SS Politician
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: |
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| Owner: |
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| Builder: | Furness Shipbuilding Company. |
| Launched: | c.1922 |
| Fate: | Grounded 1941 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | cargo ship |
| Tonnage: | 8,000 long tons (8,100 t) |
| Length: | 450 ft 6 in (137.31 m) |
| Beam: | 58 ft (18 m) |
| Installed power: | steam turbine |
| Speed: | 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
SS Politician was an 8000-ton cargo ship owned by T & J Harrison of Liverpool. It left Liverpool on 3 February 1941, bound for Kingston, Jamaica and New Orleans with a cargo including 28,000 cases of malt whisky. The ship sank off the north coast of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland, and much of the wreck's cargo was salvaged by the island's inhabitants. The story of the wreck and looting was the basis for the book and film .
The ship was called Politician only after 1935, when she was purchased by T & J Harrison from Furness, Withy and Co., who had called her London Merchant. In the same transaction, the vessels Royal Prince, Imperial Prince and British Prince became Collegian, Craftsman and Statesman respectively. All four turbine-engined sister ships were built in 1922-3 to have a length of 450 feet 6 inches (137.31 m) and beam 58 feet (18 m), gross 8,000 long tons (8,100 t) and achieve 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph). Built for the Furness London-New York route, Harrisons employed them to South Africa in peacetime.
Harrisons had previously owned another Politician, built by Swan Hunter in 1899, which was bought by Christian Salvesen in 1922, renamed Coronda and used from 1940-5 as a store ship on the Tyne.
On 5 February 1941, during gale force winds, she ran aground off the Island of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides and later broke in two near the islet of Calvay. The crew were all unharmed and were looked after by the locals for a while.
When the locals learned from the crew of the Politician what the ship was carrying, a series of illegal, and later well-organised salvage operations took place at night, before the customs and excise officials arrived. The island's supplies of whisky had dried up due to war-time rationing, so the islanders periodically helped themselves to some of the 28,000 cases (264,000 bottles) of Scotch whisky before winter weather broke up the ship. The men wore women's dresses on their "fishing trips", to keep their own clothes from being covered in incriminating oil from the ship's holds. Boats came from as far away as Lewis as news of the whisky spread across the Hebrides. No islander regarded it as stealing; for them the rules of salvage meant that once the bounty was in the sea, it was theirs to rescue.
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Wikipedia