23rd August 2011

Whisky Galore.

I received a post card the other day from a friend holidaying on Barra in the outer Hebrides.

It set me thinking about looting and rioting (well maybe not rioting) and the hysteria that it has generated amongst politicians and the commentariat and the  indignation at the moral collapse it apparently signified.

Whisky Galore is best known as a book and a film.

The book was published in 1947 and the film released in 1949.

It was a comedy.

But it was also a true story about a ship, the SS Politician (Such a great name for a ship, you couldn't really make it up? However in the film the ship was called SS Cabinet Minister).

The SS Politician was sailing from Liverpool in the winter of 1941 heading for America when it went aground and sank off the Hebrides.

When local people sailed out to rescue the crew they discovered that the cargo consisted of 28, 000 cases of Malt Whisky.

Twelve bottles to a case! Do the maths!

In reality the ship had sunk off of Eriskay not Barra where the Whisky supply had dried up because of war time rationing.

The ships stock of whisky had not cleared through customs and so no duty had been paid. Even now of course ferries and cruise ships are stocked with 'Duty Free' and the on board shops are busy throughout the cruise.

The islanders relieved the ship of 24, 000 of the 28, 000 cases. They saw the retrieval of the cargo as salvage because, as the cargo was 'at sea' when it was lost, this made it theirs to 'rescue'

But the Customs and Excise official Mr McColl saw things differently and pursued the cargo, which he saw as having been looted in an act of outright thievery.

Despite the indignation of the Customs Officer most people saw the events as being amusing and the book (and later the film) were released as comedies.

One story in particular illustrated the humour when the men wore their wives dresses when they went on the 'fishing' trips, in order to prevent oil form the ships hold staining their own clothes.

I'm not sure that there is any linkage between these events over sixty years ago and the August riots in London but it struck me, I suppose, how the stealing of whisky in the middle of the second world war from a ship run aground off a remote Scottish island could be seen, even at the time the book was published, only six years after the incident, as comedy, whilst the events in London generated moral outrage.

Maybe it was because it was Whisky? Maybe it was the men in their wives dresses? Maybe it was that it was a long way away in a remote location?

Or maybe Trainers and G Star clothes and 50" Flat Screen TV's are not as intrinsically funny as Whisky?

Whatever, it will be interesting to see whether the August riots generate novels and films, and whether as time elapses, moral outrage will give way to a more sanguine view of the events of 2011?