When Geoff Flood saw a bottle with a note inside it floating
near the beach, he knew it was something special.
His instincts were right - the bottle he had found had been
cast into the ocean more than 76 years ago.
"We grabbed it and my partner told me to smash the bottle to
get the note out but I thought: 'No, wait. This looks a bit
too special'," Mr Flood said.
He and his partner, Leanne McAlees, had been out at Ninety
Mile Beach on Sunday when they came across a bottle with what
looked like a very old piece of paper wedged inside.
"We were out there putting the fishing torpedo out and
wandering around and it was lying there on the tideline.
"The cork in the bottle had actually popped into the bottle.
If there had been another big tide, it would've filled up
with water and that would've been the end of the note. It was
just lucky that we found it."
The couple returned to their home in Houhora, north of
Kaitaia, and carefully retrieved the piece of paper using
bits of wire.
What they found was a note written on special
stamped-stationery marked "P&O" complete with a picture
of the ship the note is thought to have come from - the SS
Strathnaver.
The hand-written note, dated March 17, 1936, reads: "At sea.
Would the finder of this bottle kindly forward this note,
where found, date, to undermentioned address."
It is signed H.E Hillbrick, 72 Richmond Street, Leederville,
Western Australia.
Yesterday Mr Flood managed to track down a distant member of
Herbert Ernest Hillbrick's family who was "very excited"
about their discovery. Mr Flood also managed to find a
picture of Mr Hillbrick.
The Strathnaver ocean liner, operated by the Peninsular and
Oriental Steam Navigation Company, was launched in 1931.
It was the sister ship of the RMS Strathaird - the pair were
known as the "White Sisters" and both served the Australian
mail route and travelled on the Sydney run in the mid 1930s.
The bottle is the third find of its kind for Mr Flood, who
found a message in a bottle from a man in Australia and
another, also from across the Tasman, from two 14-year-old
girls.
He said he hadn't replied to that one yet, instead leaning on
his son, who he said was a similar age, to do so.
Mr Flood said in both those cases the bottles had been in the
water for only about a year.
"To find one so old is insane. It's quite exciting," he said.
"If it could talk, how many islands has it been to?
"It could easily have been two or three times around the
world."
- Vaimoana Tapaleao of the NZ Herald
A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.