13 December 2016
Message in a bottle
Swakopmund resident Jaco Steenkamp was in for something of the extraordinary recently, when on an angling outing he spotted a sealed bottle on the beach containing what he immediately recognised as a folded message inside. “The bottle washed as- plunged an undisclos- pect these bottles to hore, but the lid was ed number of these bot- wash ashore on Afriproperly sealed and I tles into the Atlantic ca's west coast as well decided to keep my during early November as the east coast of the curiosity until I got and they called upon Americas and perhaps home. It was quite a finders of these bottles also closer to the West struggle to open the lid to report it to an email Indies, Bahamas the without damaging it”, address provided. They Gulf of Mexico and explained Steenkamp. required the messages' others. To his surprise the serial number and the ·When namib times message was from the location where it was pro-vided the details of scientific crew of the picked up. this “message in a botGerman research ship In this way the scien- tle” found by Steen“Meteor.” The ship is tific crew could get a kamp, a reply came in on a scientific expedi- better understanding of three days later which tion in the Atlantic the sea currents. the scientists indicated Ocean and also briefly The message was writ- a total of four anglers called at the port of ten in English, French, picked up these bottles Walvis Bay. German, Portuguese along the central west The message explain- and Spanish, it is clear coast. ed the scientific crew the scientific crew ex-