Thursday, December 6, 2007

Islandgram - Random Thoughts of a BeachComber

Welcome to the Islandgram Blog.

Islandgram was built so you could send a message to the world and see where it washes up, or send a message to a friend and brighten their day, with a piece of paradise on the web.

Feel free to express your ideas in this blog, post your comments as we would love to hear from you.

Imagine finding a Message in a Bottle a note in a bottle worth 12 million dollars, that right 12 million dollars. Back on March 16th, 1949, a Mr. Jack Wurm, was combing the beach along the shores of the pacific ocean near San Francisco. Mr. Wurm was 55 at the time and a diswasher in a restaurant.

As he combed the beach, he found a bottle, picked it up, pulled out the cork, and removed a rolled up square of brown paper. To his amazement the handwritten note read: "To avoid all confusion, I leave my entire estate to the lucky person who finds this bottle and to my lawyer, Barry Cohen, share and share alike."

Daisy Alexander
June 20, 1937

Note do not do this in an islandgram, as it will not be legal binding, but I guess it could be fun, but remember it won't be legal binding.

Handwritten yes, on a computer screen no

Wurm didn't believe the note, its was just silly, leaving your last will like this and leaving all your worldly possessions to the finder of this bottle. But it made a great story. Several weeks later, Wurm told a friend, and his friend didn't think the story was silly at all, for "Daisy Alexander was the world's richest women"

Daisy Alexander was the only child of Isaac Singer, the American sewing-machine millionaire. Mrs. Alexander died in 1940 childless at the age of 80, and left 12 million dollars in property and money. No will was ever found, her lawyer in England tried everything to find her will even hiring mediums to speak to her spirit.
The friend was in England at the time and it was in all the newspapers. With encouragement of his friend Wurm, decided to write a letter to the postmaster of London, England, advising him of his find and if he could find Barry Cohen.
The postmaster did find Barry Cohen, and he and Wurm sent letters back and forth for several months.
Its long voyage from England could have taken it through the English Channel, into the North Sea, then pasted the polar ice pack. Past, Alaska, Canada, Washington, Oregon and California, finally twelve years after Mrs. Alexander sent the bottle, it drifted ashore near San Francisco.
Did Wurm Get the money?
At the time of the source of this story 1977, they are still arguing in the courts of England, so no Money for him yet.
But one great tale to tell while your fishing.

Source The Twelve Million Dollar Note - by Robert Kraske, Strange but True Tales of Messages in Seagoing Bottles - copyright 1977

Have a Message in a Bottle tale, true stories please, please do share.

A bit of poetry now...

I had a poem upon my desk,
where it when I do regret
it appears to have slipped away
in the numerous piles of papers,
scatter here and there and everywhere
what appears as chaos to one, it true
organization to another

Found it!
Each day is a surpise
whether you know it or not
Each day may be the same
but each day has its surprises
Look, See, and find your surprises.
Keith C - copyright 2007




1 comment:

dice2idea said...

Please, do something, there is a user who sends many messages with the same context. she writes about how she wished to get Abel from Tennessee...
It just ruins my experience of reading and waiting for new messages to come.