Contact

Whisky Galore

20 Jan 2007

The BBC broadcast a programme in its 'Coast' series when it mentioned the Politician and its cargo of whisky which was shipwrecked off the Western Isles in 1941. In 1977, POL's John Humphery of the Oceans Technology and Engineering Group(OETG) was collecting wavedata to the West of South Uist and the program brough back some memories and a big surprise. John takes up the story from his dive notes from the time-

We were using Waverider buoys with a view to exploiting wave-power. The moorings were very heavy and difficult to deploy, so we tried to replace the buoys onto the subsurface float by diving. This needed good weather on the exposed side of the Western Isles, and sometimes this meant that we had to wait for good conditions. This did not stop us from diving in more sheltered areas, however, such as the channel between S Uist and Eriskay, where the wreck of the SS Politician lies. You probably know of the story 'Whisky Galore', written by Compton Mackenzie and made into a film, about a ship full of whisky wrecked off a small Hebridean island. The islanders then played cat and mouse with the local Customs men, 'liberating' thousands of bottles of whisky originally destined for America. The story is based on fact - the SS Politician ran on to rocks between Eriskay and S Uist early in 1941, carrying over a quarter of a million bottles of scotch, a tempting prize for islanders who lived in damp, stone-and-thatch croft-houses, eking out a meagre living by crofting, weaving Harris tweed and fishing.

We found the wreck, anchored and dived. The wreck is a bit of a mess amidships, the Government had tried to dynamite the ship to destroy the remaining whisky, but we had been told where to look. While grubbing around under plates and between stanchions, we saw a bottle lying on the yellow sand in the bottom of the ship. We used a metal bar to bring it within reach and grabbed it, the cork was intact, sort-of! We took it up to the boat and dived again, this time collecting the wooden lid of a whiskycase, although worm-eaten and very soft, the words, 'Ballantine's Liqueur Scotch Whisky' were still visible. We returned to the beach and inspected the bottle closely, most of the top of the cork had been eaten away by marine worms, but they obviously didn't have a taste for whisky, leaving the bottle semi-sealed when they became aware of the alcohol. We tried a tiny taste of the amber contents, but they were foul contaminated by sea-water.

Everything has been on a shelf ever since, where a little of the whisky has evaporated. When the BBC programme mentioned the Politician and its cargo of whisky. It was interesting because we had been there (almost thirty years before!) but our ears really pricked up when they said that peserved bottles from the Politician had been sold at auction for as much as £ 10,000!!. I gulped and pulled the bottle down off its shelf, dusted it off, and was inspired to write these words. . .

Useful links

Ocean Engineering Technology Group

---

Notes

The Proudman Oceanographic (POL) scientific research focuses on oceanography encompassing global sea-levels and geodesy, numerical modelling of continental shelf seas and coastal sediment processes. This research alongside activities of surveying, monitoring, data management and forecasting provides strategic support for the wider mission of the Natural Environment Research Council.

As a public funded body it is part of our remit to inform the public of the science and research undertaken at the laboratory. Attending events like the 'Ocean Awareness Weekend' at the Blue Planet Aquarium offers the opportunity for our scientists to meet members of the public and present the laboratory's work.

The Natural Environment Research Council is one of the UK's eight Research Councils. It uses a budget of about £ 350m a year to fund and carry out impartial scientific research in the sciences of the environment. NERC trains the next generation of independent environmental scientists. It is addressing some of the key questions facing mankind, such as global warming, renewable energy and sustainable economic development.