Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-06-27
TO BID CONTINUED.
VOYAGES OF BOTTLES.
Their Use In Determining Courses Of
Ocean Currents. 80

Ocean Currents. o..
hundreds Of bottles have been thrown
overheard from vessels of all kinds and
nationalities with the object Of testing
the direction and strength Of the
countless currents which flow like so
many devious rivers through the seas.
Before each bottle Is dispatched on its
unknown journey, says Tit-Bits, the
skipper who thus does marine science
good service, places in II a note Of the
exact place whence 1t is dispatched,
with the date, ard also printed note
in half dozen languages asking the
person who may pick 1t up to report
to the photographic bureau at WASH
ington the time and whereabouts Of
its recovery. Thus each messenger
with its securely corked contents fares
forth on its voyage of ocean survey.
and by its wanderings maps the cur
rents Of the oceans.
OF two bottles thrown over in mid
ocean at the same time one was pick
ed up on the coast Of Devonshire. while
the other drifted to faraway Florida,
each being caught by different cur
rents and drifting thousands Of miles
away from its fellow In curious con-
trast was the wanderings of three
bottles thrown overheard from Dago
500 miles east Of Newfoundland and
all recovered during the same week
within a short distance of each other
after drifting $1,000 miles to the He
brides.
Another bottle was started on its
journey from the Nautilus, when close
to the Canary Islands. Traversing the
great tropical ocean in the trade wind
belt, 1t went coursing along between
the island Of the Windward group.
across the Caribbean sea to the coast
of Belize, almost within the Mexican
gulf. For 496 days 1t thus pursued its
solitary way before 1t was stranded
and rescued. having covered 400
miles. at an average speed of nearly
ten miles g. day. Ev.n this remarkable
record Of travel was eclipsed by bot
tie which was thrown up by the sea
at Shetland a few years ago and Of
which tragic story is told.
On October II, 1890, the captain Of
the ship Buckingham was murdered by
a aoolle off the Shetland coast. Una
bic to attract attention from the shore.
the mate proceeded on the voyage to
New York, where the murderer was
given into custody, and from there to
the Bermudas, where he wrote an ac-
count of the tragedy and committed 1t
to the sea. BY a most singular coin
cidence, this bottle with its tragic
message was carried by the sea cur
rents back from the Bermudas to
Shetland, nearly five thousand miles
away, and two and a half years later
was rescued almost on the very spot
where the murder which 1t recorded
was committed.
For nearly three years another bot
tie was roaming over the seas before
1t came to its rest. On September 1t
was pitched overheard from the Brem-
erhaven several hundred miles east Of
Newfoundland; 1t was carried into the
southern edge Of the Gulf stream,
drifted away beyond the Azores, then
curving to the southwest off the coast
Of Africa, It crossed the Atlantic, COM
ing to its haven on the shore Of small
island In the West Indies, just north
Of Hayti. 1t had voyaged. as nearly as
could be estimated, $500 miles in 9s4
days, averaging a distance Of about
four and a half miles in twenty-four
hours.
A bottle thrown overheard from the
steamship Sutherland, on March IL,
1897, drifted 1000 knots before 1t was
recovered 1S1 days later: another rec
ord-maker was picked up on March 26,
1898, having covered 400 knots
roughly 5,O45 miles-in a little over
sixteen months.