Monday December 4, 1962 was a stormy night even by Minch standards. The wind was gusting at over 60 mph from the south west. Many fishing vessels headed for the shelterd waters of East Loch Tarbert, Isle of Harris and specifically North Harbour on the Isle of Scalpay, the largest island in the Loch.
One such vessel was the Boston Heron, a 314 ton steel trawler out of Milford Haven. Most of the 12 man crew were below decks as the vessel headed for shelter. She never made it At around 9pm the crew below decks, some of whom had already turned in for the night, were thrown to the floor as the Boston Heron struck a reef just off Stilmair Island - one of the many small islands around Scalpay - populated only by sheep. The crew ran on deck only to be immediately washed overboard by the huge waves which had already started to pound the vessel. Fortunately, the skipper, John Bean had managed to send a Mayday signal and this was received by the Stornoway coastguard who immediately launched a lifeboat. However, it would take four hours to reach the scene, it was to be quite a night.
Finlay Morrison was at home playing darts with a member of his crew Angus MacDonald when the alarm was raised on Scalpay. Immediately the two men rushed to Finlay's boat, the 24 ton drifter Scalpay Isles. They were joined by others and put to sea immediately, although not all certain where the Boston Heron had gone aground. Luckily thay saw a rocket flare and after half an hours searching they located the ship. The lifeboat and the Scalpay Isles shone searchlights on the stranded vessel being pounded by the heavy seas. It was impossible to get either boat close to the ship due to the rocks and the wind. A RNLI team was landed on Lee side of Stilamair and a breeched buoy was rigged up, after several attempts a line was secured to the Boston Heron. Two men were rescued from the vessel - they had no idea what had happened to the rest of the crew but the other 10 men were certainly not on board the striken ship.
