ON the night of 26th October, 1936, the Latvian steamer Helena Faulbaums, of Riga, was caught in a sudden very severe storm near Jura Sound on the west coast of Scotland. The weather was very thick, with rain showers, and the sea was very heavy. The steamer was driven on the rocks of the Island of Beul-nan-uamh and foundered in a few minutes. Her SOS had been picked up, but the gale was so severe that all the land lines were down, and it was impossible to telegraph or tele- phone it to the life-boat station at Portaskaig, Argyllshire. It was broad- cast by the British Broadcasting Cor- poration and eventually got through to Portaskaig in the early hours of October 27th. Coxswain Peter MacPhee was ill in bed, but, against his doctor's orders, he dec-ided to take out the motor life-boat Charlotte Elizabeth himself, and she put out at 1.30 A.M. She reached the scene of the wreck, thirty miles away, at 9 A.M., to find that sixteen of the steamer's crew of twenty had been drowned. The other four, although badly hurt, had managed to scramble on to the rocks. With great difficulty the life-boat rescued them by means of the breeches-buoy and landed them at Crinan, on the mainland. She reached her station again at seven that evening.

She had been out for 17J hours.

Eleven bodies were washed ashore and were buried in Kilchattan cemetery on the neighbouring island of Luing.

There, on June 5th, 1938, His Ex- cellency the Minister for Latvia in London, Mr. Charles Zarine, unveiled a memorial in the cemetery. Sheriff A.M. Chalmers, of Oban, represented the Secretary of State for Scotland, and Mr.

Duncan Maclndeor, the honorary sec- retary of the Portaskaig branch, with the Portaskaig coxswain and crew, represented the Institution. The cere- mony opened with a service in the Luing church at Achafolla. After the service Mr. R. M. Marshall, the Latvian Consul in Glasgow, on behalf of the Latvian Shipowners' Association, pre- sented an oak lectern to the church, and Mr. T. Phelan, of Liverpool, presented to the church, on behalf of Mr. Maxsis Faulbaums, of Riga, the owner of the steamer, a Communion Cup and Plate which were replicas of those in the British church at Riga.

The congregation then went to Kilchattan Cemetery, and there the Latvian Minister unveiled a granite memorial-stone to the men of the Helena Faulbaums, who had lost their lives. After the unveiling he presented the decoration of the Latvian Order of the Three Stars to Coxswain Peter MacPhee, of Portaskaig, and to others who had helped the four rescued men.

Many wreaths were placed on the memorial. The Portaskaig life-boat lay in the Sound of Shuna, in full view of the cemetery, and a vessel flying the Latvian flag visited the Island of Beul-nan-uamh and dropped a wreath in the sea..