GUARDING THE COASTS

Sixteen good men and true make up the present coastguard contingent on Coll, ready to rally round at any time of night or day. Their chief, John Wheeler-James, explains that emergency cans and instructions usually reach him by radio from the operations room in Oban and may involve searching for the black box from a crashed plane perhaps or, more urgently, for missing mariners or people lost on the island itself.

'There's not a lot of excitement these days because helicopters and lifeboats from Mallaig, Islay or Barra can get to disasters very quickly. Though when it's foggy or very rough weather they still rely on people like us: John explains, 'The largest part of our job is dealing with dangers of pollution such as oil slicks or toxic chemicals washed ashore.'

Still, the coastguard team regularly practice handling the equipment, running up the breeches buoy and first-aid procedures, just in case. And so they should, for the seas round Coll and Tiree are notoriously dangerous and many wrecks have occurred there. Some of "the better known include the Tapti (1951) a 6,000 ton motorship with sixty-two men aboard (all survived) that foundered on Soa; the Richard Croft, a fishing trawler that sank off the east coast with the loss of six lives; and, in the early '60s, the Carinna, a Swedish fishing boat. Her skipper, one coastguard told me, was so corpulent that he couldn't get out of his cabin. He had lived in it for years apparently and would have had no choice but to go down with the boat!Luckily for him the vessel was eventually re-floated.

Next to the bountiful Nevada, one of the most exciting wrecks was the 4,500 ton Nessmore that foundered in Gunna Sound in 1895 with 550 head of prize cattle from Canada aboard. The animals remained there for three days comforted by sixteen Canadian cowboys also aboard and, when the weather calmed down, were made to swim ashore. A few drowned, some took off to Tiree and others ran amuck all over the island - and the coastguards had to shoot them. Which all goes to show that it may be all quiet just now boys, but with sea and ships you can never tell what may happen next...

Pat Barr