KILLER STORM – 1905

A four-day storm which raged in January, 1905, left a terrible legacy for the islands of Sanday and Stronsay as at least 26 lives were lost in disasters in Orkney waters.

The first evidence of the weather conditions came as the nine crew of the Hull trawler Excelsior were safely landed at Kirkwall after running aground on Egilsay.

But real anguish was to follow. Eight men were lost – and 22 children were left fatherless by the tragedy – when the Portknockie Zulu fishing boat Evangeline was wrecked on Stronsay. It was a story of immense personal grief as the death toll included five members of the Mair family, and two members of the Wood family, including the skipper, David Wood.

Sanday was to witness a double tragedy that week. Firstly the five man crew of the Yarmouth smack Alice and Ada perished when the vessel was driven ashore at Kettletoft, on passage from Hull to Iceland.

Then, the Inclita of Genoa, which had left Sunderland for Montevideo with a cargo of coal, was wrecked at Hacksness, Sanday with the crew of 13 all feared lost as eight bodies were washed ashore.

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