MONEY GALORE
Up for auction for £6k, the SS Politician whisky rescued by the MoS
A RARE bottle of whisky from the shipwreck that inspired Whisky Galore! could fetch thousands of pounds at auction – 34 years after it was salvaged from the seabed by The Mail on Sunday.
The bottle of Scotch was recovered in 1987 and offered as the first prize in a poetry competition. It was won by avid reader and keen poet Donald McLaren, of Dundee, who died in 2016 aged 78.
Now his daughter, Nicola Hastie, is selling the rare bottle, which is among the highlights of The Grand Whisky Auction’s online sale, running until tomorrow.
It has been given a conservative estimate of £5,000-£6,000, but could fetch as much as £10,000. Mrs
‘He was delighted that the judges enjoyed it’
Hastie, 57, said: ‘Dad loved writing poetry for his own enjoyment and often entered competitions, so when he saw this in The Mail on Sunday I think it just really sparked his imagination.
‘He wrote this wonderful poem and sent it in. He was delighted that the judges enjoyed it, and to win a bottle of whisky from the SS Politician just made it even better.
‘It would be brilliant if it was bought by a museum where people could go and see it. It would be lovely alongside my dad’s poem, which makes everybody smile.’
The 8,000-ton SS Politician was bound for Kingston in Jamaica and New Orleans in the US when it ran aground near the island of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides in 1941. The crew were rescued unharmed and much of the whisky on board was removed by islanders from under the noses of the authorities.
The story of the wreck was told by Scots author Compton Mackenzie in his 1947 novel Whisky Galore.
The tale also inspired the 1949 Ealing comedy.
Diver Mike Armitage recovered the bottle from the wreck during a Mail on Sunday-sponsored dive. Ten intact bottles and two miniatures were recovered, as well as other artefacts including machetes, clay tobacco pipes and vast amounts of paper money that disintegrated on being touched.
A spokesman for The Grand Whisky Auction said: ‘This is a rare opportunity to own a bottle from one of the most famous shipwrecks in Scottish history. This bottle from SS Politician has sparked great interest from bidders worldwide.’
The Mail on Sunday competition attracted hundreds of entries from all over the UK.