The National tribune., 1899-07-20
BOTTLE FLOATING.
One Bottle Travelled In til. Atlantic $500 Miles.
Pail Mall Gazette.


r., 1t IS only. within very recent years that
"bottle-foating" has been carried out
systematically and on large scale, and
to nobody is the world indebted SO much
IN the matter Of good results as to the
washington photographic Office. The
custom OF that office is to issue slips eight
inches long by four inches wide and headed
Bottle Paper" Directly under the head
ing is line, printed in six languages
besides English, which, translated, would
read, Report Of the ocean currents" Then
follow directions in English, French, Ger
man, Dutch, Scandinavian, Spanish and
Italian, together with blank lines for the
name OF the vessel and its captain, and for
memorandum showing when the bottle is
thrown overheard. Below there are blanks
for the name Of the finder, the date and
locality OF the finding. and the request,
also III SIX languages, that the finder will
please send the paper TO any United States
Consul or forward it direct to the Hydro
graphic Gihce, Navy. Department, Wash
lngton. These blanks are furnished in
pads to all ship captains asking for them
at every port of consequence. Each pad
Is accompanied by a bunch of franked
envelopes, and the captain throwing over
board bottle is expected to inclose an
envelope, so that the finder may return it
without expense to himself. There is no
reward paid to finders, but captains throw
ing bottles overheard receive various charts
and other publications of maritime value
from the Hydropraphic Office free of charge.
According to the latest publication of the
Office. lob bottles thrown overheard were
recovered in the year ending July 1. 1898,
in the Atlantic Ocean. IS in the Pacific
Ocean and 1 in the Indian Ocean.
In the previous II months 81 bottles were
recovered which had been thrown over
board in the North Atlantic. 8 in the South
Atlantic, 16 in the Pacific and 3 in the
Indian Ocean. Some of the voyages made
by these bottles are exceedingly lengthy.
The champion OF last years report was the
bottle picked up after floating about 994
days. 1t was thrown overheard about
half way between Newfoundland and Ice
land on September 1, 1894, and recovered
on May %, 1897, on the Bahama banks.
1t Travelled about 4 500 miles, at an average
rate OF four miles and half day, and
described an exceedingly graceful curve,
moving first to the southwest, then to the
and then to the southwest,
gradually approaching due west, and
going more than half way round
that mysterious part of the Atlantic, the
home of abandoned hulks and rotting
Seaweed, known as the Sargasso sea. The
duration OF this voyage has. however, been
exceeded: One of the bottles recovered in
1895 had been floating about for ,625 days,
during which time it had travelled about
the Atlantic in a semi-circle of S, ZOO miles.
1t was thrown into the sea from the yacht
Hirondelle several hundred miles east of
Newfoundland, sailed eastward towards
England, south along the coast of Spain
as far as the eastefnmost part of Africa,
and eventually went ashore on one of the
Bahamas. Another remarkable drift was
that of the bottle which was III the water
Tor l 1865 days and which in that time tray-
eled 2,10O miles. 1t started midway be-
tween Great Britain and Greenland. After
bobbing about for nearly 1000 miles, it
passed Iceland. entered the Greenland
sea, then made semi-circle and went
ashore on the northeast coast of Norway,