Bottle's 19-year-old Message

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 30, 5 February 1937, Page 7

Bottle's 19-year-old Message

Dropped From War Transport

WASHED UP AT WAIKATO RIVER MOUTH. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Last Night. Worn almost smooth by the continual rubbing of sand and sea for nearly 19 years a soda water bottle which was thrown into the Tasman Sea from the transport Tahiti in 1918 by two machine-gunners of the 40th reinforcements was found on Tuesday afternoon partly buried in the sand on the beach at the south side of the entrance to tho Waikato river. The story of the bottle, which wu« found behind a sand hummock by Mrs. C. R. Brown, of Parnell, was fully told by the contents which bore few signs of their long exposure in the open uir. They were a small and dirty page from a loose-leaf notebook and a torn envelope of the type used several years ago for official telegrams. The cork of the bottle had begun to decay and in the bottom was a small quantity of black sand. On one side of the piece of paper tho following message was written in a firm and still legible hand:—> July 12, 1918. H.M.N.Z.T. 107 T.S.S. Tahiti, 48 hours out from Wellington, New Zealand, steering due west. Greetings from 40th MachineGun Section N.Z.E.F. Corporal A. W. Brown 62863 and Pvfce. W. F. Brown 74777. Will be home some day. Corporal Brown was the writer of the note and on the other side of ihe page he had written, also in pencil:— Home address: A. W. Brown, 61 Colenso street, Sumner, Christchurch, New Zealand. W. F. Brown, 5 Bury Btreet, Gisborne, Poverty Bay, New Zealand. Send this to tho top addreßS, please.—A. W. Brown. The telegram envelope which was torn in several places was addressed in faded pencil to Corporal A. W. Brown, 40th Specialists, Machine-Gun Section, S.S. Tahiti. It was date stamped July 10, 1918. The bottle, which must have drifted many miles before a severe storm drove it high up on the beach, was of the type known as “split soda” and boro the brand of a well-known Auckland firm of aerated water manufacturers. Nothing is known of the two machine-gunners who used this bottle to send their last farewell message to their relatives, but the note is to Le posted to the address given in accordance with the request made nearly 19 years ago.

The cheerful promise; “Will be home some day,” was never kept in the case of many men who travelled on that voyage for they fell victims to the influenza epidemic which was raging at the time and the 40th Reinforcements never reached France.