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This is one of the times when everyone knows where they were when the news of the tragic loss came through. I was working in the creamery and remember the place just went quiet when we heard.

43 years ago, gosh time has gone by , remember them all so well ... R.I.P

The island was a sad place for a long time after that. Vic Baikie died within a month of the Lifeboat disaster, another fine man.

Maurice Mowat was also lost off his creel boat in August 1969.

Glad someone still remembers ! We moved on to the Island in September 1969 and yes, it was a sad place, especially Brims, for quite a few years after the disaster. I went to North Walls school with some of the kids who lost fathers, uncles and brothers that night.

r.i.p.boys

That's right Keith, Maurice left a widow and a young son as well.

I was told the son was on board at the time and took the boat home himself.

I remember that when I was staying with Lady Skrine being in the back of her green Morris van being driven past Vic Baikie's place and we did not realise it but he had collapsed while burning heather and we could see people in the field but did not notice that he was lying there I suppose as the heather was long. Lady Skrine had a driver/handyman who lived in a cottage, and he was driving. I stayed at Rysa for a month and the Longhope tragedy happened then but I was just 16 and new to the place and the terrible disaster did not mean much to me then. I was busy trying to get used to Rysa and all the cats and contemplating a career in the Army in Wales!

You're right his son John took the boat home and was just a young primary school boy. There was a memorial service for Maurice, shortly after that his body was found down near the Fraserburgh area.

It was a beautiful sunny day when Vic died and I remember mum and my brother coming home from Kirkwall and telling me what had happened, he was just 51 and collapsed as you say Charles putting out a bonefire.

My own father rarely talks about this, he was not living in Orkney at the time when his dad, my Grandad Vic, died. For Grandad, certainly the stress of losing so many of his good friends in the lifeboat disaster put paid to an already weak and poorly treated heart problem. So sad to read Charles' account - I knew he collapsed, but it seemed almost myth. Reading it here makes it very real. I was born in 1977 and never knew him, but I know my Granny never got over it, and never remarried (she was in her early 40s).