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Message In A Bottle

I constantly nag my friend who goes on cruises to do messages in a bottle. I must send this to her.
 
  1. ITV Report
  2. 19 April 2016 at 1:42pm
‘Oldest message in a bottle’ breaks world record

A message in a bottle which washed up more than 108 years after it was thrown into the sea has been confirmed as the world's oldest.
Inside was a postcard asking that it be sent to the Marine Biological Association of the UK - and promising the sender a shilling if they returned the bottle.

The association in Plymouth said the bottle was one of some 1,000 released as part of research carried out by marine expert George Parker Bidder.
After 108 years, four months and 18 days, retired postal worker Marianne Winkler found the bottle in April last year during her holiday on Amrum - about 310 miles from the UK.

She sent it back to the UK and received an old English shilling (5p) in return.
Guinness World Records has confirmed the message in a bottle as the world's oldest.

"The postcard asked the finder to fill out information about where the bottle was found, if it was trawled up, what the boat's name was, and asked once the postcard was completed for it to be returned to a George Parker Bidder in Plymouth for a reward of one shilling.
Mr Bidder was a president at the Marine Biological Association from 1939 to 1945, so our receptionist was somewhat confused."
– Guy Baker, from the Marine Biological AssociationAccording to Baker, George Parker Bidder released 1,200 bottles between 1904-1906, but estimated that 55% were trawled up by fishermen each year.

He said "some bottles were never returned, assumed to be lost in the open ocean forever. The bottle discovered in Germany was from a set released on November 30 1906."

The previous record for a message in a bottle was 99 years and 43 days . It was found west of the Shetland Islands in July 2013.

Last updated Tue 19 Apr 2016

http://www.itv.com/news/2016-04-19/oldest-message-in-a-bottle-breaks-world-record/

This story originally surfaced in August last year (see previous page). It's been recycled now because of the Guinness World Records update.
 
.. She sent it back to the UK and received an old English shilling (5p) in return.
[/QUOTE]

I especially like this touch to the story ... someone had a sense of humour with added right and wrong ...
 
Since that holiday, eight years ago, I’ve found more than 80 messages in bottles, mostly on the Turks and Caicos, which oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer calls a “flotsam magnet”. Bottles have been washing up on the islands since at least the 1800s; the Turks and Caicos National Museum features a large collection that belonged to its late founder. ...

... And here's another one ...

BOTTLED MESSAGE SENT OUT TO SEA IS FOUND 5 DECADES LATER

A

HAMPTON, N.H. (AP) -- A bottled message sent out to sea by a New Hampshire man more than five decades ago has been returned to his daughter.

WMUR-TV (http://bit.ly/2dFgqsy ) reports the message was discovered by Clint Buffington of Utah while he was vacationing in the Turks and Caicos.

Buffington says he found a Coke bottle half-buried in the sand. The note inside the bottle said, "Return to 419 Ocean Blvd. and receive a reward of $150 from Tina, owner of the Beachcomber."

The Beachcomber was a Hampton motel owned by the now-deceased parents of Paula Pierce in 1960.

Pierce's father had written the note as a joke and cast it into the Atlantic Ocean.

Buffington flew to New Hampshire to deliver the message to Pierce. She made good on the promised reward.

SOURCE: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-10-25-09-02-47
 
Message on a football...
Lost Aberdeen football washes up 1,000 miles away off Norway

A football belonging to an Aberdeen club has been found more than 1,000 miles away, washed up off the far north coast of Norway.
The under 19s team ball went over a fence at Banks o' Dee FC's ground into the River Dee.
It is thought to have been swept into the North Sea and drifted around the coast of Norway to the island of Vanna.

The club was emailed to say the ball, with its name on the side, had been found.

[Map]
News of its far-off resting place came from Johnny Mikalsen, who tracked down the owners of the ball from the club's name scrawled in pen on the side of it.

"Hi! You properly have one of the best long distance kickers in the world," he wrote. "A friend of mine found a football with your club name on by the seaside.
"It has travelled quite a distance. We are located 1,800km (1,118 miles) north of Aberdeen, on an island called Vanna, 10km [six miles] north of Tromso, the capital of North Norway.
"The football is just a little bit dirty after such a long distance, but fully useable. See enclosed picture."

Mr Mikalsen said the ball had been found between driftwood.
He told BBC Scotland he is planning to visit Scotland, adding: "Maybe it's possible to bring it over. That would be nice."

Banks o' Dee secretary Tom Ewan said the news came as a pleasant surprise.
"It's the Norse saga of the long distance football," he said.
Mr Ewan said most of the balls that go into the river are never seen again.
The club hopes to be reunited with this one - and may invite its Norwegian finders to be guests of honour at a game.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-39578639
 
Here's one that didn't get very far - averaging something like 1 - 1.2 miles per year in its progress along the coast.

Message in a bottle discovered after 36 years

A message placed in a bottle has finally been found after 36 years in the ocean.

On June 10, 1981 in Florida's Fernandina Beach, Douglas Stephens sent a message in a glass bottle requesting just one thing: that the person who finds it contacts him to let him know.

In mid-June this year, Ryan Burchett found himself gifted with that task.

While fishing with his friends and family at Little St. Simon's Island in Southern Georgia, Burchett found the bottle on the shore.

After finding that Stephen's was no longer at the address listed in his message, Burchett went to a local shop, Southeast Adventure Outfitters, for help.
The business used Facebook to help track Stephens down.

Burchett found Stephens in Acworth, Georgia, a city not too far from Atlanta. ...

NOTE: Little St. Simon's Island GA is on the order of 30 miles north of Fernandina Beach FL.

SOURCE: https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/06/23/message-in-a-bottle-discovered-after-36-years/22730661/
 
Here's one that didn't get very far - averaging something like 1 - 1.2 miles per year in its progress along the coast.

NOTE: Little St. Simon's Island GA is on the order of 30 miles north of Fernandina Beach FL.

SOURCE: https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/06/23/message-in-a-bottle-discovered-after-36-years/22730661/
I'm looking at the area on Bing Maps. That length of coast is heavily indented by little rivers and creeks. Probably the tide swept the bottle into several of these, where it could have been hung up for years until conditions changed to circumstances more favourable to washing it back out to sea!

If it had been thrown into the sea further south, by Fort Lauderdale say, the Gulf Stream would probably have grabbed it and whooshed it north at up to Four Knots! The speed decreases as the Gulf Stream spreads into the North Atlantic Drift, but the bottle could eventually have reached Europe!

Several items from America have made it ashore over here, and I've probably posted about some of them, maybe on the Lone CG thread...?
 
Hah! Here's a coincidence. This evening I was casting around for something to watch when I came across this 2015 documentary:

Atlantic: The wildest ocean on Earth
1. Life stream

In the wild North Atlantic, massive whale pods, giant turtles and monstrous jellyfish ride the Gulf Stream, a huge ocean current that becomes a migration superhighway and helps warm northern Europe. Meanwhile, fishermen battle for survival in mountainous seas as they try to reap the current's natural fertility

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p02wnh9k/atlantic-the-wildest-ocean-on-earth-1-life-stream
 
But the best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft agley...
Man's romantic bottle quest backfires

An attempt by a man to find love by releasing thousands of bottles containing romantic messages backfired after he was reported to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa). :p

Widower Craig Sullivan, who is 49 and originally from North Lanarkshire, took 2,000 bottles to beaches and rivers.
However, his efforts resulted in him being reported for littering in the River Cree in Dumfries and Galloway.
Sepa said the bottles had since been removed from the river by locals.

Mr Sullivan, who runs a consultancy company in London, said he embarked upon his plan to send thousands of messages in the bottles following the death of his wife Julia from breast cancer 18 months ago.
He said he wanted to find someone for companionship and that he had been inspired by The Police song Message in a Bottle.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-40738484


 
It didn't backfire. He got 50 offers of a date.
 
An acquaintance of mine was taking her seamanship test. One of a small group on a powerboat off the Greek island of Paros. During the test the instructor lit up a cigarette and passed the empty carton to one of the trainees, asking her to put it aside.
She threw it in the sea and was promptly failed.

You never throw anything into the sea except a life ring.

INT21
 
Strewth! Now that's a record.

Oldest-known message in a bottle found on WA beach 132 years after being tossed overboard
By Charlotte Hamlyn
Updated about 4 hours ago

A Perth family has made an extraordinary historical discovery after becoming bogged on a West Australian beach.

Tonya Illman was walking across sand dunes just north of Wedge Island, 180 kilometres north of Perth, when she noticed something sticking out of the sand.

"It just looked like a lovely old bottle, so I picked it up thinking it might look good in my bookcase," she said.

But Mrs Illman realised she had likely uncovered something far more special when out fell a damp, rolled up piece of paper tied with string.

9519618-3x2-700x467.jpg

PHOTO: The world's oldest-known message in a bottle — a form filled out as part of a German experiment to understand ocean currents. (Supplied: Kym Illman)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-06/oldest-known-message-in-a-bottle-found-on-wa-beach/9518632
 
Here's another found bottle from a past ocean currents experiment ...
Texas couple find 56-year-old message in a bottle
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said a message in a bottle found on a Texas beach was one of 7,863 released about 56 years ago.

NOAA Fisheries said Candy and Jim Duke were walking along Padre Island National Seashore near their Corpus Christi home when they found the bottle ...

A faded orange note inside the glass said "BREAK BOTTLE," but the couple instead elected to carefully extract the bottle's contents without breaking it.

NOAA said the bottle was one of 7,863 released between February 1962 and December 1963. The agency said the bottles contained postcards and instructions for the finder to mail the cards with the date and location of the discovery in exchange for a 50-cent reward.

"The releases were part of a study to determine the role that water currents play in the movement of young shrimp from offshore spawning grounds to inshore nursery grounds," NOAA said. ...

It was unclear whether NOAA Fisheries gave them their 50-cent reward.

FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2019/0...6-year-old-message-in-a-bottle/5141550071750/
 
Here's a message launched into Lake Michigan and found 24 years later on the Florida gulf coast. The most likely path it took would have been a tricky route from Lake Michigan into the Mississippi River watershed and down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
Message in a bottle travels from Michigan to Florida in 24 years

A man relaxing in the water on the Florida coast discovered a message in a bottle that had been thrown into Lake Michigan 24 years earlier.

Gary Henrickson said he was enjoying the gulf coast water in Santa Rosa Beach when he spotted a bottle bobbing in the water nearby.

Henrickson uncorked the mystery bottle and discovered it contained a message from a man who had tossed it into Lake Michigan in 1995

"The note says: Hello, June 16, 1995, Frankfurt, Michigan. I've tossed this bottle into the water to bring joy to anyone who finds it. This whiskey bottle was full a few short hours earlier. If you find this call me, and I'll buy you a drink," Henrickson told WTHR-TV.

Henrickson said he attempted to send a text message to the number on the note, and to his surprise, it will still in service and still belonged to the author of the note.

"He's 49 year's old now," Henrickson said. "It was a whole different time in his life, he said. He threw it in Lake Michigan, and we kind of talked about how it could've gotten down here. It's just an amazing, long, long way it had to go." ...
FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2019/0...ichigan-to-Florida-in-24-years/5101563461235/
 
Must be the peak message bottle season ... Here's another one, which drifted from Maine to Scotland ...
Message in a bottle travels 2,833 miles across the ocean in 21 years

A Scottish family vacationing on one of the country's islands found a message in the bottle launched from Maine about 21 years earlier.

Mike Bolam said he and his family were on the Scottish island of North Uist when they noticed a plastic bottle on the beach.

"Hello, my name is Matt Rhoades. Please write back," the message inside read.

Bolam was able to find Rhoades on Twitter. The sender, now 34, said he was 13 and living in New Hampshire when he threw the bottle into the ocean in Wells, Maine, in 1998.

The bottle traveled about 2,833 miles across the ocean. ...

SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2019/0...s-across-the-ocean-in-21-years/6881563562553/
 
And another

Found: British author of 50-year-old message in a bottle that washed up in Australia

South Australian man and his son found the bottle, which was dropped from an ocean liner by 13-year-old Paul Gilmore in 1969

The British author of a message in a bottle that recently washed up on the South Australian coast after more than half a century has been found – and he is currently out to sea, his sister says.

In it the teenager says he is travelling on board the Fairstar, a ship that brought many British migrants to Australia during the 1960s under the assisted passage scheme.

The boy urges whoever finds the note to reply to him and gives an address in Melbourne.
On Thursday, the ABC reported that it had tracked down Gilmore’s sister, Annie Crossland.

“It’s amazing, absolutely incredible,” she told the ABC. “He’ll be chuffed to bits.”

In another twist, Crossland told the ABC from the UK that he was currently on a cruise in the Baltic Sea.

“The last time he was on a ship was probably going to Australia. Cruises aren’t his thing,” she said.

Crossland, who was on board, recalled seeing her brother writing letters and dropping them into bottles. He had dropped about six into the ocean, he said.

Oceanographer David Griffin said the bottle could not have remained afloat for 50 years off the south coast because “the ocean never stays still”.

Griffin suspected that the bottle had been buried on a beach for years, then refloated by a storm.
 
And they just keep on a'comin' ...
Alaska man finds 50-year-old message in a bottle from Russian sailor

An Alaska man found a message in a bottle that had been tossed into the water by a sailor on a Russian fishing boat 50 years earlier.

Tyler Ivanoff said he was north of the Bering Strait when he found the bottle containing a letter dated June 20, 1969.

Ivanoff took to social media for help translating the Russian letter, which was authored by a sailor aboard the Sulak, a fishing boat from the Soviet Far East fishing fleet.

The sailor said the ship was based out of the Russian city of Vladivostok. Records show the Sulak was decommissioned in 1992.

"We wish you good health, many years of life and happy sailing," the sailor wrote.
SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2019/0...n-a-bottle-from-Russian-sailor/2111565279076/
 
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This more recent Associated Press story includes the follow-up to the story posted above - including the reaction of the Russian man who'd launched the message in a bottle 50 years earlier. The quoted excerpt below focuses on this follow-up ...
Alaska man discovers message in bottle from Russian Navy

... Ivanoff shared his discovery on Facebook where Russian speakers translated the message to be a greeting from a Cold War Russian sailor dated 1969, officials said. The message included an address and a request for a response from the person who finds it.

Reporters from the state-owned Russian media network, Russia-1, tracked down the original writer, Capt. Anatoliy Botsanenko.

“It looks like my handwriting. For sure! East industry fishing fleet! E-I-F-F!” Botsanenko said.

The message was sent while he was aboard the Sulak, a ship whose construction he oversaw in 1966 and that he sailed on until 1970, Botsanenko said.

When shown pictures of the bottle and note, Botsanenko teared up in joy, officials said.

At one point in his career, he was the youngest captain in the Pacific at 33 years old, Botsanenko said.

Ivanoff was not sure if he would return a message, but considered writing his own letters with his children.

“But that’s something I could probably do with my kids in the future. Just send a message in a bottle out there and see where it goes,” Ivanoff said.
SOURCE: https://www.apnews.com/fd7e212fa3244829a7c8c482cc347641
 
Here's a different kind of message-in-a-bottle story. This bottle is to be put back into the ocean to continue its intended "mission" ...
Message in a bottle with family member's ashes found in Florida

A piece of "lost property" turned in to Florida sheriff's deputy after being found on a beach wound up being a message in a bottle that contained the ashes of a beloved family member.

The Walton County Sheriff's Office said Sgt. Paula Pendleton was on patrol Thursday when she was given a piece of "lost property" found on a Gulf of Mexico beach.

The item turned out to be a bottle containing two notes, four $1 bills and a small pouch of human ashes.

"This bottle contains the cremation ashes of my son, Brian, who suddenly and unexpectedly passed on March 9, 2019," one of the notes said. "More than anything, he longed to be free, so I'm sending him on one last adventure."

The note said Brian Mullins, of Dallas, Texas, died at age 39.

"Hi, my name is Peyton," another note said. "When my father passed, I was 14 years old. It has struck our whole family pretty hard and, so far, it has been a very hard road. But, like my granny said, he loved to be free. So, that's exactly what we are doing," she wrote.

The notes said the $4 enclosed in the bottle was meant to cover the cost of a phone call to the family to let them know where the bottle ended up.

Pendleton said she contacted the family via text message to tell them Brian's journey would continue.

"I am putting the note back into the bottle with Brian's ashes and delivering it to a friend who is a charter boat captain," she wrote. "He has offered to bring Brian way out into the Gulf so he can continue his adventure.

"But, before that, I want you to know he got to do a ride-a-long with a deputy before drifting out once again."

SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2019/0...shes-found-in-Florida/7471568146551/?ts_on=13
 
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Here's another different kind of message-in-a-bottle story ... In this case, the message was meant to be found by someone immediately ...
Message in a bottle gets rescue for stranded hikers in California

A family of hikers who became stranded above a 40-foot waterfall in California were rescued thanks to a message in a bottle and pair of strangers who found the request for help.

Custis Whitson, 44, said he was backpacking the Arroyo Seco River with his girlfriend and his 13-year-old son and after about two and a half days of trekking, they ended up at the Arroyo Seco narrows, a spot on the river surrounded by 40-foot walls of solid rock.

Whitson said the river current was too strong for them to pass, and he discovered a rope that he expected to be in place for them to rappel down was missing.

The hikers searched the area and discovered they were trapped, but they could hear voices somewhat nearby. Their calls for help went unanswered, so they carved "Help" on a Nalgene water bottle and inserted a note reading: "We are stuck at the waterfall -- get help please."

The family tossed the bottle over the waterfall and set up some rocks on a tarp reading "S.O.S." to help rescue crews find them.

Hours later, they were found by a California Highway Patrol helicopter. The CHP said two hikers found the message in a bottle and contacted authorities to begin a search.

The hikers who found the bottle didn't give authorities their names, but Whitson said he is hoping to identify them so he can thank them personally.

SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2019/0...nded-hikers-in-California/1621568221171/?sl=5
 
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Message in a bottle found 112 years later at N.J. college
Updated Nov 27, 2019;Posted Nov 27, 2019

By Barry Carter | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Two Newark bricklayers took a break from building a support wall to craft a message when they were working on the original building at Montclair State University.

When they were done, the men placed their note in a beer bottle and stored it in a secret compartment between the first and third layers of brick. On parchment paper, in blue ink and cursive letters, this what they said.

“This is to certify that this wall was built by two bricklayers from Newark, N.J. by the names of William Hanley and James Lennon, members of No. 3. of the B.M.I.U. of America.

That was 112 years ago on July 3, 1907.

It stayed there, untouched, until this summer when Robert Kanaby, a demolition laborer, was working on the renovation of College Hall on MSU’s campus.

https://www.nj.com/essex/2019/11/message-in-a-bottle-found-112-years-later-at-nj-college.html
 
This message in a bottle made it from North Carolina to Morocco.
N.C. student's message in a bottle travels 4,000 miles to Morocco

A North Carolina girl's message in a bottle traveled more than 4,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean and was plucked out of the water by a fisherman in Morocco.

Vivian Byerly, then a third grader in Susan Ferguson's Greensboro Day School class, wrote the message in April 2019 as part of a class assignment.

Byerly and her classmates each wrote their own messages in bottles ...

The bottles were thrown into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Morehead City in May 2019 ...

One of the bottles was found by a fishing boat not long after entering the water, but there was no word from any of the others until Sunday, when Ferguson received an email.

The email, from a Moroccan fisherman, said Byerly's bottle had been found on White Beach near Guelmim, Morocco. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2020/0...-travels-4000-miles-to-Morocco/3601596738449/
 
Here's a bottled note that took 11 years to get from the UK to Massachusetts. I'm not sure whether the little girl who found it (see photo) is smiling with pride at her discovery or grimacing with disgust for having to hold the bottle for the photo.

Message-in-a-bottle-travels-from-Britain-to-Massachusetts.jpg
Message in a bottle travels from Britain to Massachusetts

A 3-year-old girl visiting a Massachusetts beach with her family made an unusual discovery in the sand -- a message in a bottle that crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 11 years.

The Chin family said they were visiting Falmouth Heights Beach when 3-year-old Lila found the bottle while searching for shells in the sand. ...

The family removed the cork from the bottle after the Saturday discovery and found a message.

"Sent from the U.K. March 3, 2009," the note read.

The family said they are planning to write their own message and throw the bottle back into the ocean.

SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2020/0...-from-Britain-to-Massachusetts/5921597689032/
 
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Here's bottled note that took 11 years to get from the UK to Massachusetts. I'm not sure whether the little girl who found it (see photo) is smiling with pride at her discovery or grimacing with disgust for having to hold the bottle for the photo.

Ewww! Mommy, it's from Britain! It's icky! Must I hold this?
 
Here's one that either never drifted very far or managed to make it back to its area of origin ...
Kayaker reunites author with message in a bottle from 1985

A kayaker who discovered a message in a bottle floating in a Delaware river was able to reunite the letter with the woman who wrote it 35 years ago.

Brad Wachsmuth thought the bottle bobbing in the water about 2 miles (3 kilometers) offshore of the Broadkill River was a piece of trash when he spotted it Aug. 8, just a few days after Tropical Storm Isaias swept through the area ...

“As we usually do as kayakers, we try to pick up trash out of the water when we can” ...

But Wachsmuth’s friend noticed there was something inside, and the two fished out the letter written by Cathi Riddle and her cousin, Stacey Wells, dated 35 years ago — Aug. 1, 1985. It described their family pets and asked potential future readers if they had any of their own, among other childhood musings.

Wachsmuth brought the letter to the Milton Historical Society and a curator reached out to family and put the two in touch ...

Riddle still lived just miles away in Milton, and Wachsmuth was able to return the letter to her Thursday. He said he was surprised it ended up in the same waters after decades of storms and tides, but Riddle suggested that maybe, it was fate.

“My cousin and I were staying at the beach and we decided to write the letter and send it out and see how far it went” ... “It didn’t travel very far, but perhaps it traveled the world and came back.”

SOURCE: https://apnews.com/19cd4a00f7b43f03056e0ca29994a96f
 
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