Bottle of whisky recovered from the wreck of SS Politician, acquired by the Scottish Maritime Museum in 2020 with an NFA grant of £7,579.
As a curator I am occasionally called upon by the press to provide my “professional opinion” on interesting maritime items due to appear at auction or that have become newsworthy in some other way. So when I was contacted by a reporter from USA Today to comment on the sale of a bottle of whisky recovered from the shipwreck of the SS Politician, I was excited to share what I knew about the 1941 wreck and the infamous cargo of whisky it carried.
Bound for Jamaica and New Orleans carrying a cargo of goods to be sold to raise funds for the war effort, the vessel foundered on sandbanks off Rosinish Point on the Isle of Eriskay where islanders rushed to save the crew. Safely back on shore, it soon came to light that the ship was carrying 264,000 bottles of untaxed whisky. Rationing had been hard on the islanders and they had been denied their national drink for many months. The temptation of so much amber liquid within reach was too much to resist.
Under cover of darkness and in the belief that ‘rules of salvage’ applied, locals from Eriskay and across the Outer Hebrides descended on the vessel to ‘rescue’ the whisky. They engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with the local Customs and Excise Officers, drinking and hiding the whisky around the island. The struggle between the two groups became infamous when Scottish author Compton Mackenzie wrote a fictionalised version of the event in his comic novel Whisky Galore! on which the 1949 film of the same title was based.
Sadly, there were some serious repercussions for those caught with the illicit whisky, resulting in prosecutions and jail terms. Many of the men implicated came from reputable island families who would not normally have come to the notice of the law but this fateful wreck would have a huge effect on their lives.
This bottle wasn’t recovered by the islanders, or the Customs and Excise Officers, but was legally recovered in 1987 by a diving crew exploring the wreck after completing repair of a subsea cable. I was alerted to the auction too late to prepare a bid and that night I anxiously watched the sale online, secretly delighted when the whisky failed to reach its reserve price. I knew it would be a fantastic addition to the Scottish Maritime Museum’s Recognised collection and could help us tell the real story of the ship, its cargo and its impact on the islanders. With the bottle relisted for sale and financial support from the National Fund for Acquisitions, we were delighted to secure the whisky, with its strong provenance and great backstory, for our collection. We are already looking forward to being able to tell our audiences about the history of the bottle and its place in Scottish island folklore; perhaps with a dash of McKenzie’s romance and humour thrown in.
Slàinte Mhath NFA!
Abigail McIntyre
Senior Curator
Scottish Maritime Museum
National Fund for Acquisitions 