CARGO VESSEL ON FIRE BELOW DECKS Islay, Inner Hebrides. At 5.30 on the morning of Wednesday the llth September, 1963, the Kilchoman coastguard telephoned the honorary secretary advis- ing that the 700-ton cargo vessel Loch Dunvegan, loaded with castings and bound Glasgow to Stornoway, was on fire below decks a mile north of the Rudha Mhail light. The life-boat The Rankin, on temporary duty at the station, put out at six o'clock and contacted the casualty 30 minutes later. The life-boat and H.M.S. Wizard escorted the ship to Port Askaig pier. The life-boat then returned to her moorings, but the crew stood by until ten o'clock as there was a danger that if the fire could not be controlled the Loch Dunvegan might have to be towed to a suitable place for sinking.

During this service the weather was clear with a moderate breeze from the south-west. It was the last hour of the ebb-tide..