Metagama

In 1923, some 400 islanders left Lewis for Canada on board the steamer Metagama. They went in search of a better life in the New World, following the losses incurred by the island's population in the First World War and the sinking of the Iolaire on New Year's Day 1919, when 201 men drowned. Quite a few emigrants returned to the island of their birth, when they found circumstances in America less than they had anticipated. Apart from the Metagama, the SS Marloch sailed from Uist in a similar spell of mass migration.

The centenary of these seminal events is commemorated across the Western Isles. A memorial is currently being constructed at Lochboisdale; schools are putting on performances of theatrical plays on the subject.

Picture courtesy Adam Bell on Flickr.com.