Letters and notes from a lost era found in bottles and on beaches around the world
Found 27 August 1889, East of Lossiemouth, Moray.
In a small tin box, a slip of paper:
Steamship Lady Anne, foundered at sea, N.N.E. 20 men, 100 horses, 41 passengers. To my mother at 56 Back Street, Findhorn, Mrs Smith.
The message was handed to a Mr Brander, an agent for Lloyd’s.
[Aberdeen Evening Express, 28 August 1889]
Found January 1888, near Sable Island, Nova Scotia.
Picked up by the captain of the government steamer Newfield:
Newfoundland, Nov. 12 1887. DEAR PARENTS: I come to bid you farewell forever. I will soon be in the other world; not alone, however, for we are 890 passengers in terrible despair. Only one-half hour to live, and then farewell. Do take courage and think no more of me. L. Linther of St Nicholas, Meurthe.
Saint Nicolas de Port is a town in Meurthe-et-Moselle, Northern France. There is no record of a passenger ship being lost in November 1887.
[New York Times, 22 January 1888]
Found 8 November 1895, Cape Charles, Virginia.
In a securely sealed bottle:
Off Cape Fear, July 19, 1895, bark Julia A. Marks, leaking badly, nearly sunk; bound from Baltimore to Cuba; may have to leave here any time. If not heard from, please report this to Collector of Customs at Baltimore, where we cleared from. She hailed from Bath, Me. Please inform my family in Portland. The one finding this will be rewarded for their kindness. Capt. John Marks.
The message was found on the beach by a drug clerk named AH Bowie. Newspapers noted that no vessel named Julia A Marks had recently sailed from Baltimore, and no vessel by that name was mentioned in the Record of American and Foreign Shipping. However, the writer of the message may actually have given the name of the vessel and his own name as captain: “Julia A, Marks”.
[New York Times, 10 November 1895]
Found 3 March 1874, Staten Island, New York.
In a corked bottle:
Le vaisseau Trois Frères, de Calais, France, fut naufrage, Mars 3me, 1874, lat. 49 45, lon. 23.54. VICTOR VANDEBROUCQUE.
The ship Three Brothers, of Calais, France, was wrecked, March 3rd, 1874 lat. 49 45, lon. 23.54. VICTOR VANDEBROUCQUE.
The Trois Freres was described as a French sailing ship, with no further details provided.
[New York Times, 2 August 1874]
Found 6 January 1914, Uys Point, near Bird Island, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
In a well-corked black bottle, in indelible pencil on a plain sheet of paper:
Waratah, Sept 6. 1909. – Ship in great danger. Rolling badly, Will probably roll right over. Captain going to heave her to. Later. If anything happens, will whoever finds this communicate this with my wife, 4 Redcliffe Street, South Kensington, London? JOHN N. HUGHES.
The Blue Anchor Line passenger steamer Waratah left Durban for Cape Town on 26 July 1909 with 211 passengers and crew aboard. No trace of the ship has ever been found. The message was described as “written very hurriedly”. On 6 September, the date of the message, the Waratah would have been 48 days overdue. There was no John Hughes on the passenger list, nor a Mrs Hughes at Redcliffe Street.
Several other messages apparently sent from the Waratah were found over the next few years, including one in a Castlemaine beer bottle that was returned to the Castlemaine Brewery in Freemantle in November 1910. It read: “May God have Mercy on us. We are now in a terrible Storm. 1st Officer, Waratah.”
The waratah is a flower indigenous to New South Wales. The name was said to be cursed, as five previous ships named Waratah had been lost at sea.
[Manchester Courier, 13 January 1914, and Auckland Star, 28 February 1914]
Found 15 September 1896, Lescouet, Brittany, France.
In a bottle:
Should this be picked up, please make inquiries or send G. Sortel, Esq., 50 Sixth Avenue, Philadelphia. I, William Eden, of the sailing schooner Vedette, write this at the very last moment, expecting my ship to sink every minute. Have sprung a leak in latitude 8 north, longitude 28 west. May God spare us. W. EDEN. Captain of Vedette, Philadelphia.
No record was found of any vessel named Vedette out of Philadelphia. There was no such address as 50 Sixth Avenue, and no resident of Philadelphia named G Sortel.
[New York Times, 13 December 1896]
Found 6 September 1885, Charlevoix, Michigan.
In a corked bottle:
July 25, 1885. Collided. The schooner Hattie Fisher went down off Point Betsy [sic]. The crew is in the boat this night. Don’t expect to get ashore.
The Hattie Fisher, from Beaver Island, Lake Michigan, was owned by the island’s priest Father Peter Gallagher, and sailed by John E Bonner. Point Betsie is a lighthouse station on the northeast shore of the lake. After this message was found, inquiries among other Beaver Island sailors found that the ship had not been seen or heard from for some time.
[New York Times, 7 September 1885]
Found 17 June 1889, near Gananoque, Ontario.
In a bottle:
Captain of the Bavaria; help, the ship is sinking; all have been washed overboard but me. I expect my turn will come next. About 100 yards off Galoup [sic] Island, Lake Ontario.
The Bavaria was caught in a tremendous gale on Lake Ontario on 29 May 1889. It was on tow behind a steam barge with two other lumber schooners when its line sheared, and it was swept away at the mercy of the storm. The other boats survived, but the Bavaria did not. A witness later reported seeing the Bavaria’s Captain John Marshall clinging to the bottom of a capsized yawl, and another sailor clinging to timber, but the witness could offer no assistance. After the storm subsided, the Bavaria was found at Galloo Island, waterlogged but intact and upright. All eight crewmembers were missing and never recovered. John Marshall was married, and from Williamsville, Ontario. He was described as a brave and efficient sailor.
[New York Times, 18 June 1889]
Found 28 July 1883, Matagorda, Texas.
In a bottle on the beach:
The finder will report this. We are now in a sinking condition, with all our boats washed away and the pumps all stopped up. We are off Cuba. Lost three men overboard. We have no fresh water. On board of the ship Cape of Good Hope. Feb. 22. JOHN JOHNSON, Mate.
Matagorda is some 1,200 miles across the Gulf of Mexico from Cuba.
[New York Times, 29 July 1883]
Found 6 August 1883, Sea Isle City, New Jersey.
In a bottle, picked up on the beach next to life-saving station 34:
Off Jersey coast. Lost at sea June 21, 1883, bark Atlanta, bound from Genoa to New-York. Have been without food for three days. Send us help or we are lost. Have buried Captain, mate, boatswain, and all but three sailors. Help us or we perish.
In July 1883 the US Board of Health reported three cases of yellow fever aboard a bark named Atlanta, which arrived at New Orleans (not New York) from Genoa after a journey of 97 days. The mate had died, and other crew-members had “dissipated”. The ship had not visited any ports known to carry yellow fever. A few weeks later, Dr Holt, the president of the Board of Health, stated his opinion that “it was alcoholism, not yellow fever, from which the mate died and the others were made sick”.
[New York Times, 7 August, 1883]
Messages from the Sea 