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Lenny Warren
A national commemorative service is to take place to mark 100 years since the Iolaire disaster in the Western Isles.
More than 200 men, returning home after the end of World War One, died when the naval yacht sank just yards from the Lewis coastline on 1 January 1919.
HMY Iolaire hit a reef in bad weather close to Stornoway harbour.
Prince Charles and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will attend a service at the Iolaire Memorial at Holm.
Wreaths will be laid by Scotland's most senior naval officer, Rear Admiral John Weale, and Norman A Macdonald, who is convener of the islands' local authority Comhairle nan Eilean Siar.
The service, organised by WW100 Scotland and the council, will be conducted by The Very Reverend Dr Angus Morrison.
While the service on land is taking place, a similar event, led by Rev James Maciver of Stornoway Free Church, will be held on board Caledonian MacBrayne's ferry MV Loch Seaforth.
The boat will be situated near where the Iolaire hit the rocks of the reef, called the Beasts of Holm on New Year's Day in 1919.
More than 500 people will be on board the ferry, including schoolchildren from across the Western Isles.
The children will throw 201 red carnations into the sea as the service draws to a close.
Following the service, Prince Charles will unveil a new sculpture to commemorate the Iolaire.
Commissioned by Stornoway arts hub An Lanntair, the sculpture features a bronze depiction of a coiled heaving line which references the heroism of John Finlay Macleod.
He swam ashore with a rope to help rescue 40 of the 79 men who were saved.
The sculpture was created by artists Will Maclean, Marian Leven and Arthur Watson and bears the names of those lost and the communities they came from, as well as a bronze wreath composed of maritime insignia.
The Iolaire - which means "eagle" in Gaelic - set sail from Kyle of Lochalsh on the west Highlands mainland on New Year's Eve 1918.
While making its final approach into Stornoway harbour in the early hours of 1 January in a strong gale, the boat changed course at the wrong point.
With the lights of the harbour in sight, the ship struck rocks at full speed and immediately began to tilt, filling up with water.
Although the stern of the boat was at one point just six metres (20ft) from land, many of the men onboard were weighed down by their heavy uniforms and were unable to swim ashore.
Most of those who died were men returning home to the islands after serving in the armed forces during World War One.
The scale of the disaster, so close to home and coming at the end of the war, had a devastating effect across the isles.
Meanwhile, the faces of Iolaire victims from the Point and Sandwick area will be projected onto buildings to mark the anniversary.
Community wind farm charity the Point and Sandwick Trust will project 40 portraits and photographs onto the side of its office at the Old Knock School.
The three turbines at Beinn Ghrideag and the rest of the old school building will also be lit up red, as they were for Remembrance Day.
Community wind farm developer Calum MacDonald said: "The Iolaire was such a colossal loss to the whole of our islands that we sometimes struggle to grasp the individual, family and human scale of the tragedy.
"But these portraits and photographs still speak to us vividly and can help to bring home the sheer heroism of that generation - not just those who lost their lives on that awful night but all those who were touched by those four terrible years of war."