john39

By john39

A whisky bottle with a history.

This bottle of whisky remains unopened and there is some mystery surrounding it. When my elderly aunt died some 25 years ago this bottle of spirit came into my possession, as can be seen on the above picture it has an unusual closure and the seal refers to "Appointment to the Late King George V". John Dewer & Sons of Perth.
This is where the story becomes interesting. On the 24th of November 1939 the SS Pegu ran aground in the Mersey estuary during bad weather,  and there were lighting restrictions in place at the start of WW2. She was carrying 103 passengers and cargo from Glasgow to Rangoon, calling into Liverpool on the way. All the passengrs were rescued by the New Brighton lifeboat crew, soon afterwards the Pegu broke its back and the cargo started to be lost in the water. Much of it was said to have been salvaged, but plenty was washed up on shore. There are many stories in the area about whisky being "found" by locals and hidden in the local dunes, there were also quite a few drunken residents.
I was told by an uncle of mine that he and his friends hid quite a stash of whisky in the hills and retrieved them later, that is where fact ends and supposition begins.
 My aunt lived about 200 yards down the road from the uncle mentioned above, did he give her some of the booze? Was this bottle one of those rescued from the beach? There is no label on the bottle, was it washed off in the sea? But the seal ties into the period after the date King George V died. We will never know.
 Aunty was not a whisky drinker but she was a hoarder so she stored it in a wardrobe. and left me to wonder for the rest of my days

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