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The Battle of the River Plate in Montevideo?

Tommy Elder's family came from Glenelg to Brogaig. Tomy himself served in the Merchant Navy during the War. He was in the Mediterranean and Gibralter and further afield. He was torpedoed twice. The merchant ship on which he was serving was at the sinking of the Grafspee (the German Raider) in the Montevideo - which was a neutral country. They couldn't invade this neutral country. The captain of the Grafspee was under the impression that the heavy cruisers were outside waiting for them as his armament was a lot heavier than the British cruisers - he was carrying 12 inch. One day they weighed anchor and they carried on outside. Everybody thought they would make a break for it - they only went out a couple of miles and stopped is boat - they opened the sea cocks and sank her to the bottom. Before he sank the boat, the skipper of the Grafspee shot himself. The boat was scuttled on the River Plate and he was trapped there. They had been fighting in the Atlantic for days. There were 3 British light cruisers after the Grafspee. In the end she was forced to go up the river plate and seek asylum. Tommy said they were ferrying the dead from the British cruisers for one whole day. The British cruisers would have to get so near to be effective. The Grafspee could inflict damage from a distance. As it happened, the dead German and the British soldiers ended up side by side in the same cemetery.

An interesting thing happened to Tommy Elder. He had been in the Pool Centre in Glasgow (where you went to get a job on boats). On appointed days you went and there would be a queue to join and you'd be given a boat. Men were choosy about which boat they joined. You were permitted to refuse two boats, without losing your place on the Pool. If you refused your third choice, you lost your place. One day Tommy went to the Pool. He had by that time already refused his first boat. His second boat came up and he was in the queue. Just before he stepped in, a Gaelic fellow said to him "Diùlt am bàta sin - Na gabh gnothach rithe" (refuse that boat - have nothing to do with her). Tommy was perplexed. He wanted to go on the boat but he was anxious, so he refused. The boat sailed that night with a crew of the boys from that queue. Later in the night it was torpedoed off the west of Ireland. Tommy had not turned around to see who put the word in his ear, and to the end of his life, he didn't know who the man had been.