On January 31 1953, the night of what became known as the Great Storm that wreaked havoc and brought tragedy to much of Northern Europe, the Stornoway LSA Team and local volunteers from the Borve area of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides rescued 66 crew from the grounded cargo ship, Clan MacQuarrie. In driving rain and ferocious winds, gusting to 100mph, it was the biggest ever rescue carried out using breeches buoy in a single operation. Miraculously, there was no loss of life. 

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The rescue effort did not conclude until late into the following afternoon - and such was the effort made that the LSA team were later recognised nationally for the excellence of their response during that long and challenging night. A photograph of the award-winning team, proudly displaying their presentation shield, is featured below.

As a gesture of thanks for the community's amazing efforts, the ship's owners paid for a village hall to be built.

Fifty years on, the hall had passed its useful life. Plans were made to replace it with a multi-purpose £850,000 community centre to serve the whole of the West Side of Lewis. The area's ambitions were realised in April 2009, with the completion of the modern and spacious Clan MacQuarrie Community Centre at Borve, named after the famous incident in the community's history and in recognition of financial support towards the construction costs of the new Centre by the owners of the Clan Line Shipping Company. 

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See some photos below - including the rescue effort next day, the ship aground at Borve shore, the old hall and new community centre and the Clan Line flag.

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We have also included the winning and runner-up drawings from a competition organised by Airidhantuim Community Council alongside all pupils from the local primary school (Sgoil An Taobh Siar) in 2023 to mark the 70th anniversary of the famous rescue.  In a very tight contest, Isla Matheson (P6) submitted the winning drawing and Angus Finlay Thomson (P7) was judged the runner-up. A great effort was made by everyone else too and the judges had an extremely difficult task in selecting the best ones!

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For more information regarding the events of 1953 (and the legacy that arose from it all), check out this excellent online archive piece:

One Dark and Stormy Night – Cayzer Family Archive

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