The name of the real ship, that sunk Feb 5 1941--during WWII--was SS Politician. Having left Liverpool two days earlier, heading for Jamaica, it sank in bad weather outside Eriskay, The Outer Hebrides, Scotland, containing 250,000 bottles of whisky. The locals gathered as many bottles as they could before the proper authorities arrived, and even today, bottles are found in the sand or in the sea every other year. Based on a true story.