BBC Documentaries
Islay: For Those in Peril
TV-PG
2018 • E80 May 1, 2018 60mGlenn Campbell travels to his home island of Islay and to the United States to tell the little-known story of the SS Tuscania and HMS Otranto. 100 years ago, in the closing months of the First World War, unimaginable tragedy and death came to the Hebrides. Within eight months, two US troopships taking their country's men to the Western Front sank off the coast of Islay. Hundreds died, and were washed up on the island's shores. Many others managed to find their way to shore, where they were rescued and taken care of by local people. What happened in 1918 forged links between two nations and their people, and would touch the lives of the families of both the survivors and the dead.