STORY OF A BOTTLE.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 107, 20 June 1885, Page 5

STORY OF A BOTTLE.

A sea captain recently furnished tho ll Heral(f" with the following interesting account of tho drift of a sealed bottle thrown overboard in mid- Atlantic : "On June 4, 1884, the fchooner 11. Bowers, Captain Thompton, bound to Gloucester from Messina, was pitching about in a long ocean swell in latitude 42min. 46sec , longitude GOmin. 47sec. Wo had made a good run thua far, but on this particular 3ay struck a dead calm. There was little to do, except to watch the vessel and whistle for wind, and several schemes were invented by the officers to pass away the time. The second mate of the schooner -Mr Cruikshank— had left a sweetheart at home, and naturally his mind drifted across the watery waste to her bright eyes. Noticing his preoccupied manner, the Captain's wife suggested that ho send his love a message from the eoa. The idoa seemed a good one. fie wrote a note, enclosed it in an envelope, addressed it to the young lady at Big Brook, Cape Breton, enclosed the whole in a bottle, and threw it overboard. There waa great speculation at the time as to where the bottle would bring up ; but in a few hours a breeze sprang up, and in working the vessel all thoughts of the bottle and its contents were forgotten. The echooner in due time arrivoi at Gloucester, and Mr Cruikshank started for Cape Breton. His arrival was expected, but his astonishment may bo imagined when his lady love brought forth the identical bottle which the mate had thrown into the sea and produced the note contained therein. The story of the drift was a singular one. It had been picked up on the shores of Little Dover bay, at the east end of Nova Scotia, aftor a drift of forty-one days' duration and of sixty miles, and the finder eent it to the young lady. Another singular circumstance connected with tho finding of the bottle was the fact that the finder turned out to be a near relative of Mr Cruikshank, although they had never seen each other."—" Boston Herald."