SS Politician
SS Politician was a cargo ship that ran aground off the coast of Eriskay in 1941. cargo included 22,000 cases of malt whisky and £3 million worth of Jamaican banknotes. Much of the whisky was recovered by islanders from across the Hebrides, contrary to marine salvage laws.
About SS Politician in brief
SS Politician was a cargo ship that ran aground off the coast of Eriskay in 1941. Her cargo included 22,000 cases of malt whisky and £3 million worth of Jamaican banknotes. Much of the whisky was recovered by islanders from across the Hebrides, contrary to marine salvage laws. Because no duty had been paid on the whisky, members of HM Customs and Excise pursued and prosecuted those who had removed the cargo. The story of the wreck and looting was the basis for the book Whisky Galore; an adaptation was released as a film in 1949 and a remake in 2016. The ship was built by the Furness Shipbuilding Company between 19 September 1920—when she was laid down—and 1923 at the Haverton Hill shipyard, County Durham. She was launched in November 1921 as SS London Merchant, and was completed in May 1923. London Merchant’s gross registered tonnage was 7,899, she was 450 ft long and 58 ft at the beam; her depth of hold was 19 ft. and she could achieve 14 knots. In February 1941 she was on her way to the north of Scotland, where she running aground while attempting to rendezvous with a convoy. No-one was badly injured or killed in the accident. Salvors were used to rescue as much of the ship as they could, and the whisky they raised was shipped back to its bonded warehouses; this was also looted during its journey. A few of the JamaicanBanknotes from Politician were presented at banks in Britain, Jamaica and other countries.
In 1952 the blue ten–shilling notes were withdrawn and replaced with notes of the same design, printed in purple. Some of the bottles of whisky have been raised from the seabed by divers, and some have been found in hiding places onEriskay; these have been auctioned. After the Second World War Politician participated in the Atlantic convoys between the UK and US. In May 1935 she was purchased by the Charente Steamship Company, part of the Tarente & Harrison shipping line. She traded on the eastern seaboard until the onset of Great Depression, when she was tied up in Essex, along with 60 other vessels, along the Blackwater River, Essex, Blackwater, Black River and the River Thames. In December 1924, during Prohibition in the United States, she docked in Portland, Oregon with whisky as part of her cargo; this had been approved and sealed by the US federal authorities. The state prohibition commissioner, George Cleaver, ignored the approval, broke the seal on the cargo and seized the whisky. The British Embassy in Washington complained to the US government, and ordered the whisky released back to the ship. On Christmas Eve 1927 she was involved in another collision and repaired and renamed Jarente Politician. After she was repaired she began trading across the Atlantic; her owners, the Furnesses Withy company, advertised her cargo services in The Manchester Guardian.
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This page is based on the article SS Politician published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 02, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
