THE DRIFTING BOTTLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 224, 10 December 1927, Page 10

THE DRIFTING BOTTLE

ROMANCES OF OCEAN

“A sad echo of the war has recently been heard. A bottle has, been found at sea containing a message that a vessel had been torpedoed and was doomed,” says the “Nautical Magazine.” “It would be interesting to know what its wanderings had been all this time, and surprise may be caused at its safety after so long; but a well-sealed bottle is impervious to the waves, and will remain afloat, providing that it does not strike any hard substance. For instance, a bottle was found ill February, 1914, containing a message from the Nutfield, which left the Tyne for the Mediterranean in 1904 and was not heard of again. The employment of bottle messages at sea is not so modern as is generally believed. It is recorded that in 1598 a fisherman found a bottle containing a parchment. The latter was sent to the Lord High Admiral, and was to the effect that Holland had seized the remote colony of Nova Zembla. Queen Elizabeth was so impressed by the unique manner by which she had become aware of this important news that she issued instructions that all similar ocean messengers were to be sent to the Government unopened, and went so far as to establish an office, ‘The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles.’ “The ways of the Government of those days were as peculiar as they are to-day, as the first to hold the appointment came from well inland, a Thomas Tonfield. of Coley, Berks, who, in 1615, opened no less than 50 bottles! An officer in the British Navy ascertained a great deal about ocean currents by their means, and published a ‘Bottle Chart’ in the ‘Nautical Magazine’ of some years ago. “Not much can be gleaned as to the little wanderer’s watery path, but at any rate the time and place of its commencement is known, and if when found it is returned to the Admiralty, together with the longitude and latitude, some useful data is provided. “There is, however, a type of bottle message the use of which is almost criminal, those which are sent adrift by thoughtless passengers, and contain messages of a frivolous nature. If a vessel stops for one of these only to find its trivial character, she will probably ignore the next one, which might contain vital information of a ship hi distress, or the sad confirmation of an addition to that ever-in-creasing fleet which is posted as ‘Missing.’ ”