Message in a Bottle

One of the longest surviving 'message in a bottle' is 150 years. In 1784, forty-four Japanese sailors were treasure hunting in the Pacific Ocean, when a storm savagely slammed their sailing ship upon a coral reef. Sails were ripped and supplies were lost as   Chunosuke Matsuyama and the other crew members waded through fierce waters and stumbled ashore. Surviving for a short time on coconuts and scuttling crabs, the lack of fresh water and a reliable food source soon took its toll. The group was slowly starving to a certain death.

One of the last acts that Matsuyama performed in his life was to peel thin pieces of wood from a toppled coconut tree and carve out the story of the expeditions final days.  Salvaging a bottle from the battered boat, he carefully inserted the engraved wood, sealed the container and tossed it into the waves. One hundred and fifty years later, in 1935, it showed up on the shore by a small village were it was picked up by a seaweed collector. The village was Hiraturemura, the birthplace of Chunosuke Matsuyama.

Now comes a story of a message in a bottle for 98 years. Too bad they didn't put the coin in the bottle with the note. Then it would have been a real find!