THE ARANDORA STAR

Some of the most spectacular beaches in Scotland are found at Knockvologan on the island of Mull. Slightly remote on the extreme south-west of the island, they can be approached only on foot down a rough track. Just as the track emerges on to the beach, it passes two large iron hooks projecting from the sand. They are all that remains above the sand of a wrecked boat, most of the exposed timbers having rotted, been washed away or perhaps taken for firewood in recent years (Much of the disintegration has happened since the 1990s). The hooks suggest that the boat was a lifeboat from a large vessel. But, which large vessel? One likely candidate is the Arandora Star, pride of the Blue Star line, a luxury liner launched in 1927 and normally cruising with four hundred wealthy passengers to exotic places such as the Mediterranean or the West Indies.

Churchill
In 1940, when Mussolini entered the war on the side of the Germans the British government became concerned about enemy nationals living in the UK. Churchill, fearing they could act as a 'fifth column', famously issued the order to 'Collar the lot!'  Many German and Italian residents in the UK were forcibly and hurriedly taken from their homes or their places of business, although according to Richard Sonnenfeldt in his book "Witness to Nuremberg" the ones destined for the Arandora Star were actually volunteers. Whether volunteers or not, the War Cabinet instructed that the men were to be interned. Wives and mothers could fend for themselves.

Last voyage
Arandora Star was one of a number of vessels commandeered by the Ministry of Shipping as a troop carrier, its livery and all identification being over-painted in battleship grey. She was given the task of deporting around 1,500 German and Italian aliens to Canada. At 6.30 am on 2^nd. July 1940, off the coast of Ireland she was torpedoed by a German U-boat. Among the 805 casualties is the truth about what happened next.

Some witnesses report that “the Arandora Star put to sea with 80% of the crew newly signed on that morning. No emergency drill or instruction was given either to the crew, the military guards or to the internees. All the lifeboats had been secured behind heavy wire mesh. The number of lifeboats were certainly grossly inadequate for its cargo of over 1500 souls, having been designed for the ship's maximum complement of only 500. All portholes were boarded up shutting out all daylight and the ship was armed. The boarded up promenade decks were separated from the other parts of the ship by double fences of barbed wire reaching from floor to ceiling. It must be said that the lifeboats and tackle were in a neglected condition, which caused two boats to become useless, another filled with water because the stoppers were missing, and two of the motor boats did not operate through lack of petrol. There were petrol canisters in these boats, but they were found to be empties.”

These witnesses felt it necessary to place on record that “all the boats did their best to pick up survivors from the water and from wreckage pieces to which they were clinging,” and that  “all reports about unpleasant incidents of fighting between the shipwrecked during the period of rescue are untrue and lack basis or foundation. The ship's crew and the internees assisted each other in a most friendly and helpful spirit, and when taking people into the boats from rafts, wreckage, or those who were swimming, no differentiation whatsoever was made.” 

A different story
However, this testimony in itself suggests that others had a different story.  The Glasgow Herald reported on 4 July 1940 that, “In interviews with British survivors yesterday it was gathered that great hostility was shown by the Italians to the Germans not only because of the torpedoing of the liner without warning but also because of the Nazis' ruthless conduct in attempting to rush the lifeboats afterwards. Before the disaster constant vigilance had to be maintained to keep the Italians and Germans from coming to blows.”

The rescue itself is hard to reconstruct. One account said “Coastal Command was rapidly on the scene, for at about 9.30 a.m. a Royal Air force Sunderland flying boat appeared and dropped first-aid outfits, food and cigarettes in watertight bags together with a message to say help was on the way. The aircraft circled overhead until about 1.0 p.m., when the Canadian destroyer H.M.C.S. St. Laurent arrived at full speed for the work of rescue”. However, another account claims that, “the British shot holes in the lifeboats to stop them from escaping.“

Chilling confirmation
This last incident would seem incredible, were it not for a chilling find on the dead calm night of the 22nd of July 1940 by Mickey O’Donnel and a crew of fishermen from Owey, (a small island off the north west coast of Donegal). Their story goes:

“We, were out drift netting for salmon four miles north of the island in a 24ft sailing yawl. As the morning light began to show one of the crew spotted something floating in the water about a half a mile away. The men finished hauling the nets and went to investigate. As they approached the object they discovered that it was a lifeboat with its mast fully erect but sunk in the water, to the gunnels. Since the sea was so calm they tried to bail the water out of the boat. Failing this the men tied a rope to the stem of the boat and towed it back to shore. This was no easy task as the boat was completely waterlogged making headway difficult. The crew beached the boat in the Spink (landing place) on Owey Island. They then proceeded to bail the water out of the boat and in so doing discovered why it had been impossible before. The hull of the boat was shot through with bullet holes and on the deck there were handfuls of empty bullet shells. On further inspection of the boat it appeared as if someone had tried to prevent her sinking by putting pieces of cloth into the bullet holes. On some of the pieces of cloth there were traces of what seemed to be blood. The nameplate on the side of the boat read ‘Arandora Star’”.

Bullet shells on the deck of the lifeboat suggests that the shots were fired at close range from inside the boat by people who were not banking on it for their own survival.

Useless mouths
At the British inquiry that followed the disaster, a government spokesman, the Duke of Devonshire, justified the decision to deport the refugees to the Dominions with the words: "It seemed desirable both to husband our resources and get rid of useless mouths." Relatives of surviving internees have called for some kind of apology or compensation from the British Government (www.arandorastarcampaign.com). Some object that the British have nothing to apologise for, since it was the Germans who torpedoed the boat. That however may be an oversimplification.

Commemorations
The disaster is commemorated by a memorial chapel in the Italian town of Bardi, in a small Italian chapel in London, and a headstone in Carndonagh in Ireland, among other places. In Scotland, there is a small memorial to the disaster on the island of Colonsay and a memorial garden is planned for the area around St. Andrews Roman Catholic Cathedral in Glasgow. Archbishop Mario Conti, himself an Italian immigrant, commented poignantly that the sadness of the tragedy “is not just one of loss, it is also over their rejection from the Scottish community.”

Folk memory on Iona and the Ross of Mull is clear that the boat on the beach was from the Arandora Star. If so, it may be the only one still visible above the gently obliterating sands of time, its helpless crozier a silent witness to an un-righted wrong.