I think it has become,” said Compton Mackenzie, “if I may say so, a kind of folk tale. Rather like Dick Whittington or Aladdin or something. Because it goes on and on… that’s the fantastic thing.” This was how the writer, whose novel Whisky Galore went a long way towards creating that folk tale and exporting it, via a classic Alexander Mackendrick Ealing comedy, to the world, described the story of the wrecking and plundering of the SS Politician when it was lost off Eriskay. It’s been 80 years since the vessel ran aground and spilled the contents of its Hold Number 5 – not just 28,000 bottles of whisky but also £290,000 Jamaican ten-shilling notes (worth around £3 million now) – and it’s a folk legend that keeps on growing and giving.