Near the coast of a Scottish island named Tobaidh Mor, a ship bound for the US runs aground with its goods. When the islanders finally reached the collapsing ship they saw that the crew had already abandoned it. They checked the cargo inside. And their faces gleamed in the light of liquid gold.
Tobaidh Mor was a whisky-bibber of an island but tragedy struck when its rations dried off in the World War. The effects on its people were terrible. Read this one example:
The local doctor announces the tragic demise of Captain MacPhee who for the last fifteen years had been taking three drams of whisky and three pints of beer every night of his life never imagining there would come a day when he would not get a drop of it. With the kind of medicine he was taking, he thought he would live to his hundred. Even the local doctor believed so. But sadly for the last 12 days the poor captain did not a get a drop. Then he collapsed and died.
An islander who listened to the doctor’s account commented: a fish doesn’t drink water all the time. But still you cannot take it out of water. The sentiment reflected the situation of other islanders as well.
It was precisely at that moment, the ship ’the Cabinet Minister’ bound for America with a cargo of whisky wrecked on the shores of the island. The ship was carrying six casks and 243600 bottles of whisky. The islanders’ faces gleamed in the light of the liquid gold they found inside the ship, cases and cases of whisky.
What a great story for a novel! What a great plot for a movie!
Well, Whisky Galore is the name of a 1947 novel by Compton MacKenzie. Two years later it was made into a British comedy movie. It didn’t stop there. In 2016, someone made a remake.
But how many of you know that the story was inspired from a real incident? The true incident was in fact more thrilling than what came out on page and on the celluloid.
It was in 1941 on the Habrdean Island on Eriskay that SS Politician, a ship heading for America ran aground and toppled to a side. Islanders at first kept a distance watching the collapsed Harrison liner from the shore. As time passed, unofficial salvage parties began to form on the beach. The first raiders found the ship carrying all manner of trade goods from medicines to biscuits. Perhaps they could be still having those good Samaritans in their hearts, until they stumbled into the next cargo in the ship. Their hearts thumped loud when their eyes fell on those 28,000 cases of malt whisky stashed inside a chamber.
For the islanders who were going through a hell of a time without enough drinks due to rationing, this came as answer from the heavens. Can’t blame them. Taking cargo off from a foundering ship can’t be stealing they reasoned.
The whisky cases disappeared.
The authorities who came to the scene a bit late didn’t share the finders-keepers philosophy of the local people. Rescue parties came to the village wave after wave to salvage whatever they could from the hiding places. But most raids ended in vain as whenever the officials came nearer to the loot, the villagers had only one thing to do. They guzzled the loot at the last minute.
Finally the salvage operations were called off and the ship’s hull was dynamited to prevent further explorations. Ever since, people in different parts of the world have been getting bottles washed on their shores. A diver on a nearby beach found eight bottles of whisky as recently as 1987.
Good reasons to become a beachcomber.
(Manu Remakant is a freelance writer who also runs the video blog - A Cup of Kavitha - introducing world poetry to Malayalees. Views expressed here are personal)
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