Service to Junella: Just alter midnight on September 29. 1980. Stornoway's 48ft 6in Solent lifeboat, Hugh William Viscount Cough, under the command of Coxswain Malcolm MacDonald launched on service to the motor fishing vessel Junella. aground on rocks north of the Isle of Skye. A southerly gale was blowing and. heading into it. the lifeboat encountered very heavy seas during the three-hour passage; visibility was very poor.

Junella was hard on the rocks with her bow high above water but with heavy breaking seas swirling round her stern. Her sister ship stood by and illuminated the area. Manoeuvring close to the dangerous rocks. Coxswain MacDonald brought the lifeboat alongside Junella' s starboard quarter and held her bow against the pilot ladder for over 40 minutes while her 29 crew clambered down the ladder and leapt on to the lifeboat's foredeck. When all 29 survivors were on board the long passage back to Stornoway was begun with Coxswain MacDonald continually at the wheel of his heavily laden boat. For this service Coxswain/Mechanic Malcolm MacDonald was awarded the silver medal (full report, THE .H M). spring 1981)..