It was Monday 26th October 1936 when the Latvian ship, Helena Faulbaums, left Liverpool heading for Blyth on the North Coast of England to load coal for the return trip to her home port of Riga.
As she had discharged her cargo in Liverpool, she was travelling light and in this vulnerable state was hit by a hurricane between Islay and the Garvellachs.
The wind speed was 70 knots and it soon became clear that she could not maintain steerage with her propeller coming out of the water.
Captain Nikolai Zughaus sent out an SOS appealing for tugs. The message was received by Portpatrick and Malin Head Radio Stations but with the telephone lines down by the BBC was asked to broadcast a message for the Islay lifeboat.
At 10pm that night the dhip crashed into the rocks of Belnahua and the order was given to abandon ship. The radio operator Albert Sultcs continued the broadcast as the ship was sinking. Only four survivors made it to the uninhabited island of Belnahua and spent the night there in a deserted house.
At one in the morning the SOS message reached the Islay Lifeboat coxswain, Peter McPhee, who rose from his sick-bed to captain the lifeboat. After 5 hours sailing and searching the stormy seas they spotted the men signalling from Belnahua.
The survivors were taken to a Glasgow hospital where a nurse on duty that day belonged to Luing. As soon as the news of the disaster spread the people of Luing searched the shores of the island and some set off in boats to search the islands nearby.
The bodies of the 15 sailors were taken to the engine shed in Cullipool for identification and eventual burial in Kilchattan graveyard. The young operator's parents sent a gravestone with his picture on it. Captain Zughaus's body was returned to Riga in Latvia.