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It's 80 years ago to the day that the S.S. Politician ran aground on the island of Eriskay, inspiring Compton Mackenzie to write his classic novel Whisky Galore.
It reminds us of the time when a ship carrying a cargo of methylated spirits ran ashore in #Orkney back in 1924.
It reminds us of the time when a ship carrying a cargo of methylated spirits ran ashore in #Orkney back in 1924.
The Kathleen Annie was a four-masted schooner on her way from Bremen to prohibition America when she ran aground off Eday in September 1924. These photos by Tom Kent shows her in Kirkwall Bay shortly before her grounding, then a few months later as her cargo was being salvaged.
One of the most interesting things about the Kathleen Annie was that she was under the command of Frank Worsley who ten years before had been Captain of the Endurance when it headed south to the Antarctic with Ernest Shackleton. Here he is in Kirkwall on a previous voyage.
You can find out more about Frank Worsley's trip to #Orkney and about what happened to the 17,000 cases of methylated spirits from the stricken Kathleen Jamie, in this recent article by Patricia Long 
http://frontiersmagazine.org/sailing-with-shackleton-an-orkney-link/
http://frontiersmagazine.org/sailing-with-shackleton-an-orkney-link/
