A Brit Abroad

The wreck and plundering of the SS Politician Five files in The National Archives, CUST 46/500-504, deal with the wreck of the SS Politician off the Hebridean island of Eriskay in 1941 and the looting of its cargo of scotch whisky, the inspiration for Compton Mackenzie’s ‘Whisky Galore’ (1947) and the subsequent Ealing comedy (1949). The story of the sinking of the SS Politician is one of two halves, one to do with the recovery of the whisky and the other the recovery of a large quantity of Jamaican 10 shilling notes. In a report from 1973, to be found in CAOG 11/194, the Crown Agents for Oversea Governments summarised their part of the case as follows: “On 27 Feb 1941 the owners, Thomas & James Harrison, advised the shippers, mostly the Crown Agents for Oversea Governments, that the SS politician bound for Kingston and New Orleans had run aground on rocks near the island of Benbecula, in the Outer Hebrides and become a total loss. Some of the Crown Agents cargo had been salved and was being sent to Glasgow. On 1 March the Salvage Association reported that 8 cases of Jamaica 10/- notes included in the cargo were covered with fuel oil and water and not likely to be taken out of the ship. Further items of cargo were salved but on 2 April the Salvage Association reported that despite a special search of the wreck the cases of notes were not found. Their view was that they had been washed into the lower hold by S.E gales.”

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