Tabor City tribune. (Tabor City, N.C.) 1946-1991, 1956-02-08

| WV poeSANo 1CSh SUI
cessful in charting the currents.
weak acic that after a given
length of time eats away a metal
stopper that permits the sea
water to fill the bottle. When
this happens the bottle sinks to
the bottom pulling the other
bottle down with it where it is
held in place by a piece of sheet
metal that acts as an anchor.
The bottles are easily recovered
especially by fishermen using
travis.
The Navy's photographic of
flee and the U. S. Fish and Wild
life Service also play a serious
role in the study OF ocean cur
rents. Captains of ocean going
vessels help uot by regularly
casting off bottles containing
papers with instructions printed
in eight languages asking the
finders to return the papers with
information on where and when
the bottle was recovered. One
Of the photographic bottles holds
the record for bottle travel hav-
ing covered 1880 miles.
You can assist in this study
of ocean currents by returning
any bottle message you may fnid
if you accidentally open some
one else's mail you can always
throw it back. Then too you may
find more than you bargained
for. In 1949 an employee of n
California restaurant found a
bottle that had been washed
ashore near Palo Alton, Calf.
The note inside had been written
in 1887 and contained a will sign
ed by Daisy Alexander, leaving
her entire estate to her lawyer
and to the person who found the
bottle. 1t turned out that Daisy
was the daughter of Isaac Singer,
the sewing machine millionaire
and she had died in London leav-
ing an estate of 100000. 1t
IS believed that sometime before
her death she threw the bottle
Into tn Thames River-and it
turned up IL years later in Cali
fornia!
| The other story that I have
u co.. yn,, thi. ,,,oaL hoe haa,
the title "Barnacles, Champion
Hitch Hikers". | presume, living
as close to the ocean as we do,
THAT most of you have seen these
creatures at one time or another,
Especially if you own any sort
of 2 boat.
Cute little rascals when they
are born, microscopic young bar
nacles have a pair of horns, a
Single eye and feathery legs for
swimming. After about a month
'lof floating in the sea, molting
and growing with the other
Iplankton, the young barnacle at
taches itself to a hard surface.
Then it builds a permanent
home, covering itself with sew
eral plates and a lid. Inside its
Illuminated fortress, it spends
the rest of its life standing on
its head and kicking food into
its mouth with it's feet.
We call the barnacle at" be-
cause it is a combination of both
male and female Only one par
ent is needed both to lay and to
fertilizc the eggs from which
the young ones hatch.
Ever since man first took to
the sea in boats, this neuter-
gcndered anthropod has been a
problem. If n ship could be kept
in motion at a speed above two
miles per hour all the time, bar
nacle larvae could not swim fast
Ienough to catch and attach them
selves to the hull. 4 ship ut
anchor. however. is easy prey for
an uncountable number of home
less larvae.
Barnacles can cover the entire
underwater surface of a hull
with their volcano like structures
in a relatively short period of
time. Then the hull will no longer
slide through the water smooth
ly because the fouled surface sets
up resistance. The speed of the
ship is further decreased by the
accumulated weight OF these
crustacea. Some heavily fouled
ships have carried 200 tons of
marine life clincing to their hulls
In addition to slowing the
speed of the vessel, adhesive
barnacles can loosen paint and
other protective coatings from
the metal hull, causing it to be
exposed to rust and other eros
ion.
Barnacles thrive in salt wate~.
especially in tropical climates
but cannot live in fresh water
A captain who takes his ship
into fresh water will kill the
barnacles, but few Of their homes
will drop from the hull.
Nineteenth century shipbuiders
found that copper surfaces were
unpalatable to the barnacle
| Wnoden shins of that era were