Whisky on Celtic rocks

Without any doubt, the most famous novel in which whisky plays a key role is Compton Mackenzie’s Whisky Galore, first published in 1947. It is a hilarious book, which has also been turned into an (at least equally hilarious) film and I can hardly imagine anyone reading this article and not having read the book or seen the film. However, just in case, the basic story is that a ship, the “SS Cabinet Minister”, full of whisky runs aground on rocks off Todaidh Bheag, an imaginary island in the Outer Hebrides. Given that the island has been struck by a whisky drought, the local population is quick off the mark to ‘salvage’ the cargo.

Whisky Galore is based on a real stranding of a ship carrying whisky. In 1941, on her way to America, the SS Politician grounded herself in the Sound of Eriskay, between Eriskay and South Uist. Besides a miscellany of good, she carried an enormous amount of whisky, equivalent to over a quarter of a million bottles; all top quality blends. As in the novel, the local population did not let the opportunity pass by and many visits were made to the stricken ship to liberate the cargo in hold no. 5 until the excise started a crackdown. Full details of the wrecking of the SS Politician, and what happened afterwards, are given in Roger Hutchinson’s book Polly – the true story behind Whisky Galore. When the wreck of the SS Politician was raised in 1990, 12 bottles of drinkable whisky were recovered and the whisky from these bottles found its way into a blend called ‘SS Politician’; needless to say each of the 1400 bottles of ‘SS Politician’ only contained a few drops of whisky actually from the ship. Whether another blend, ‘Whisky Galore Atlantic Reserve’, contains any original ‘Polly’ whisky is not clear.

I was curious to find out whether the SS Politician was the only case of ‘whisky on Celtic rocks’, so I set about digging for more of such whisky wrecks. And sure enough, the SS Politician wasn’t the only, or even the first one! Preceding her are at least 10 whisky-carrying ships running on the rocks around the Celtic regions of the British Isles. Of some of these ships I haven’t been able to find much more than her name and year of wrecking; of others there’s a wee bit more information. The map shows roughly where these ‘whisky ships’ ended their final journey, with the numbers corresponding to the numbers in brackets given after each of the ship’s names (with [1] indicating the most famous of them all, the SS Politician).

            The earliest British record I could find of a ship carrying whisky and running on the rocks is from Ireland. The Venus [7], a schooner sailing from Glasgow and carrying a cargo of whisky and sugar, was wrecked in 1839 at Rathmullan. Until other records are found, the Venus is Britain’s first ‘Whisky Galore’ ship.

In 1858, the Charlemagne [5], on her maiden voyage from Greenock, and carrying whisky in barrels, encountered thick fog within 24 hours of leaving port. She run on the Kintyre rocks below Faochaig, and it least some of the whisky ended up on shore. Local legend has it that “no whisky had ever been drunk in Kintyre which could touch what came out of the Charlemagne”. A year later, a brig from, again, Greenock, the Mary Ann [3], was wrecked in Kilchoman Bay, Islay. Among her cargo floating ashore were hundreds of boxes with bottles of brandy, gin and whisky, and puncheons of whisky, brandy and wine. Not surprisingly, people readily helped themselves to whatever washed ashore leading to riots and fighting, both among each other and with the police. Several people are said to have died as a result of alcohol poisoning.

            The next whisky wreck we find on Irish rocks again. The barque Girvan [8], on her way from Glasgow to Adelaide aground in 1884 a force 4 wind on Rathlin Island at Clochan Bo near Bull Point; all crew was saved. Her cargo included 500 cases of whisky.

            From Ireland we go to Wales and to the Pembrokeshire coast. In 1894, the sailing ship Loch Shiel [10] was on her way from Glasgow to Adelaide when bad weather forced her into Milford Haven. Due to a navigational error she struck Thorn Island and started sinking and breaking up. All crew and passengers were rescued but thousands and thousands of bottles of Scotch whisky (the ship carried over 7000 cases) washed ashore. The bonanza was of course gladly received by the local population, although two people drowned while towing a keg ashore and a third man died of ‘excessive drinking’. Despite the rapid appearance by Customs officers, most of the whisky had quickly been spirited away from the shores and hidden in every available nook and cranny of the surrounding houses and countryside. Some of these hidden bottles were re-discovered 60 years after the event and even today, bottles of whisky are still being recovered from the wreck by divers.

            A year later back in Scotland, the steamer SS Wallachia [4] was on her way from Glasgow to the West Indies when she was rammed in thick fog by the Norwegian steamer Flos and sunk in the Firth of Clyde. Her cargo consisted of coal, building materials, books, stationary, glass and earthenware, beer, stout, gin and whisky. The holds still contain hundreds of (mostly beer) bottles, regularly brought to the surface by divers. The Firth of Cromarty [6], a wooden sailing ship sailing from Glasgow to Sydney, and carrying pig iron, china and whisky was wrecked in 1898 near Corsewall.

            Shortly after the turn of the 20^th century, the Glenbervie [11], a clipper sailing from London to South Africa, run aground in bad weather off the Cornish coast near Lowland Point in 1901. Among her cargo of pianos, furniture and galvanised iron sheeting were 600 cases of whisky, 400 cases of brandy and barrels of rum. The crew were all saved, hauled through the water at the end of a rope one by one, and the captain paid 10s to the salvors for rescuing his tabby Persian cat. In 1927 we have another Irish whisky wreck: the Shearness [9], on leaving Glasgow was wrecked at Tuskar Rock. She carried whisky, stout and horses, but whether any of the horses survived is unclear. The last doomed whisky ship before the SS Politician was the steamer St Brandon [2] in 1928. She had dropped off barley at Talisker distillery and was on her way to Glasgow with 200 tons of grain and £8000 worth of whisky. Bad weather and poor visibility caused her to run on reefs north of the Rubba Mor peninsula; the crew abandoned ship in two life boats, and was picked up by trawler and landed in Tobermory.

            Obviously, wherever in the world whisky is carried aboard a ship, it risks ending up on the rocks. One further British whisky-wreck I found is that of the Simla, which run aground near the Isle of Wight in 1884 (position indicated under [12] on the map). Among the items washed ashore were bales of foolscap paper, cases of infants’ food, casks of brandy, tinned ham, boots and whisky. Around the world, there were several more. There was the steamer Clan Campbell, accidentally ‘importing’ the first cargo of whisky to the island of Mauritius in 1882. The Scottish Prince sunk in 1887 off the Gold Coast of Australia, carrying whisky, beer & other goods from Scotland to Brisbane. The steamer Tasmania, carrying whisky, run aground in 1897 south of Gisborne off New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. Another steamer carrying whisky, the Albany, sunk near Nambucca Heads in 1905 on its voyage from Sydney to Brisbane. And finally the schooner Constellation, carrying war supplies, among which were 700 cases of whisky, sunk in 1943 at Bermuda’s Western Blue Cut Reef.

Sometimes the British records only list ‘spirits’ without specifying which, so there is likely to have been more whisky on Celtic rocks! In addition, several more ships carrying spirits other than whisky (e.g. brandy, gin) have been wrecked on rocks around the British Isles. One contact told me, slightly tongue in cheek, that the most likely reason why Cornwall never had much of a distilling industry is that there were always enough bottles of spirit washing ashore .....

Many thanks to several people, without whose help I could never have written this article: Muiris de Buitléir (Dúchas Heritage Service), Wes Forsythe (Coastal Research Group of the Environment and Heritage Service (NI), Centre for Maritime Archaeology, University of Ulster), Angela Max (Pembrokeshire County Council), Robert Mowat (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland) and Steve Waring (Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England).

© 2003 Alex Kraaijeveld