Vintage whiskey going under the hammer - 26/07/2010

Bonham's will be selling the collectible as part of its Scottish Sale, which will take place on August 17th until 20th in Edinburgh.

It is a bottle of Ballantine and is believed to have been salvaged from the wreck of the SS Politician in the 1950s or 1960s.

Whiskey from the ship rarely sells at auction and this bottle is expected to fetch between £1,200 and £1,800. Photos of the salvage operation will accompany the object.

In 1987, eight bottles from the ship were sold at auction for £4,000 and only a further 24 bottles have been found in total, making this item rare.

In 1941, the SS Politician set sail for Kingston in Jamaica with a cargo of pianos, 28,000 cases of whiskey, motor parts and bedding.

It ran aground in a gale off the Outer Hebrides near the island of Eriskay, where the wreck remains, and fortunately none of the crew was harmed.

English-born Scottish novelist and nationalist, Compton Mackenzie, wrote a novel, about the islanders who tried to loot the bottles from the ship, entitled Whiskey Galore.

Posted by Juliet Miller