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