Late November 1969. MS Portoria is on a voyage across the North Sea when a storm hits. The ship loses part of its cargo near the Dutch Wadden Islands, a natural barrier off the north coast of the Netherlands.
The lost containers house an eclectic collection of goods, including 28 casks of whiskey – 17 of them wash ashore on Terschelling, the second largest of the islands. The incident has overtones of Whisky Galore, the 1947 novel (based on true events) in which Scottish islanders plunder a consignment of whisky from a boat that runs aground on the shores of Eriskay.
After the Portoria’s accident, on 2 December 1969, local newspaper the Leeuwarder Courant publishes a lengthy article about a small group of residents having found and “appropriated” the casks of whisky that had washed ashore.
A citation from the newspaper article, loosely translated,
