TALES OF THE NEVADA

Tales surrounding the wreck of the good ship Nevada have grown taller and funnier with the passing years. Who knows now or cares what is unadorned fact, what heavily embroid ered fiction? Here are some of them - told by ROBERT STURGEON of 'Tigh na Mara' for whose shopkeeper father the wreck did not prove an unmixed blessing.

Sunday 14th July 1942 was a warm sunny day until early in the afternoon when banks of fog suddenly encroached, blotting out the sun. A ship's siren could be heard in the distance until it ceased abruptly about 4 pm. The Paddy Henderson line freighter Nevada of 7000 tons with a full Naafi cargo on passage to join a convoy at Oban had run ashore on the west side of Struan Bay. Although only 2 miles off course she had run aground with such force she started leaking almost immediately. A bosun's chair was rigged up from ship to shore (about 100 yards) and this, together with a hauser gangway was to provide the means for salvage crews and illegal raiders to salvage the vast range of cargo on board.

There were shoes, soap, brylcream, shirts, underwear, ties, great bundles of print cloth, tropical gear, coal, millions of cigarettes (of which the following come to mind: Churchman, Ardath, Passing Cloud, Bandmaster, Abdullah, Woodbine, Players, Gold Flake) vehicles, wheelbarrows, garden tools, limited spirits, generators, electrical goods, etc plus foodstuffs.

On the day the Nevada arrived there was a crisis on the island - cigarette supplies were exhausted! There was therefore great delight when one of the first to reach the Nevada was given a 50-tin by a crew member. However, the island agent for W. D. & H. O. Wills and John Player cigarettes had relentlessly begged these companies to increase the quotas allocated to Coll. On the previous Friday confirmation of the long awaited increase had been received and the new supplies were delivered on the Monday following the stranding of the Nevada. Not one cigarette was sold and it soon fell upon the agent to explain to the companies that all cigarette supplies should cease forthwith! The companies, thinking they had offended the agent, apologised for any misunderstanding and were preparing to forward a second order. The order received was eventually sold to Tiree, but demand there also fell off rapidly as the bounty spread further afield.

One elderly islander whose sister had recently started smoking in her late sixties, peering into a hold on the Nevada described the tins of cigarettes floating in their hundreds as resembling midges in a big hole.

Many of the crew of the Nevada were Senegalese and of the Muslim persuasion. Collachs were startled to see them at prayer at the top of the Windy Gap.

A customs officer had to visit a number of houses on Coil. One old lady being interviewed was asked if she had received any of the print cloth from the Nevada to which she replied 'Not as much as would cover your birdie'. Discomfitted, the customs official fled. It was reported that the same official later saw some identical print adorning a window in Oban but still was unable to press charges.

The salvage officer in charge, increasingly finding his work undone by 'local night squads', who invariably left the scene of action untidy, decided to lay in wait and identify those responsible. As the first raider approached the ship end of the gangway in darkness he spotted a pair of boots and turned in his tracks. He was caught as he reached the shore and was asked for his name and the names of those accompany ing him. The information was readily supplied. The following day the supposed culprits were approached and it was soon apparent that the names provided were fictitious, many being names of those disliked by the real culprit. Those interviewed had in fact been in bed resting - probably from the previous night's raid, except that one name was that of the local minister! Needless to say the salvage officer, who had only recently arrived on the island, altered his tactics.

Two consistent raiders, finding it difficult to convey all their goodies home during darkness decided to use a hidey-hole and make a cache which could be emptied in daylight as convenient. Although the location was considered to be secret, unknown by them they had been watched by another group who took advantage and removed a large haul. When the original two returned to retrieve their 'goodies' and found them missing they were infuriated, as one said to the other 'This is unfair and I've a good mind to report it to the police'!

In August 1942 a visitor with Coll connections, though born and brought up in Glasgow, arrived on the island and met a friend who suggested they go and have a look at the Nevada that evening. The visitor, accustomed to being deskbound in Glasgow, and weighing 20 stones, pushed his cycle up the Windy Gap with some difficulty. There was a high spring tide with a westerly wind and a heavy swell. As the two arrived at the cliffs overlooking the wreck, the bosuns' chair arrived with a man carrying a sack of cigarettes. 'Get on' he shouted against the strong wind and the local man of the two suddenly and unintentional1y found himself being swung outwards over the sea to the wreck a hundred yards away. Waves were breaking below and the spray was being thrown upwards. On reaching the wreck he returned the bosun's chair to his friend on the cliff who in some trepidation climbed on the chair and began his perilous journey. All went well until his not inconsiderable weight reached the lowest point of sag in the rope and there he sat with waves frequently soaking him while his rather lightweight friend tried in vain to pull him up the hill. Fortunately an RAF raid was in progress in number 3 hold (a RAF. detachment was stationed on Coll during the war) and they responded to frantic shouts for help. A shaken Glaswegian found himself trembling on the deck not really knowing why or how he came to be there and dreading the journey back. Jackets and pullovers were filled to overflowing with tins of cigarettes and the journey back to the village was uneventful. The loot was buried under a large heap of coal for future use.

The ship's cat was still on board two months after the stranding and this prompted a sympathetic islander to make arrangements with a friend living near the wreck for them to go out in his dinghy and rescue the poor creature as soon as weather conditions were suitable. Early in September the mission was mounted on a beautiful calm day. After some two hours the cat was cornered and placed in a mahogany drawer from the captain's cabin. With the cat secured in the dinghy, attention was then focused on number 3 hold where a large sack was quickly filled with tins of cigarettes and placed in the dinghy. At this point a lone figure was seen on the shore signalling for a lift to the wreck. After some discussion it was decided to uplift the man but leave the loot in the dinghy. As the stranger was being rowed across he volunteered the information that he represented the new salvage company, and had arrived to start work salvaging the cargo. Alas - no more cigarettes, but the cat found a new home ashore.

A crofter, walking on Struan beach noticed papers flying in the wind. On picking one up he was amazed to find they were British sterling notes. Twenty years later a man was convicted of passing stolen sterling notes in West Africa, these were traced to the cargo manifest of the Nevada.

It was said of the Nevada that night-time salvage teams obtained more lucrative hauls than the official workers by day. And I sometimes wonder what actually happened to the Nevada's captain who, when asked where he was going next, replied, 'I'm going to London to be hanged'! Ed.