The Nevada II was built by Bremer Vulkan-Vegesak and launched in 1918 as the Rovuma. She was originally a German ship but was handed over to France as part of the reparations following the Great War and had a long service with Companie Generale Transatlantique, before being handed over to Britain after the fall of France in World War Two. She sailed regularly on convoy duty carrying cargoes to and from Britain. In July 1942 she sailed from London for Bathurst in West Africa with a cargo of mixed NAAFI stores including cigarettes, shoes, soap, brylcream, vehicles, wheelbarrows, clothes, tools, foodstuffs and cloth. She steamed to Oban where the convoy assembled in the Lynne of Lorne. On 19th July 1942 she was off the west coast of Coll when she found herself in a dense fog. Due to a navigational error she ran ashore in the poor visibility, striking the north side of Rubha Mor on the west coast of Coll. She wedged firmly onto the rocks and immediately started listing severly to port as two of her cargo holds flooded. All her crew were able to scramble to safety ashore.
Nevada II was written off as a total loss after she was buffeted by deteriorating weather and damaged further.The ship was salvaged, both illegally and legally, by Coll islanders, RAF crewmen stationed there, and by official salvage teams. The thousands of tons of NAAFI goods were extremely useful to the islanders who otherwise found it nearly impossible to obtain such luxury items except by paying exorbitant prices on the black market.
