MYSTERY OF THE SEA.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 3830, 13 May 1913, Page 6

MYSTERY OF THE SEA.

MESSAGE IX A BOTTLE

[BY TELEGRAPH—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT] AUCKLAND, May 12.

A bottle containing a message which may be the first tidings of the loss of a ship was found between Scott’s Point and Mongonui Bluff by A. Parenga, station hand. Mr J. P. Hidings (Collector of Customs) received the message last night. It is written on a scrap of paper which has been torn from the Jog book of a German vessel. Unfortunately, portions of the writing are so much blurred ns to he indecipherable. It reads as follows:

“Monday S. 16, one p.m., 1912. f *l\ —da is sinking b v hurricanes in ■l2 deg. S., L 160 deg. East. G.M. — is <1 cad- —evervbod v. ’ ’

A number of well-known shipmasters who were consulted l to-clay expressed the opinion that the message was a genuine one. The principal reasons for this belief are that in the first place the message is from a vessel’s log, a volume that would not ho damaged except under urgent circumstances, and in the second place because of the inclusion of the letters “G.M.” Those stand lor Greenwich M ■oridian. It is not thought,that anyone but a sailor would have included these two letters, and the fact that they are included would indicate that a foreigner wrote them. A British seaman would probably take it for granted l that it would be understood that Greenwich was meant, whereas a foreigner might wish, to make it clear that it was not the meridian of Paris or Berlin. According to the latitude, given in the message the vet. ■>! wouhi have been in the Tasman Sea, off Westport. BETTER DEOIPIIERING. LPRESP ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.] AUCKLAND, May 12. A further p;nv;al»of fno message found in the bottle at Mangonui Bluff indicates that the exact wording was as f.. Lows: — “Monday D. 16, 7., 1912-Nomia is sinking by hurrieano in 42deg. S. L. HiOdeg. East. Gott save us anti everybody.”