HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1965-05-20, Page 10Repo:r
Adrift
(The Yarmouth Herald)
A fierce hurricane shook the
tiny ship. A group of sailors
wrote their fears on a scrap of
paper, slipped the note into a
wooden cask and committed it
to the sea. Their captain, Chris-
topher Columbus, 'recorded the
deed in the ship's log -- and
right now, somewhere on • the
seven seas, the historic docu-
ment may still be floating.
There have been other fascin-
ating messengers from the sea,
One bottle, for example, 'was
found resting on the bottom of
a river in America -where it
had gone down in a ship sunk
during the Civil War. Another
contained a pieceof paper
worth .over $12,000,000. And
others have patched up mar-
riages on the brink of disaster!
Before Christ
In 300 B.C., the Greek philos-
opher Theophrastus, walking
along the shore, decided to use
bottles to test his 'theory that
the Mediterranean Sea got most
of its water from -the Atlantic
Ocean. Tossed at intervals from
a cruising, Greek ship, the bot-
tles drifted many watery miles
—in the proper direction --to
prove Theophrastes' point.
Centuries late r, Benjamin
Franklin used the floating bot-
tle method to gather informa-
tion on the little -understood
currents of the Gulf Stream.
Inside his bottles, Franklin seal-
ed a paper containing his name,
address and a request that the
finder let him know where and
when the floating questionnaire
had been picked up.
From Far and Near
The answers Game from as far
off as Newfoundland and Ice-
land; together, with water tem-
perature studies conducted by
Franklin, they helped define the
dimensions of the Gulf Stream.
Franklinforwarded the facts to
the •British Post Office, and
English mail boats which had
Nobody ever gets anything
for nothing, but a lot of people
keep trying•
M14.9
sEArOMIL ONT; !AY 20;1.965
;BULK GARDEN SEEDS
and POTATOES
24th of May
is the time to
Plant
Your Garden
' and .
Potatoes
See Your ` CO - OP Now !
LAWN SEED
We mix our own" . , using
,. Al! Certified Seeds
You may borrow our Lawn Seeder
SEAFORTH
FARM ERS
COOP
SEAFORTH, ONT.
Railway Street._.
527-0770
COASTERS - GIFT IDEAS -• SERVIETTES
Dial 527-0240 • Seaforth
•
been bucking the Stream, had
easier, faster_ .trips thereafter.
Trace. Currents
To this day the US. Navy's
Maritime Security Divfsi,n us-
es bottles with • gnestionnairee
inside to find out necessary in-
formation about currents Bron
captains at sears In one year
alone, almost 400 'Bottle Pa-
pers" received replies—in Eight
languages:
Recently, a bottle dating back
to the Civil War and bearing
the name E. R, Squib & Sons,
was recovered from a Union
gunboat" sunk in 1862. Four
years earlier, Dr. F,,dward Rob-
inson Squibb, former' Passed
Assistant Surgeon in the Navy;
had founded what was to. • be-
come the world-famous pbarm
aceutical firm which bears his
name.
An Old Drug
The molded, green glans bot-
tle contained an almost ;color
less liquid. Smelling •very faint-
ly
aintly of brackish water, it was
thought to contain nothing but
water from the river. But tests
conducted, together with ex-
amination of drugs available in
Squibb's price lists for the early,
1860's, confirmed •, that the bot-
tle contained Potassium Chlor-
ate, a drug prescribed at- that
time for a great variety of dis-
eases.
In the U.S.S. Cairo, sunk: by
a Confederate mine in the Yazoo
River, north of Vicksburg, this
messenger of history .,was pre-
served for more than 100 years
in mud and. water.
The Bottle Parson
In 1940, George Phillips (nick-
named the `Bottle Parson")
started sending his • sermons to
sea inside empty whiskey and
beer bottles. Over 16,000 bot-
tles
otties were cast -.on the waters,
and more than 1,400 replies
came back! The- bottle -borne
crusade is reported to have
mended broken marriages in
Chicago, London, Montreal and
other far-off spots.
Most profitable catch from a
sea -borne bottle? Jack Wurm,
a restaurant worker, found it
in 1949 on the Pacific §hore not
far from San Francisco. Inside
the bottle• he found, written in
pencil on brown wrapping pa-
per, these glad , tidings;
"To avoidall confusion}, 1
leave my entire estate to the
lucky person who finds this bot"
tle and to my attorney, Barry
Cohen, share and share alike."
(signed) Daisy Alexander,
June 2d, 1937, ,
After long investigation it
was revealed that Mrs. Alexan-
der, a childless widow living in
England, had long been a float-
ing
oating bottle enthusiast who fre-
quently tossed bottles into tie
Thames River "to see where
they would show up."
At last count, lawyers were
still wrangling over the legality
of Daisy's will, while Jack
Wurm waited to find out whe-
ther he would inherit 50 per
cent of her $12 million estate,
plus half interest in the $160,-
000 annual income from her in-
vestments!
Bottled Romance
Besides curiosity and wealth,
romance has been bottled too.
Some years 'ago a mate on a
freighter in the South Seas
wrote his wish to find a wife,
slipped it into a bottle and toss-
ed it overboard. An .Australia-
bound British liner found it,
and the captain posted the mes-
sage. It was read ,by a stew-
ardess who, a little 'while later,
invited the ship's crew to her
wedding'—with that sailor from
the .South Seas.
But wooing by 'bottle has its
drawbacks, as well. Take the
California girl ,who entrusted
all her attributes -- height,
weight, age, measurements, col-
or of eyes and hair — to the
Pacific Ocean. -
Ten ,months 'later she receiv-
ed a neatly penned letter from
a_, Bolivian Sail6r. "You sound
delightful," he wrote, "but how
can 1 be sure you speak the
truth about the other thing
when you write of your lovely
blonde hair in a peroxide bot-
tle?"
ottle?"
NOTICE to PARENTS
The Month 'of May 'Brings Firecracker Day.
HOWEVER - •,,Owing to tJe large number of fires and children
being burnt while playing with firecrackers without supervision,
it has bee, e necessary to limit thesetting off of firecrackers
to oriel► . -- VICTORIA DAY.
A POLICE AND. FIRE ORDER
Please Observe!
No Firecrackers .May Be Let Off on the Streets
•
Should a fire result at any time, and it is necessary to turn is an
alarm, PHONE 527-1100, and advise location :and details of the
fire.
0 ❑
It has been, noted that children gather near the Fire Hall when'
an alarm is sounded. In order that no accidents may occur, please
warn your children to stay clear of fire truck doors.
SEAFORTH FIRE BRIGADE
JOHN F. SCOTT; Chief
SEAFORTH POLICE DEPARTMENT
GORDON HULLEY, Chief
Want Ads a Good Investrnent
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The Happy..
Occasion.• • ..And There is a Lot
Of Planning To Do . Beforehand .. Wedding
Invitations, Announcements, ' Serviettes, Place
Cars, Matches,Cake Boxes AndOther
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Printed Items Are A Specialty At
The Huron Expji
ositor
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PHONE 527-4240
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Or call at the Office
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