In 1941, the SS Politician ran aground off Eriskay in the Scottish Hebrides Islands, carrying 260,000 bottles of whisky. As war rationing gripped Britain, Hebridean islanders saw the wreck as a godsend. Under cover of darkness, they salvaged thousands of bottles, hiding them in caves, haystacks, and peat bogs. A cat-and-mouse game ensued with customs officers who were determined to stop the whisky smuggling.
To the locals, beset by the privations of war and rationing, this was too good an opportunity to miss. Unofficial local ‘salvage parties’ began to form, with the men even donning their wives’ old dresses to prevent their own clothes becoming stained by incriminating ship’s oil.
The authorities, however, did not share this view, not least because the whisky was destined for the United States – and so no duty had been paid on it.
There followed a second, attempted, land-borne salvage operation, with the police raiding villages and crofts in an effort to recover the liquid cargo – and the locals secreting their ill-gotten gains wherever they could. Or else they just drank them.
This blended whisky represents one of the greatest stories in scotch whisky.
In 1987, a local South Uist man, Donald MacPhee, dove the underwater remains of the SS Politican and retrieved eight bottles of Scotch, which he sold at auction for a total of £4,000. His success sparked interest in what else might still be in the hold of the wreck, and in October 1989 SS Politician plc was formed to salvage what it could.
More that 500 private individuals raised £400,000 for the expedition in the hope of discovering whisky treasure, but only 24 bottles were retrieved with a value of £12,000. The venture turned out to be disastrous for its investors, returning just £24 each.
Most was then used to mix into other whiskey's
Sadly the SS Politician blend wasn’t popular, and its producer, SS Politician plc, went into administration.
In order to try and retrieve the situation company chairman Jeremy Brough decided to blend some of the salvaged whisky with contemporary aged malts and grains to create a luxury SS Politician blend. These bottles were presented in boxed crystal decanters with a numbered neck label and a price tag of £195
Several thousand were issued but sales were poor and in due course the company was forced into receivership.
The bottles are now common auction items but they do not command high prices, in many instances failing to reach the original asking price.
The brand was later revived by Euan Shand as a blended Scotch, though the modern incarnation features zero salvaged whisky.
So if you see one, like in this PIC, it is NOT an original whisky, so to speak, its a "mix" of whiskeys and it sure ain't one from the actual ship wreck.
And if the story sounds familiar to some then you mighta see whiskey galore or read the book.
Whisky Galore! is a 2016 British film, a remake of the 1949 Ealing Comedy of the same name, itself based on the novel of the same name by Compton Mackenzie.
That book and movie is about this story.