raison d'etre

The raison d'etre (at least the official reason) for our vacation on Islay in 2017 was the pending centennial of the sinking of the S.S. Tuscania, in conjunction with world wide ceremonies marking the end of World War One.  Paying our respects at the American Monument was an obligatory honor.

March 24, 2017  American Monument on the Oa, Islay 

In late 2016, as President of the Idaho County Historical Society, preparations began for a public commemoration to mark the 100th anniversary of the Tuscania's sinking.  Of course, preliminary "work" was required...and so a visit to the American Monument on the Mull of Oa was scheduled.  (I know, I know.  Tough work, but somebody had to do it.)

March 24, 2017  At the American Monument, Mull of Oa, Islay, Argyll & Bute, Scotland

Darla and I saved the visit  to the Oa for our last full day on Islay, March 24, 2017.  The trip out to the American Monument only helped impress upon us that the landscape, the shoreline, of Argyll's Hebrides is jagged, imposing, unforgiving.  At the time of our visit, the sea was relatively placid, though with a strong constant wind field on the heights of the cliffs.

March 24, 2017  View toward Ireland, the North Channel off Islay, resting place of the Tuscania

The landscape also was a stark reminder of the unfathomable horrors our American Doughboys endured on the night of February 5, 1918...in what were very heavy winter seas that smashed them into the Oa, many perishing at Port na Gallan.

March 24, 2017  Port na Gallan on the Oa, east of the American Monument

Islay itself was inundated with American bodies from the Tuscania in February 1918.  Nearly a hundred dead washed up into the Lochindaal, the great bay which nearly divides Islay.

March 24, 2017  View of the Rinns across the Lochindaal from the American Monument

More washed ashore at Port Ellen on Jura Sound, at Kilnaughton.  The hale and hardy Illeach would again be inundated with the horror of more American dead in late October 1918, with the calamity of the troopship S.S. Otranto off Machir Bay on the Rinns.

March 24, 2017  Kilnaughton Military Cemetery at Port Ellen

While it may promote misty eyes, our nation owes a profound debt of gratitude to the Illeach for their honor and dignified respect of our American warriors, and their generosity and compassion for our wounded survivors.  We are bound, they and us.  Idahoan to Illeach, forever.

March 24, 2017  Kilnaughton 

Serendipitous perhaps, but my historical work on the Tuscania did not start out that with that intent.  It began in or about 2008 while researching Confederate veterans in Idaho who, having nothing remaining following Appomattox, migrated West to the newly discovered Idaho gold fields and managed to build a Territory into a State.

One of these Confederate pioneers, Judge Lycurgus Vineyard who helped write significant portions of the Idaho Constitution, was buried in an unmarked grave.  A request was forwarded to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and in 2009 Judge Vineyard's grave received a monument.  At that time, my research did not indicate surviving descendants.  But, ongoing efforts indicated that he had two, one of whom was Judge Vineyard's son, Richard.

Dick Vineyard, possibly the first airplane pilot in Idaho, was aboard the Tuscania with the 100th Aero Squadron when she was struck. 

March 24, 2017  The Oa in flat seas

In following up this Vineyard information, it was apparent that Idaho sustained her first combat casualty in World War One in the Tuscania ordeal--William I. Droogs, a forester from Mount Idaho, Idaho County--when the Tuscania was torpedoed in the North Channel just off Islay at nightfall, February 5, 1918.  Latah County also sustained her first loss as well--John C. Robertson from Moscow (University of Idaho).

In February 2013, the Idaho County Historical Society made a presentation in honor of Private Droogs, to commemorate the 95th anniversary of the Tuscania sinking.  Present were direct descendants of Droogs, who evidently learned for the first time the fate of their grandfather.  It too was heart moving, because they did not know...Droogs, a widower, left three orphan children in Idaho County...and then came the Great Depression and a Lost Generation.

That said, it is for this very reason historical societies do what we do.  John 18:9  "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day."

March 24, 2017  The American Monument from heights above Port na Gallan