The whisky ship was also carrying three million pounds in banknotes

When the SS Politician hit rocks in the Sound of Eriskay in February 1941, her fifth hold carried 22,000 cases of whisky, 264,000 bottles, bound for America to earn dollars for the war effort. Beside them were eight crates of Jamaican banknotes worth three million pounds. None of the whisky bore an excise stamp, which is why Customs pursued the islanders who rowed out night after night to empty the hold. Many were acquitted; nineteen were jailed at Inverness for between twenty days and two months. The story became Whisky Galore, and the stern of the ship still lies at the bottom of Eriskay Sound.