"... and coming back up with bottles of whisky which they would then hide from the customs."
The ship was the SS Politician. The islanders were from Eriskay, in the outer Hebrides. There were 100s of cases of whisky recovered and hidden from the authorities during WWII.
The link goes to a story about an auction of a couple of the bottles. There was a book — "Whisky Galore" (alternate title "Tight Little Island" — and then a movie by the same name that was made in 1949.
"For a true islander, life without [whisky] is not worth living."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
17 comments:
Hmmmm,
Whiskey Galore.
No doubt, one of the Galore twins.
She and her sister are the living embodiment of most men's fondest dreams.
Now that video shows what Scotch Irish means. It's their whiskey, stupid.
The Scots Irish are from the Scottish settlers colony in Northern Ireland.
The Hebrides are part Scotland lying off the northern shore of Scotland and as such are in the path of most ships that avoid the Channel by sailing north of the British Isles.
Fortunately the final leg of the Gulf Stream curves over there and does its magic making an otherwise arctic latitude into a warm and rainy place.
I'm going to guess that Whiskey Galore does not star Jacqueline Bisset.
People have been "sticking it to the man" for ages. NOBODY likes the tax man.
It's whiskey-with-an-e in the US and Ireland, whisky elsewhere.
"Thank god the whiskey's saved!"
From the article: The whisky is thought to be not fit for consumption...
Well, no; not if it's that awful stuff made in Scotland.
If it were Irish Whiskey, it would be.
The Hebrides are Old Norse territory.
Watch the movie. It's really really good. Tim
That north and north western side of Scotland were ruled by Norwegian conquerors for 400 years. They intermarried but many can still be identified in family names such as Laird, which is the Norwegian word for Lord.
You Wisconsinites got to see one of those Norse Scots up close in Bret Favre.
Oops, that's the Northeastern side of Scotland that is across the North Sea from Norge.
@tradguy/
LOL, yeah, I read your first and thought" I don't remember them taking the long way 'round.. :) "
And the Shetlands and the Hebrides and other islands in the Irish Sea at least as far south as the Isle of Man and probably also Anglesey.
("Øy" is the Norwegian word for island.)
And laird may be Scot for lord, but not Norwegian. We do not have a word for "lord," since the Old Norse did not recognize any such.
Also about all the Irish port towns originated as Norse settlements. The Irish had not developed any town settlement civilization yet when the Norse arrived.
At the time of the Vikings, Ireland had farming communities and religious - scholastic (monastic) communities. The monastic communities functioned as towns.
The monasteries functioned as monasteries and the Irish were a bunch of wild-assed cattle rustlers living in extended family compounds at best.
I feel sorry for alcoholics/diabetics.
To abuse something to the point where one must deprive themselves of it to save their lives must be a terrible feeling.
Seriously.
Post a Comment