Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The S.S. Politician

Episode Date: February 11, 2021

In the middle of World War II, a small island in Scotland’s Hebrides Islands was suffering through war shortages like most of the country. However, on February 5, 1941, a very fortunate disaster struck the island, and the island’s residents couldn’t have been happier. The reverberations from this lucky calamity are still being felt today. Learn more about the wreck of the SS Politician and its incredible cargo on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the middle of World War II, a small island in Scotland's Hebrides Islands was suffering through war shortages like most of the country. However, on February 5, 1941, a very fortunate disaster struck the island, and the island's residents couldn't have been happier. The reverberations from this lucky calamity are still being felt today. Learn more about the wreck of the SS politician and its incredible cargo on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now.

Time travel with us every week on the Thurline podcast from NPR. This episode is sponsored by the Travel Photography Academy. In 2007, I sold my home to travel around the world. I bought an expensive camera that I didn't know how to use and took a bunch of things. of terrible photos. Several years, 100 countries, and tens of thousands of photos later, I'd improved my photography to the point where I was winning national awards, being named Travel Photographer of the Year three times in North America. I created the Travel Photography Academy, so you don't have to spend the many years that I did to improve your photography.

Even though we can't easily travel right now, you can still work on improving your photography at home and in your own community. Just go to Travel Photographyacademy.com or click on the link in the show notes to start improving your photography today. The island of Eriske is part of Scotland and lies off the northwest coast of the main island of Great Britain. It's a pretty small island, and even today it only has a population of 140 people. There's only a single paved road in the whole island. During World War II, like everyone else in Britain, the people of Eriskei had to suffer war rationing. They just had the added difficulty of being on an island requiring everything to be shipped in. The island changed dramatically on one sort of, and the island changed dramatically on

stormy night in February 1941. A cargo ship called the SS politician had run aground right off shore the island. The SS politician was really nothing special as a ship. It was launched in 1923 under the name the London merchant. As a cargo ship, it mostly ran shipping between the UK and the United States and Canada. In 1924, the ship docked in Portland, Oregon, with a cargo of alcohol during the middle of American Prohibition. Even though the American government had approved and sealed the liquor shipment, it was seized by authorities in Portland. The British Embassy filed a complaint with the American government, and eventually the alcohol was returned back to the ship. That incident would prove to be prophetic. In 1935, the name of the ship was changed to the SS politician,

and with the start of the war in 1939, she was taken into service as part of the armed convoys running goods between the U.S. and the U.K. In 1941, the ship left the port of Liverpool to rendezvous with a convoy that was assembling north of Scotland. Along the way on the morning of February 5th, amid high winds and poor visibility, the SS politician ran aground off the coast of Eriske Island. The captain tried to free the ship, but the hull had been breached, and the drive shaft, which ran the propeller, was broken. Afraid that the ship might break up, the captain ordered the crew to abandon ship.

All of the crew survived, and there was only one minor injury in getting off the lifeboat. Locals on the island soon became aware of what happened. the crew was taken to local houses where they could spend the night. And that night, while they were staying with locals and dining with them, they let slip what was in their cargo hold. Whiskey. A whole lot of whiskey. To be specific, there were 22,000 cases of whiskey,

which contained over 260,000 bottles. There was more on the ship than just whiskey. There was cotton, bicycles, cutlery, cigarettes, and a host of other products. However, it was the whiskey that got everyone's attention. The next day, the crew went back to the ship to assess its condition, and they realized that people had been on board and had already taken some of the whiskey. The captain contacted the shipping company, which then contacted a salvage company that was sent to the island to assess the possibility of a salvage operation.

During the next few days, as they waited for the salvage team to arrive, every night, locals made trips out to the ship to liberate more whiskey. The salvage company did eventually salvage some of the cargo. However, the hold that contained the whiskey was under five feet of water and engine oil. Eventually, the decision was made by the ship company to end all salvage operations and abandon the ship. Here is where things started to get legal. According to British law at the time, you couldn't just go take stuff off a ship without the consent of the owner. In fact, the law said, quote,

A person shall not wrongfully carry away or remove any part of a vessel stranded or in danger of being stranded or otherwise in distress, on or near any coast or tidal water, or any part of the cargo or apparel thereof, or any wreck. As far as the locals were concerned, the ship wasn't in distress or stranded. It was abandoned, and the company made the decision to leave all of the whiskey on board. The government, however, had a different view. As far as they were concerned, the locals were engaged in theft. The real issue to the government wasn't so much that it was theft, in fact,

as it was the fact that taxes were never paid on the whiskey. Over the rest of February and March, locals, including people from other islands, kept making secret runs to rescue the whiskey. Some people just took a few cases for personal consumption. Others, with larger boats, were taking dozens or hundreds of cases. The islanders began hiding whiskey everywhere on the island. They were hiding it under floorboards, in caves, and they were digging holes.

Some locals weren't even bothering to go out to the ship. They were just noticing where their neighbors were standing. smashing the booze, and then went out at night to abscond it. A local customs officer named Charles McCall took it upon himself to stop the theft and tax evasion. He ran several trips out to the ship to intercept people making whiskey runs. However, most of the runs were done at night when he didn't go out. The local police mostly turned a blind eye, as these were their neighbors, and most of them also had some whiskey stashed away themselves.

In April, another official salvage operation took place. This time they looked at the feasibility of refloating the ship, which turned out to be impossible. They also began a more methodical process of taking the remaining cargo off the ship. However, many of the salvage crew began taking whiskey themselves and giving it to locals. By late April and June, the government's efforts had shifted towards prosecution. They began conducting raids all over the island and arresting locals. Several dozen men were brought up on charges. The charges the government pursued were for far more severe customs

charges, not just simple theft. Many of them served short jail sentences. By September, whatever whiskey the official salvage crew could salvage was sent back to the mainland, where excise tags were put on it. In 1942, attempts were made to move the ship. It got about 500 meters when it dropped again, hit a rock, and broke the back of the ship. The customs officer, Charles McCall, wanted the ship blown up to prevent more looting. And on October 16, 1942, the hold containing the whiskey was in fact blown up. As local resident, Agnes John Campbell said, quote, dynamiting whiskey, you wouldn't think there'd be men in the world so crazy as that, unquote.

I should note, there was one other thing in the cargo hold alongside the whiskey. Cash. In particular, there was a whole bunch of 10-shilling notes that were about to be sent to Jamaica, which at the time was a British territory. There is about 3 million pounds worth of these 10-shilling Jamaican notes. The money was waterlogged and oily, so it wasn't thought that many people were taking it, as they were mainly focused on the whiskey. However, some of the notes began washing up on shore, and later, some of them started showing up at banks.

Eventually, they replaced the blue Jamaican notes that were in the ship with purple notes to take them out of circulation. In the end, no one was really sure how many of the 22,000 cases of whiskey were taken off the ship. initial estimates were that locals walked away with about 2,000 cases. However, interviews conducted with locals in the early 1960s, while after the heat was off, put the estimate closer to 7,000 cases. Some individuals admitted to taking over 500 cases apiece. The vast majority of the bottles which were recovered were consumed or given to friends and relatives. The whiskey, however, caused a lot of problems among island residents after the war.

Some islanders took other people's whiskey, some rated out. their neighbors to customs officials, and others were just angry that some sold the whiskey that they found. A book was written about the entire ordeal called Whiskey Galore. It was made into a movie in 1949 and later remade in 2016 starring Eddie Izard. Since the incident, there have been several attempts by scuba divers to visit the wreck and bring up bottles. In 1987, eight bottles were found by a diver and later sold at auction for 4,000 pounds. Two years later, a much more massive undertaking with a crew of 500 people only managed to find 24 more bottles. The unopened bottles from the SS politician have become very valuable collector's items.

In the most recent auction, in 2013, a single bottle sold for 12,050 pounds, or nearly $16,000. Executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is James Mackala. The associate producer is Thor Thompson. Remember to leave a five-star review to get your review read on the show. They can be left at Apple Podcasts, Podcasts, Podcast Republic, or wherever you listen to the show. Also, you can help support the show over at patreon.com. Patrons can get merchandise like t-shirts and hoodies, as well as having direct access to provide suggestions for future episodes.