was there for years but nobody took any notice of her. And then, the authorities got to know she was there and they staged a second burial for her on Skye, and eventually she was taken back to St Kilda, I don’t know where she actually eventually died, but she had a terrible time of it. Lady Grange, she was called. So she was buried three times. [TC:] That’s a sad story. [CM:] Well, the outer wall was taken from Aberdeen, inner wall, and the stone in the breakwater came from Bernera. It was built in two stages, it was built by the Earl of Dunmore. And he was engaged to this society lady, I don’t know who she was, but when the castle was finished, it was half the size of what it is now, the original castle. You’ll notice that when you’re passing, you’ll see it’s in… And when it was finished she came to have a look at it and she said its more like the henhouse my father has, so she wouldn’t take anything more to do with it, so he added as much again to it. And by this time he was bankrupt and … I don’t think they got married at all. Anyway, he was filed for bankruptcy and the Scots who had it after the Lord Dunmore, they were merchant bankers in Edinburgh who were given an overdraft for the building. And in lieu of the money they got the castle. And that was Sir Edward Scott. And then when Edward Scott died his son inherited the estate. Think its 165,000 acres and he had it for a few years and he decided to sell it, and shortly after that, a few years after that, ach he wasn’t… he changed his mind again, and the next time it came on the market he bought it again and he died in... oh, during the war, ’42 or ’43. Then it was bought by Sir Thomas Sopwith, the famous aircraft manufacturer. But its changed hands a good few times since. [CM:] So, Samuel Scott is buried in a cairn, on the hilltop above the castle, you’ll probably notice it on yours way down. There’s a big stone cairn there.And four years ago, lightning struck it and punched a big hole in the roof and it’s built like a [cone/?], of solid granite and a lead roof on it, and the inside is lined with lead. And the lightning struck a, punched a big hole through it and the caskets with the Lady Scott and Samuel Scott’s ashes were in the wee alcove in the walls, but the lightning, the caskets being metal it was attracted by lightning and burst open the caskets, and you can still see the ashes lying there in a heap. Its been there ever since. So the, the estate proprietor just now, he was going to repair it but he was looking for a grant for it and he didn’t get the grant so its still lying in bits and pieces there. [TC:] Who owns it now? [CM:] Oh, I don’t know if anybody owns it. [TC:] Is it lived in? [CM:] The castle you mean? Oh aye aye, oh its owned by the cider people. Bulmer, aye. [TC:] Oh Bulmer. I didn’t know that about the mausoleum, about the cairn, thats really quite something. Do you get many lightning storms here? [CM:] No, not really, no. [TC:] Ah, that’s quite something. Quite something. [CM:] But it’s a pity they left it like that. They should… somebody should have… [TC:] They should have done something anyways, gee whiz. [CM:] Och it wouldn’t cost that much to repair it. [TC:] No. [CM:] But I suppose, many’s a hard time he had at sea, he was in the Navy during the war. The First World War, of course. But I never heard… I rememember just before the war, before the last war, 1935 I think, a big sailing ship on its way from Norway to some English port got wrecked in St Kilda. It was a three-masted scooner. She hit St Kilda in thick, in thick fog. But they managed to stem the flow of water and then sailed on, and then it ran aground in [XX]. And... I think it was seven, skeleton crew that was, some English titled lady that bought it and it was a skeleton crew that was sailing it. But it got wrecked at an [XX] and they came ashore, they came ashore I think it was round Northton or somewhere round there, they came ashore with their canvas dinghy. And then the gales broke it up and the coast here was littered with wreckage. And I remember the, some of the hoops that were round the mast, wooden hoops for running the sail up. And they were seven foot diameter so it must have been an awful size. And there are still bits and pieces of it lying around the shore here. Whatever happened to them after that, I’m not sure. [CM:] …fit them and all the rest of it. They went to this cailleachan and her neighbour was in and, oh he showed her the gas mask and he wanted to give her a demonstration of how to wear it, and they fitted her up with it and the other cailleach shouted: “Oh, leave it on, she looks better with it!” [laughs] [TC:] What was it like here during the war? [CM:] Well, for us it was pretty interesting. We were, when the war started we were teenagers then and all sorts of junk used to be washed up on the shore. We used to get everything from mines to biscuits and jam washed up on the shore every morning. So that was the first thing we did, come daylight, head for the shore and see what we would find. It’s a wonder we didn’t get killed long ago. One time we found an incendiary bomb and we threw it over a cliff and it burned there for a couple of days. We were just curious as to what it... we guessed it was some kind of bomb, right enough, we were looking to what it was and it was an incendiary bomb. And there used to be tons and tons of timber washed up, Oregon pine and all this kind of wood. It was a, there was an awful lot of peat props and logs of every deescription. We used to saw it up and burn it, you couldn’t do anything else with it, really. Everybody had more than enough of it. And then you used to get cases of field rations, you know, tins like, something like cocoa tins, but they were sealed and there was five biscuits, rich tea biscuits and or digestives biscuits and a spot of coffee and a slab of chocolate. And two … three boiling sweets, and there was something else in it too… Ovaltine, so they were in great demand if you got them at that time. Yes. And cases of lard, used to get 56lb cases of pure lard, and it was quite good too! Everybody was… in fact, we were feeding it to the cows, and what a polish their … their coat had after eating lard all winter. Och, you could never guess what was washed up. You know, lifeboats and bits of aeroplanes and… [TC:] How did you— How did you share it out or if you found it, if you found a whole case of something, was it yours or did you share it out? [CM:] Och everybody got enough of it, there was enough there for everybody, yes. Aviation fuel, we didn’t buy a spot of paraffin right through the war, we got an awful lot of aviation fuel. And there was ‘use no air pressure’ stamped on top of the 40 gallon drums, and the first thing we were doing is putting it into the tilly lamp and pumping it! But, nobody ever came to grief over it. There was very little spirits like whisky or anything like that, if you got a lifeboat and it was [whole/?] there was a bottle of rum in it but… apart from that there was no spirits being washed up at all. [TC:] Not like the Politican. [CM:] Apart from the Politican in Uist. [TC:] I’ve got a Politican bottle. [CM:] Pardon? [TC:] I’ve got a Politican bottle! Its empty. [CM:] Oh aye! [laughs] Oh aye, I had a dram of that Politican whisky, right enough. Yes. [TC:] And you said before that it… in the morning the news would come on and there was one person who had a wireless and… [CM:] Oh aye everybody flocked into the… any house that had a wireless. [TC:] How close did the fighting get to here? [CM:] Oh well we never saw any of it, but as far as I know the only … time anything happened here was when a German aircraft machine-gunned the lighthouse at Ness. And it tried to extinguish the light. And, not so long ago since they took the lenses off the lighthouse and a chap who bought the lighthouse in Scalpay got them. The… they were marked, the lenses were marked with the machine gun bullets. When they changed the lighthouse to automatic at Ness, they took these lenses out and put another kind in, and that chap in Scalpay got them. Got them for a song. [TC:] Did any German… German prisoners, Germans ever land on the island? [CM:] No, oh no. No, but they were lurking round here, the submarines, right enough, because they… armed merchant crews are called the Asturias. Sunk one just off Dunvegan. There was a fisherman out fishing off of Stocainis and the periscope came up within shouting distance to them, and they reported it. And the, this cruiser Asturias was in the area somewhere and she depth-charged it off Dunvegan somewhere or other. So that’s as near as Germans got to here, right enough. But you could never tell where they were. [CM:] That time I was in St Kilda, a cousin of mine phoned from Inverness. She was a school teacher and she phoned from Inverness here and Seonag says to her: “Calum’s away in St Kilda.” “Oh,” she says, “what a pity I wasn’t in Harris” and she says, “In fact, I’ve got a German teacher whose an exchange, a scheme, in just now, and we were just talking about St Kilda.” So I says– Seonag says to her: “Well that’s interesting,” she says. She said: “her father was the commander of a submarine that shelled… Ah, no! Sorry! “That… ran aground in the bay in St Kilda.” And the, previously, a submarine had shelled the wireless station in St Kilda. He shouted to the St Kildans to clear off first, and then he fired 72 shells into the wireless station. But, at that time, shorly after that when the authorities got to know about it, they sent some, probably a destroyer or a few of them out to St Kilda to look for this submarine. And they tracked this one down and started depth-charging it and it wasn’t the one that shelled the station, but another one. And it sprang a leak, but they never finished it off, and it was leaking that bad when it got dark they sneaked into St Kilda bay and beached it to try and repair it. And when they, when daylight came there was a big monstrous cannon right on the hill facing them! So they didn’t know what on earth to do, they were afraid that if they made any false move, they were sitting ducks there in the bay and they patched it up and the St Kildans they all took to the hills, you know, when they saw it in the morning. So they patched it up and just slid off gently at the next tide. And that was his daughter that was in [Romness/? Bunessan/?] and she said he was always on about St Kilda, you know, and she wanted to go there to … I don’t know whether she got there or not but I put her in touch with Bruce Watt from Mallaig, he was running the National Trust cruises there. So probably she landed up in St Kilda to see where her father was [laughs]… but the gun was manned by a naval crew, but they decided against doing anything about the submarine, because if they didn’t knock the submarine crew out with the first shot they would they would come out and kill the whole lot of them so… they were both thinking the same thing at the same time and they never told a soul until after the War. They just kept it quiet so that they, they would probably only be court-marshalled if they, if they knew they saw a submarine there on the beach and did nothing about it. [TC:] Was it manned by local men? [CM:] No, it was a Naval crew. Oh, could be from anywhere. There was only five of them there anyway so they didn’t have much chance. But it’s in an old magazine: Eilean an Fhraoich Annual. It was probably done through the Nicolson Institute. There was this fellow from Tolsta and… he was in the Merchant Service and when, it was during the First World War, he was in the Merchant Service and they got sunk by torpedoes and sunk by a submarine off, hundreds of miles off the west coast of Ireland. And they took to the lifeboat, and the German submarine surfaced and picked up the survivors. But they had picked up survivors from another ship before that and they were, they had no room, you know, for… but within 24 hours they stocked this ship flying– [BREAK IN TAPE] That was fair enough, they were getting out for exercise for an hour a day and that was… it was full of prisoners there, this Dutch vessel. And they guessed it was heading for Germany, and it was a German ship in disguise. So this day when they were out on the deck for exercise, this destroyer appeared, a British Navy destroyer appeared and stopped them, and checked their papers. Everything was in order. And they had rushed the prisoners below decks before they… before the Navy boys boarded the ship. Aye. He climbed up the mast, he was the last and he hid somewhere and when they went below he climbed up the mast and he started shouting, shouted in Gaelic that they were German, and there was Gaelic-speaking crew on the destroyer and they, they told the Captain, you know, what was happening, so they turned back and made a proper search and it was full of prisoners. So they took them, they took them into, into Belfast, they took them into Belfast and they got home from there and back to sea again. But years after the war, there was a Klondyker in Stornoway and this particular fellow was a crew member on a fishing boat, and they were selling herring to this German Klondyker. And the Captain came out and he had one look at him and he says: “Do you know me?” And he says: “No.” And he says, “Well I saw you, were you in the Merchant Service?” “Yes.” “Were you sunk off the west coast of Ireland?” “Yes.” “Well I was the Captain of that ship back then.” [laughs] [TC:] It’s a small world… [END OF TAPE]