Annie Jane Commemorative Service
Just before midnight on 28 September 1853, the newly built emigrant ship
“Annie Jane”, bound for Quebec, foundered on reefs during a force 11 storm
and was wrecked on Vatersay.
Out of about
450 passengers
and crew, nearly
350 men,
women and
children were
lost in the
wreck, leaving
just 102
survivors,
making this one
of the worst
disasters in
Scottish
maritime history.
The remains of those who lost their lives are interred in a mass grave on
Vatersay, marked with a monument which still stands at the edge of the
machair, looking west over Bagh Siar, and bears the inscription: “on 28 th
Sept. 1853 the ship “Annie Jane” with emigrants from Liverpool to Quebec
was totally wrecked in this bay and three fourths of the crew and passengers
numbering about 350 men, women and children were drowned and their
bodies interred here”.
The plinth below bears the biblical line: “And the sea gave up the dead which
were in it”. Rev. XX 13”.
To commemorate 165 years since the Annie Jane tragedy there will be an
Ecumenical Service held on Sunday 30 September at the monument in
Vatersay followed by hospitality in the Vatersay hall.
There will be a historical display and a showing of a short film which has
been specially commissioned for the event.
This piece was taken from the local community newsletter Guth Bharraidh
(Issue No: 1705) – 28 September 2018.
Vatersay is an island joined now by causeway to Barra, in the Western Isles.
Morag McHaffie
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