Message in a bottle: history through bottled notes
The first message comes from 9 July 1909. The Argus reported that the following message in a bottle had washed up in Singapore: ‘June 18 – Come and help us. We are lost in one of the New Guinea islands, 30deg. 5min. Palmerston and Flenn’.
The article continued: ‘The Minister for the Territory (Mr Peake) has communicated with the Prime Minister (Mr Deakin) to ascertain whether anything is being done in the matter by the federal authorities’.
There was such concern about this note that Australia’s House of Representatives discussed it immediately. It was suggested that a nearby British warship – the – search for the men. The Prime Minister himself, Alfred Deakin, urged that ‘the nearest vessel…be instructed to
