Hello and thank you for downloading Witness from the BBC World Service history told by the people

who were there.

I'm Lucy Burns and today we're going back to February 5, 1941 when a ship carrying

nearly 30,000 cases of whiskey was wrecked off a small island in the

Scottish Hebrides.

The incident later became the basis for the film, Whiskey Galore. It's a fascinating story as I've been hearing from the BBC Archives.

It's February 5, 1941 and the cargo ship the SS politician is out at sea off the west coast of Scotland.

The events of that stormy night would later be dramatised for the 1949 Ealing comedy,

Whiskey Galore.

I must look out, we don't get too near the islands islands I tell you we're nowhere near any islands.

The politician has run aground on a sandbank off the small island of Eriske.

She's a total rag. Bank off the small island of Eriske.

She's a total rag.

Can you take us into harbour?

I'll show you the weed.

And this is where the story begins,

because the SS politician was not just any ship.

What was your cargo?

50,000 cases of whiskey.

In real life the cargo was actually only 30,000 cases of whiskey, but it was still exciting news for the islanders of Eriske, who started venturing out to the wreck in boats to see what they could find.

John Campbell and Norman McMillan were fishermen on Erskay who spoke to the BBC in 1965.

What were your reactions when you first saw this thing? Was there a lot of noise going on?

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