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Article #77: History of a Message in a Bottle

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History of a Message in a Bottle, Broderick,Jr.,13, who wrote the note as
Believe it or not, Messages in bottles part of a class project two years ago.
have been used through out history, and 'I'm writing a letter back.'
here are some documented cases ... Broderick this week received a letter
Queen Elizaeth I of England in the 16th from Anna Isabel Chaves Sousa, 16, who
Century used bottles to carry lives on the island of Santa Maria.
intelligence reports. He was a sixth-grade student of teacher
"Elizabeth I once received an Lynda Stofen at a local elementary school
intelligence report by this means and was when he and his two-dozen classmates
so disconcerted to find it had been launched their message bottles with the
opened by a boatman at Dover that she help of a fisherman, who tossed them into
appointed an official Uncorker of Bottles the ocean. The girl wrote back that her
and decreed that no unauthorized person brother, a fisherman, picked up the quart
might open a message-carrying bottle, on bottle at sea. Wayne's letter was the
pain of death". second from the school to net an answer.
"The strangest case was perhaps that of In November 1982, former sixth grader
Chunosuke Matsuyama, a Japanese seaman Frank Marston heard from a Spanish
who was wrecked with 44 shipmates in merchant navy captain of the Canary
1784. Shortly before he and his Islands off North Africa.
companions died of starvation on a Miss Stofan said sea message projects are
Pacific coral reef, Matsuyama carved a good writing, ocean and geography
brief account of their tragedy on a piece exercises as students speculate where the
of wood, sealed it in a bottle, and then messages will drift. And Wayne said he
threw it into the sea. It was washed up also made a new friend. Anna asked him to
150 years later in 1935 at the very be a pen pal".
seaside village where Matsuyama had been In the Lodi, California News Sentinel
born". Newspaper appeared the following UPI
"When he was postmaster general for the article on Friday, August 21, 1987,
American colonies, Benjamin Franklin entitled,
realized that, because their whaler "Writer of 31 year old note in bottle
captains knew the currents much better found"
than their English counterparts, American "Genoa, Wisconsin-
ships were crossing the Atlantic much Joel Gruhn was only 8 years old in 1956
quicker than the British mail packets. He when he scrawled a note, plugged it in a
therefore compiled a chart using both the ketchup bottle and had his father toss it
whalers' lore and information he obtained into the Mississippi River. This week
by dropping bottles into the Gulf Stream Gruhn discovered a Genoa man found the
and asking the finders to return them. bottle and the note last October and had
The information he recorded is little been looking for him ever since. Duane
changed today". Froh, 40, pulled the bottle from the
"In 1875 the crew of the Canadian bark, Mississippi October 31, 175 miles south
Lennie, mutinied and murdered the of Minneapolis, where it had been tossed
officers. A steward who was spared in. He showed it to his wife, Diane, and
because he could navigate steered them to they tried to find its sender. 'My age is
the French coast, telling them it was 8 years old and one-half. I weigh 65
Spain, and surreptitiously dropped pounds. I am 4 feet and 5 inches high.
several bottles over the side revealing The writer of this note is Joe ... . .'
the whole story. The French authorities the note said, becoming undecipherable at
found one, boarded the ship, and arrested the end. It was dated April 2, 1956, and
the surprised mutineers". had a Mound, Minnesota address".
"Fragile as it is, a well-sealed bottle In the Santa Rosa, California, Press
is one of the world's most seaworthy Democrat Newspaper appeared the following
objects. It will bob safely through Associated Press (AP) article in June of
hurricanes that can sink great ships. And 1984, entitled,
for most practical purposes glass lasts "Child's bottled message reaches England"
forever. In 1954, 18 bottles were "Providence, Rhode Island-
salvaged from a ship sunk 250 years Stuffing a message in a bottle and
before off the English coast. The liquor tossing it into the ocean with the hope
in them was unrecognizable, but the of someone ever finding it is the stuff
bottles were good as new". of children's stories- a dream that
"It is impossible to predict the seldom comes true. But James Westerman is
direction a bottle will take. Of two a believer. Westerman thought his
bottles dropped together off the handicapped students would find it fun to
Brazilian coast, one drifted east for 130 put messages in bottles found on the
days and was found on a beach in Africa; beach and toss them into Narragansett
the other floated northwest for 190 days, Bay. Last week, more than three years
reaching Nicaragua". after Westerman's students last played
"Speed is also bound to vary according to the message-in-the-bottle game, a letter
wind and current. A bottle might be arrived for Bernice Graser, the principal
completely becalmed or, if caught up by of Westerman's Pleasant View School. It
the Gulf Stream at its raciest, might was from 10 year old Jayne Ayre of
travel along at four knots and cover as Barnstaple, England, who wrote that she
many as 100 miles a day". found the bottle January 29, while taking
"The longest bottle voyage ever is a Sunday stroll on a beach in southwest
thought to have been made by a bottle England with her father. The note inside
known as the Flying Dutchman. It was fell apart when they pulled it out, but
launched by a German scientific the managed to paste it together, she
expedition in 1929 in the southern Indian said. The sender's name, Nomp Travis, was
Ocean. Inside was a message, which could clearly legible, as was the return
be read without breaking the bottle, address: Pleasant View School, Province,
asking the finder to report where he R.I.
found it and throw it back into the sea. I found your name on it and was thrilled
It apparently caught an eastgoing to see it had come all the way from
current, which carried it to the southern America,' the girl wrote to Nomp. She
tip of South America. There it was found, also enclosed a clipping from the North
reported, and thrown back again several Devon Advertiser about her find".
times. Eventually, it moved out into the In the Santa Rosa, California, Press
Atlantic, then again into the Indian Democrat Newspaper appeared the following
Ocean, passing roughly the spot where it AP article on April 27, 1985, entitled,
had been dropped, and was cast ashore on "Refugees Find Freedom, Note in a bottle
the west coast of Australia in 1935. It changes lives"
had covered 16,000 miles in 2,447 days (a "Los Angeles-
little over 6 1/2 years)- a respectable A Vietnamese refugee family arrived in
average of more than six nautical miles a the United States on Friday to a tearful
day". welcome from an American couple whose
"In 1953 a bottle was found in Tasmania bottled message floated 9,000 miles to
37 years after it had been dropped the shores of Thailand and answered their
overboard by two Australian soldiers on prayers for freedom.
their way to France in a troopship. The 'Welcome to the United States of
mother of one of the soldiers recognized America,' Dorothy Peckham told the family
the handwriting of her son who had been as reporters and photographers swamped
killed in action in 1918". the refugees at Los Angeles International
Historical note: Australia fought for her Airport after an 18-hour flight from
mother country, England, against Germany Singapore. Hoa Van Nguyen, 31, a former
on the battlefields of France and Turkey South Vietnamese soldier, told reporters
during World War I. Remarkably, Tasmania through an interpreter that he's 'the
is a State in the country of Australia. most lucky man in the world.' He said he
"A message found on a beach in Maine in doesn't know why what he called 'a sixth
1944 read: 'Our ship is sinking. SOS sense' prompted him to pick up the bottle
didn't do any good. Think it's the end. carrying the message from John Henry
Maybe this message will get to the U.S. Peckham and his wife. Nguyen, 31, flew in
some day.' It was identified as coming Friday afternoon with his wife, Joang
from the USS Beatty, a destroyer Kim, 27, who clung to his arm and said
torpedoed with heavy loss of life nothing, their 16 month old son and
somewhere off Gibraltar on November 6, Nguyen's 17 year old brother, Cuong Van.
1943". Peckham took the sleeping baby, Hoang Gia
Historical note: the bottle from the Thay Nguyen, and grinned widely despite
sunken American warship floated to the tears that streamed down his face. Nguyen
shores of that country during World War then gave the Peckhams a present, a
II. The destroyer was probably sunk by a picture he had crafted while in a refugee
German submarine in the Atlantic Ocean camp in Thailand.
off the Southwest coast of Spain. The family was whisked out of the airport
"...both the British and U.S. Navies have by officials from the Catholic Welfare
used bottles extensively to compile Bureau, who settled the refugees in an
intricate current charts. And the Echo Park apartment rented for them by
movements of oil slicks, mines, and even the Peckhams".
fish have been predicted with help of This information collected from Reader's
seaborne bottles". Digest Strange Stories, Amazing Facts,
"Paolina and Ake Viking were married in printed by the Reader's Digest
Sicily in the autumn of 1958, thanks to a Association, Inc., Pleasantville, New
far-traveling bottle. Two years earlier York in 1976. To order a copy contact
Ake, a bored young Swedish sailor on a Reader's Digest call 800-723-1241 to
ship far out at sea, had dropped a bottle obtain a back issue.
overboard with a message asking any As you can see there are many uses for a
pretty girl who found it to write. message in a bottle through out history,
Paolina's father, a Sicilian fisherman, even today new uses for this age old
picked it up and passed it to his communication device have gone
daughter for a joke. Continuing the joke, commercial.
Paolina sent off a note to the young A Message in a Bottle as a gift,
sailor. The correspondence quickly grew souvenir, alternative to Flowers.
warmer. Ake visited Sicily, and the With the invention of the world wide web
marriage soon followed their first one creative entrepreneur brought the
meeting". world its first Message in a bottle gift.
In the Lodi, California News Sentinel DreamWeaver Studios, brought the first
Newspaper appeared the following United MIB(message in a bottle) to the world via
Press International (UPI) article on the world wide web. This message in a
Friday, September 6, 1985, entitled, bottle is used for every and any
"Message in a bottle found, in nine occasion, from birthday gifts, to
years" Christmas gifts, anniversaries,
"Berlin- To say I am sorry, to say I love you.
A message in a bottle dropped into the lets you design your own or choose from
Baltic Sea was found nine years later in dozens different selections for all
San Francisco, the East Berlin daily occasions and feelings. Since DreamWeaver
newspaper Tribune said Thursday. The Studios creation many variations of the
bottle, with numbered message '4,764,' message in a bottle gift product have
was one of 13,000 'posted' into the sea sprung up all over the world.
at Oresund between Denmark and Sweden on DreamWeaver Studios paved the way for a
August 7, 1976, by the East German message in a bottle to be used as wedding
Institute for Marine Studies in and party invitations. Imagine announcing
Warnemuende, the paper said". your destination wedding with a message
In the Lodi, California News Sentinel in a bottle. Tired of plain boring
Newspaper appeared the following UPI invitations, send your guests a message
article on Friday, July13, 1984, in a bottle.
entitled, A message in a bottle is not limited to
"Note in bottle answered after almost two wedding, but party invitations,
years" promotional products, giveaways at trade
"South Portland, Maine- shows, numerous uses can be found at
Nearly two years ago a South Portland boy DreamWeaver Studios website
wrote a note and stuck it in a bottle A message in a bottle has come along way
that was tossed into the Atlantic. He from the time of Queen Elizabeth, now
forgot about it but this week he got an they are gifts for any occasion and the
answer from the Azores- more than 2,500 recipient will never forget the person
miles away.'I didn't think the bottle who sends them a message in a bottle.
would make it,' said Wayne






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