Incendiary

That is the term I would use for the material I received by email this morning from a historical researcher elsewhere in Scotland. It relates to the Iolaire Disaster of 1919, when more than 200 island seamen drowned on return from war service.

Allegations are made that the inquiry into the sinking of HMY Iolaire, conducted in February 1919, was a white-wash, intended to avert any blemish on the Royal Navy. The inquiry was set up in such a way that any witnesses would not be incriminating the establishment. You may think that that is going too far, and in a way perhaps it is. However, it says enough that the Admiralty only gave £10 to surviving Iolaire crew (not passengers) out of the estate of Admiral Beatty when he passed away some years afterwards.

It remains one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century in peacetime, after the Titanic and the Norge. The real circumstances of the sinking will likely never be known.