by Steve Saunders IN THESE days of high tech communications the idea of sending a message in a bottle is hardly a progressive step. It's also a safe bet that bottle post will not be much competition for E-Mail.
But the Missions to Seamen organisation doesn't much care for all the modern gadgetry because, thanks to Safmarine's Messages-in-the-Bottle project, this worthy seamen's organisation is richer by R20 000.
The bottled message project was part of Safmarine's 50th anniversary celebrations during which ten message bottles on six ships operating on six different trade routes were posted at sea. Each bottle contained a message promising to reward the finder. For each message returned to South Africa, Safmarine undertook to make a donation to the Missions to Seamen organisation.
At a function held last week on the SA Waterberg, Safmarine m.d. Tony Farr reported that four bottles had been found in destinations across the world.
A Senagalese fisherman, 35 year old Sadio Cisse, found the first bottle five days after it was posted by the master of the SA Helderberg. Currently unemployed, Sadio struggles to feed his family of nine, so his reward of food parcels to the equivalent value of R1000 was really good news.
The second bottle was washed up on a tourist beach in Phuket Island, Thailand. Sampong Bunyawat, a Buddhist mother who works in a hotel found the bottle and with natural curiosity overcoming her fear of a possible bomb, she opened the box containing the bottle, but could not understand the message.
Rejecting offers from tourists of up to $60 for the bottle, she got a Canadian friend to translate and send the message back to Safmarine.
The third bottle spent two months at sea and had travelled more than 1100 km before being washed up on a beach on the Canary island of Fueteventura, where it was found by 43 year old Domingo Saavedra. Another bottle was found on October 26 by 18 year old Philomon Essuman of Princess Town, Ghana after drifting for 960km.
