The action of the enormous waves quickly broke the ship in half and then ripped her bottom out. Of the roughly 489 men aboard after Mounsey departed, only 21 (17 of these were American) were able to successfully swim ashore, although two of these, including one American, later died of their injuries. The islanders were able to rescue some of these men by pulling them up the coastal cliffs or from rocks just offshore. By the following morning, the liner had been completely demolished by the heavy seas and the coastline was strewn with wreckage and hundreds of bodies in piles up to deep. A total of 316 Americans were found and buried on Islay and the nearby island of Muck. The police sergeant at Bowmore, Malcolm McNeill, the maternal grandfather of a later (1999-2004) NATO general secretary, George Robertson, commended local people in his report: 'though they had so little, they gave so much to help' and also responded to enquiries from the American families of those lost from the Otranto (and in the 1914 SS Tuscania sinking). Aftermath Craven was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the Navy Cross for gallantry displayed in Mounseys rescue operation. The best estimate of the casualty toll from the disaster is a total of 470 men: 12 officers and 84 crewmen from Otranto, 1 officer and 357 American enlisted men, and 6 French fishermen. After the war, most of the American bodies were reinterred at Brookwood American Cemetery and Memorial in Surrey, England, or repatriated to the United States. And an stone tower was built on the Mull of Oa by the American Red Cross to commemorate the men lost aboard Otranto and which was sunk by a German U-boat nearby. The remains of the wreck were later salvaged by Keith Jessop. References Bibliography 1909 ships World War I Auxiliary cruisers of the Royal Navy Maritime incidents in 1918 Maritime history of Australia Ocean liners of the United Kingdom Ships built in Belfast Ships of the Orient Line Ships sunk in collisions Steamships of the United Kingdom Troop ships of the Royal Navy World War I cruisers of the United Kingdom World War I shipwrecks in the Irish Sea 1918 disasters in the United Kingdom