FAST OCEAN CURRENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 9 March 1932, Page 7

FAST OCEAN CURRENTS

BOTTLE’S LONG DRIFT.

EXPERIMENT IN AUSTRALIA.

An interesting illustration of the strength and direction of the currents and winds experienced along the southern coast of Australia is given in the result of an experiment carried out by a party of young New Zealanders, when travelling from Australia to England by the Orient liner Orford last November.

When off Albany, Western Australia, on November 17, they threw overboard a sealed bottle containing a note in which the finder was asked to return the message to Mr. K. H. Le May, of New Plymouth. Mr. Le May, who is at present in Auckland, has now received his original message from a resident of Moruya, New South Wales, with the information that the bottle was picked up on the beach five miles south of the Moruya River on Boxing Day. The beach mentioned is on the south coast of New South Wales, about 100 miles north of Cape Howe, the extreme south-east point of Australia. The most direct route by which the bottle could have travelled is approximately 1700 miles in length, so that in 40 days it travelled at an average speed of 42<J miles.

Other bottles with similar messages were dropped overboard by the party at sea off Hobart, Colombo, Aden and the Straits of Messina, but so far no further word of these messages has been received. As an inducement to the finders to report the final resting places of the various bottles an offer of 5s was made in each ease for the return of the note to Mr. Le May,