Eighty years ago, on March 12, 1941, the SS Politician ran aground near Eriskay with its cargo of 290,000 bottles of whisky and thousands of pounds worth of shillings. The story of its plundering by whisky-thirsty Hebridean locals became famous when it was fictionalised, as Whisky Galore, by Compton Mackenzie, but mysteries still remain.
Chief among these, and much still debated is what the eight cases of Jamaican shillings that were being transported in Hold Number Five alongside the spirit, were doing on the boat. For whom were these destined and why?
The shillings had been stowed there at the request of Greenshields, Cowie & Co Ltd, Crown Agent for the Colonies. In his book, Polly: The True History Behind Whisky Galore, Roger Hutchinson lists some of the rumours around their purpose that circulated in the years that followed: “An alternative Buckingham Palace was to be established in the Caribbean; the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, then resident in the Bahamas, demanded such supplies.”
But the darkest of possible reasons was one postulated, last year, by Gerry Burke, a historian who had looked into Cabinet records. He believes that the cargo may have a link with the Moyne Report which was buried in war-time because it revealed the terrible conditions of starvation and oppression suffered by the people of the British Caribbean.
Among the papers he uncovered, which he thinks may be linked to the SS Politician's cargo was one from the Colonial Secretary of the West Indies to the War Cabinet.
In it, the secretary said: “We have reached agreement with the Treasury on a short-term plan by which a sum of £350,000 would be made immediately available for relief in the West Indies. If it found a place in the White Paper, it might have the appearance of a panic measure or a bribe.”
For more on the Whisky, Shillings and Secrets of the SS Politician, read our long feature
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