In 1941 an 8,000-ton cargo ship ran aground in the Sound of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides. In the difficult war years any gift from the sea was welcome, and the SS Politician had among her cargo a quarter of a million bottles of whisky. The events that followed inspired Compton Mackenzie's novel Whisky Galore. Using eyewitness accounts, historical papers, and official documents, this book tells the story of the SS Politician and the circus that surrounded her, from islanders in small skiffs to wartime excise officers and the final solution, to the problem of the vessel affectionately known as the "Polly.