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Message In A Bottle

I annually used to chuck a bottle with my name and address into the sea at Aberdeen/Stonehaven as a kid. Never did hear anything back from anyone :(

Thinking about it though, if I was walking along the beach today and saw a tatty battered coke bottle I probably wouldn't stop to check if it had a message inside!
 
McAvennie_ said:
I annually used to chuck a bottle with my name and address into the sea at Aberdeen/Stonehaven as a kid. Never did hear anything back from anyone :(

I once chucked 8 plastic bottles with my e-mail address into the Swiss River Aare. I got 2 replies, one from a few kilometers away.

Already at that time the idea of "this might be illegal littering" occured to me. But I couldn't resist doing the experiment.
 
It's not the fact that it is illegal that should have stopped you, your conscience and sense of moral duty should have stopped you.
Chucking plastic bottles in a river is no better than walking down the road and throwing your McDonalds wrapper on the floor. I'd make it a capital offence, I'm afraid - no appeal, sentence carried out there and then, head left on a spike (bio-degradable, nowt wrong with that)

I have, on more than one occasion, screeched to a halt, jumped out of my car, grabbed some wilfully discarded litter and forced miscreants to put it in the bin. After a 3am incident in a service station involving me kicking someone's car window in to return the Starbucks cups the occupants were refusing to put in a bin no more than 10 ft away, I try to limit my one-man War on Litter to typing replies on Message Boards, before I pick on someone a little more unhinged than me, who flattens or stabs me. (The 4 lads in that car didn't hang about, despite lacking a passenger window, thankfully. When the adreneline wore off, I turned from Lou Ferrigno into Mavis Riley.)
 
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LordRsmacker said:
The law doesn't need changing in the UK. If I walk down the street and throw my crisp packet away, I get fined, and rightly so.
Are people now and then fined for this sort of thing? I’m a foreigner and I’m genuinely curious.

I have, on more than one occasion, screeched to a halt, jumped out of my car, grabbed some wilfully discarded litter and forced miscreants to put it in the bin.
Once I saw someone toss some microwave-food package out of a passing car ... and 20 seconds later, a kid on a moped comes along and picks it up! Some kind of crime going on ...!
 
LordRsmacker said:
Chucking plastic bottles in a river is no better than walking down the road and throwing your McDonalds wrapper on the floor. I'd make it a capital offence, I'm afraid - no appeal, sentence carried out there and then, head left on a spike (bio-degradable, nowt wrong with that)

Of course you're right. Next time I'll use glass bottles with corks - no plastic anymore. ;)
 
bosskR said:
LordRsmacker said:
The law doesn't need changing in the UK. If I walk down the street and throw my crisp packet away, I get fined, and rightly so.
Are people now and then fined for this sort of thing? I’m a foreigner and I’m genuinely curious.

This certainly happens - I've got no ideas of figures, but there are cases. I used to work for a local newspaper, and one of the free weeklies carried a story about a grandma who was outraged that she got fined for her grand-daughter (who was about 6 or 7) throwing a crisp packet out of her car window (that's the grandmothers car, not the 7 year olds, btw ;) ).

Cue, next week, a bumper double size letters page full of vitriolic condemnation (quite rightly) of this grandmother allowing her charge to wilfully litter the streets.

I bet she wished she'd never brought it up!
 
A long, unusual and moving story:

Message in a bottle to a lost son found on a Kent beach led to a seven-year journey to trace the mother who wrote it
By Karen Liebreich
Last updated at 8:58 AM on 30th July 2010

A letter in a bottle is a thing of dreams, of pure romance. But one day, in spring 2002, a bright blue bottle in the shape of a teardrop washed up on a beach on the Isle of Sheppey. And a friend of mine found it.

It was a special edition Evian glass water bottle and inside it was a letter, tied with a pale blue ribbon.
When my friend got home, she unpicked the seal and unrolled the letter, whereupon two curls of hair — one light brown, one dark brown — fell onto the table.
The message, however, was in French, which she does not understand. And so she sent it to me.
Nothing could have prepared me for quite how moving it was. I am a fluent French speaker and, within a few lines, I was in tears. Indeed, as I unrolled it, I would never have guessed that I’d spend the next seven years searching for its author.

etc...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... z0v9aK5p3B
 
Sorry, can't speak. Choking on syrup. :lol:
 
Fluttermoth said:
escargot1 said:
Sorry, can't speak. Choking on syrup. :lol:
Ooooh, you're a hard woman ;)
She is that.

I've lost two kids (although not because they died). During one period of depression, years later, a psychiatric nurse told me I was still 'grieving for my family'.
 
If anyone tried to exploit my grief as this writer has, you'd see how hard I can be. :evil:
 
OK, none of us has a monopoly on grief. :(


But it's a bit harsh to accuse the writer of exploiting the mother's grief.
She wrote her book without knowing who the mother was (that was still a mystery at the time). And, eventually, when she did meet the mother, it was on the mother's conditions. (Indeed, we still don't know who the mother is, or where she lives.) And the mother could have refused to make any contact at all.

It seems to me that the mother did find a way of dealing with her grief, and has now moved on in her life.



(I thought I had too, but recent events have destroyed that hope... but that's going way OT.)
 
True. I'm suspicious.

Besides which, apart from the death itself, about which we're not told much, it sounds a boring story. The extract I read is written in a turgid style that I'd personally chuck out of the bath after the first chapter. :lol:

If the author is interested in how bereaved people privately commemorate deaths, she could have used the French message as an inspiration, rather than tracking the poor mother down like a dog. Seems inartistic to me.
 
escargot1 said:
If the author is interested in how bereaved people privately commemorate deaths, she could have used the French message as an inspiration, rather than tracking the poor mother down like a dog. Seems inartistic to me.
In fact, it was the mother who, via her son*, contacted the author, although she could have chosen to remain completely unknown and say nothing more than her Message in a Bottle had already said.

(* Not the dead one, obviously, although contacting the dead does appeal to some people. But not, I'd guess, an author 'with a history doctorate from Cambridge'.)
 
i get the feeling that the mother knew she'd be found sooner or later and wanted to have some control over her part in the end product!

The interesting subtext to this story is the difference between mourning and grieving. One is broadly public, one mainly private, and you can do one without the other.

A very private and personal part of grief is the process of accepting the loss and moving on. That is why there comes a point when acknowledgement of a stranger's bereavement becomes more formal.

After that, anything more personal is crass and intrusive. THAT'S why this story is exploitative.
 
Mother's message in a bottle to son killed in Afghanistan found by oil spill clean-up workers
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:41 AM on 6th August 2010

A message in a bottle written by the mother of a British soldier killed in Afghanistan has been found by workers cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Sarah Adams, 43, was on holiday in Barbados when she wrote the loving message about her son Private James Prosser, 21, who was killed by a roadside bomb.

She threw it into the sea and after floating 1,300 miles it was fished out of the water by workers cleaning up the oil leak from the BP pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico.
The workers were so moved by Mrs Adams' message they wrote to her to pay their own tribute to her son.

Mrs Adams said: 'I put the message in a bottle of Sambuca - because that was James's favourite drink.
'The message was all about James, how much we loved him and how much we miss him.
'I wanted to make everyone aware that we're responsible for the world we live in and not to forget the soldiers who have given up their lives.
'It was an open letter to anyone who found it - but I never thought it would be seen again.
'I'm so delighted it has been found by such caring people and that James has touched their lives as well.'

Mrs Adams tossed the bottle from a boat in the Caribbean on January 5 - and it turned up at Horn Island off the coast of Louisana.
In their letter to Mrs Adams, the workers said: 'Words cannot express our heartfelt sympathy to your family over the loss of James.
'Your letters describe a remarkable young man who was very loved by his family and friends.
'We extend our gratitude to James for the service he did in Afghanistan and we recognise the courage, the strength and bravery it requires to serve in the Armed Forces.
'You are in our thoughts as we all continue to pray for the safe return of our soldiers worldwide.
'As we are certain he did before his death, James has continued to touch the lives of many people in a positive way.
'Finding that bottle is something we will never forget.'

The workers from Progressive Pipeline Management also sent Mrs Adams a signed T-shirt from the crew and a photograph of them with the bottle.

James of the 2nd battalion Royal Welsh was was killed while driving his Warrior vehicle during a patrol in Helmand Province in September last year.

His family went to Barbados on holiday because they could not face a traditional Christmas at home without James.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0vohgjhsI
 
That french bottle. Something about it doesnt ring true

and that bottle depicted has never been in the sea.

And that last story, something I cant put my finger on, I cant see.

It seems a bit harsh to go all the way to Barbados because you cant face a xmas at home.

(and Xmas when you are bereaved is grim...anywhere)
 
True. However, it does happen. Kirsty MacColl was killed in an accident during a holiday in Mexico, where she'd taken her children shortly before xmas to take their minds off the accidental death of a friend.

Personally, I think spending xmas abroad after a bereavement sounds a good idea, and I would have done it myself a few years ago if I'd been up to arranging it.
 
Tsk. Sutton, you are the laziest stalker EVER. :roll:
 
Wo! Ho! Ho~! You are popular 'scarg.

All i could ever get out of him was rejection letters :lol: ;)
 
rynner2 said:
Message in a bottle to a lost son found on a Kent beach led to a seven-year journey to trace the mother who wrote it
By Karen Liebreich
Last updated at 8:58 AM on 30th July 2010
It's definitely the silly season; two weeks after the Mail published the above story, now the Guardian prints it too!

I found a message in a bottle

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... n-a-bottle

Students of journalism (aka trainee reporters) may care to compare and contrast. The rest of us can just get on with our lives! 8)
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
Wo! Ho! Ho~! You are popular 'scarg.

All i could ever get out of him was rejection letters :lol: ;)

You've either got it or you ain't. ;)
 
Walker finds a message in a bottle on Cornish beach

A woman from west Cornwall is hoping to trace the authors of a message left in a bottle washed up on a Cornish beach.
Teresa Boulden discovered the bottle while out walking on Praa Sands beach near Penzance last month.
The faded message suggests it was written by two Belgians. Mrs Boulden believes the bottle was thrown into the sea from an island off Brittany.

Two years ago another walker on Praa Sands beach spotted a separate message in a bottle.

Mrs Boulden who regularly uses Praa Sands beach, said: "I picked the bottle up and tipped the water out.
"There was a slip of paper sticking out. It was soaking wet but I managed to unravel it. The first word was 'Bonjour' and I thought that's exciting."
Mrs Boulden took the bottle home and dried out the message.
Although it is hard to read, she said it is possible to make out parts of the letter.

"There was a message saying they were from Belgium, staying on an island just off the coast of Brittany which was a mile wide."

Praa Sands beach was in the news a couple of years ago when Martin Leslie, a sector manager for the local coastguard, spotted another message in a bottle.
That one contained a romantic letter written in French, professing sadness at the end of an affair, along with a lock of hair.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-13759852

EDIT: Earlier Praa Sands story here:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... 982#918982
 
Schoolboy's message in a bottle turns up five months later on Danish beach
By Leon Watson
Last updated at 1:57 PM on 21st January 2012

A message in a bottle hurled into the sea by a British schoolboy has turned up 400 miles away in Denmark.
Noah Gill, 10, received a surprise e-mail from school children last week after they discovered the slime-covered bottle on a beach in Lemvig.
The bottle had slowly bobbed across the North Sea for five months before washing up on the Danish coastline.
And after finding the bottle, the Danish pupils quickly fired off the email to Noah to tell him how far his message had got.

Noah, from Hull, East Yorkshire, had launched the glass bottle into the sea off the Humberside coast five months ago during a family trip to Spurn Point.
But he never expected it to get any further than Withernsea - just 15 miles north.

The Bricknell Primary School pupil said: 'When it turned up, I thought "Wow". It was something fun to do.
'I wrote what I liked doing on the note and what I did and which school I go to. I threw it in the water at Spurn Point.
'I sort of forgot about it. I never thought it would go very far. Then a headmaster in Denmark got in touch with my dad and said he had found my bottle.
'I did not think that would happen. It’s lucky they got back in touch otherwise we would never have known where it got to.'

Noah's father Lawrence Gill said: 'We like to go to Spurn to spend time, we love it.
'Last August, we were thinking about what to do while we were there. And we thought we could do a message in a bottle.
'Noah wrote on it his name, age, school, where he lived and what he likes doing and our e-mail address.
'We found a glass bottle and sealed the top with wax so water would not get in it.
'Noah threw it out when the tide was going out so it had a chance of getting somewhere rather than just Immingham Docks.
'I think his mum and I were more excited than he was when we heard from Denmark. 8)
'After we had thrown it in, I did wonder sometimes where it was, and thought it had probably ended up at Withernsea.'

The headteacher of the Danish school got in touch with Noah's family, as well as Bricknell Primary School head teacher Tim Attwater.
Mr Attwater said: 'We got the e-mail from the head, who said it was quite a timely find for his pupils because they were doing a project about what they could find on the beach.
'We got back in touch by e-mail, rather than putting a message in a bottle as it is much quicker.'
Pupils at the school have now sent their Danish counterparts pictures of them in uniform as well as telling them about the school and what they get up to.

Mr Attwater added: 'We said we would love to keep in touch. It is a really nice opportunity to make links.
'We try wherever we can to find links with schools in other countries. It is really important that children understand their place in the wider world.
'It is about showing them what life is about elsewhere so they develop a grasp of the world.
'It will be nice for the children to find out about the Danish schools curriculum and how their school day works.'
The pupils are now anxiously waiting to hear from their new pen pals.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1kBebIUpV
 
World record as message in bottle found after 98 years

World record as message in bottle found after 98 years near Shetland

A Scottish skipper has set a new world record after finding a message in a bottle 98 years after it was released.

Andrew Leaper's discovery beat the previous record for the longest time a bottle has been adrift at sea by more than five years.

And he found the bottle while skippering the same fishing boat which had set the previous record, the Shetland-based vessel Copious.

Mr Leaper said: "It was an amazing coincidence."

The find has been confirmed as a new record by Guinness World Records.

The drift bottle - containing a postcard which promised a reward of six pence to the finder - was released in June 1914 by Captain CH Brown of the Glasgow School of Navigation.

It was in a batch of 1,890 scientific research bottles which were specially designed to sink to help map the currents of the seas around Scotland when they were returned. Only 315 of them have been found.

Mr Leaper, 43, who found the bottle east of Shetland, explained: "As we hauled in the nets I spotted the bottle neck sticking out and I quickly grabbed it before it fell back in the sea.

"It was very exciting to find the bottle and I couldn't wait to open it.

"It's like winning the lottery twice."
'Immensely proud'

He said his friend Mark Anderson, who had set the previous record in 2006 on board the same vessel, was "very unhappy that I have topped his record".

"He never stopped talking about it - and now I am the one who is immensely proud to be the finder of the world record message in a bottle."

A spokesperson for Guinness World Records said: "We are pleased to hear that the same vessel helped to break the Guinness World Record for oldest message in a bottle twice.

"This is a fascinating record, both historically and scientifically.

"We hope that future expeditions will retrieve more of these treasured messages from the sea."

Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead added: "Scotland has a long and proud tradition in marine science, stretching from these pioneers of ocean research in the 19th and early 20th Century, to the cutting edge marine studies that take place in our labs today.

"The story of scientific drift bottles is a fascinating one and harks back to an area when we were only beginning to understand the complexities of the seas.

"It's amazing that nearly 98 years on bottles are still being returned to the Marine Laboratory - and in such fantastic condition.

"With many bottles still unreturned there is always the chance in the coming years that a Scottish drift bottle will once again break the record."

The bottle, and Mr Leaper's Guinness World Records certificate, have been donated to the Fetlar Interpretative Centre in Shetland.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-n ... d-19422354
 
Mystery message in a bottle discovered on Falmouth's Swanpool Beach
2:31pm Thursday 21st February 2013 in News .

Strange scrolls stuck inside a bottle were discovered on Swanpool Beach in Falmouth yesterday.

The mystery messages were spotted by Pip Carlton-Barnes, from hotels association Visit Falmouth, who found the whiskey bottle filled with tightly rolled red paper left on a wall.
“There was no-one around and we waited for a long while to see if anyone came for them but no-one did,” Pip said.

“On closer inspection it was clear that the bottle had not been washed up or even spent any time in the water.
“This is rather a mystery as why would someone go to all this trouble only to leave without actually sending the bottle to sea?”

Suggestions for the true nature of the bottle have ranged from it being a "geocache", to a creative arts project, to a message in a bottle that just never found its way into the sea.

“We were going to throw it in but thought the person who created such beautiful notes should do it really,” Pip said.
For now, the bottle remains tightly sealed and the staff at Swanpool Beach Cafe are looking after it.

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/10 ... ch/?ref=mr

I blame students! :twisted: But with the current sourh-easterly winds, anything thrown in the sea at Swanpool beach would very quickly be washed straight back ashore!
 
Mystery of Falmouth messages in a bottle revealed
2:30pm Wednesday 20th March 2013 in News
By Greg Fountain, Reporter/Photographer .

Despite theories that the empty whiskey bottle filled with tightly wound scrolls was a creative arts project or a so-called “geocache” - hidden for others to find in a kind of high-tech Easter Egg Hunt - the messages were in fact written by a group of schoolgirls.

Hannah Woods, aged 16, said she and her friends had created the message in a bottle “as a fun activity” at February half term, but although they did put it into the sea it was discovered by Pip Carlton-Barnes and the team at Visit Falmouth just a day later.

“We’re awfully flattered with all the interest our little experiment has gotten,” Hannah, from Truro, said.
“It’s a shame the bottle didn’t get very far - not across the Atlantic as we’d dreamt - but yes, we did put it in the water.”

The contents of the letters tightly rolled into scrolls by Hannah and her friends Mo Fox (from Feock), Rhiannon Wardle (from Truro), Chimé Rainbow (from Penzance) and Grace Perryman (from Truro), remain a mystery but they did include “a little bit about ourselves, why we were sending the message in the bottle and what we hoped it would achieve,” Hannah said.

She said: “It was a lovely story and I am pleased to have been a part of it.
“I am gld that they are happy I gave it the right end. The contents remain a mystery and I hope one day we hear that it has reached across the Atlantic.”

Hannah said: “We’re glad that it's been thrown back in the water because now it will remain a mystery and hopefully it’ll have the journey we hoped for.”

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/10 ... ed/?ref=mr

How boring! :evil:
 
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