a collection of messages in bottles

BBC News - Real Time Series - Behind the Scenes of “Words from the Water”

1/10/2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28904275

On 12th September the BBC released a 5 minute video about my search for messages in bottles as part of their Real Time series, which is a series for BBC News website in which “ordinary people tell their own extraordinary stories”. If you have never watched any of these mini documentaries then I do encourage you to do so, as they are all really fascinating. There are so many to choose from; the story of a bookshop on a barge, a snail farm in a bedroom, a lady who gives tours around London’s toilets (brilliant!), an upholsterer who dresses as a gorilla in his spare time and puts cushions and chairs in bus stops, an emergency poet who administers poems instead of medicine…. They really are a feast for the eyes and ears and you can find them here _http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine/22785249

I was delighted when the BBC contacted me to see if I would like to feature in one of the Real Time stories and on 16th August, BBC Director and Journalist Tom Beal came along to our Tugboat, the Hector Read, in Kent, to film the initial interview. The plan was to have the interview on Hector and then to go out on a "message in a bottle searching expedition" in Kent.

The Retired tug boat - Hector Read

The interview went well although it’s funny how as soon as someone points a video camera at you and starts filming, it is very easy to lose your ability to be natural. What worried me more was the remote chances of me actually finding a message in a bottle when we were to go out on our expedition with Tom. What were the chances? I did say to him that it was highly unlikely that I would find one, and then decided not to worry any more about it as there wasn’t anything I could actually do about that dilemma!

So, when we set off on our search, I was absolutely delighted and somewhat amazed, to see a message in a bottle after just 5 minutes or so. Funnily enough, it really was the last thing I expected to see at that time! And….. it was legible… and it was a good one, quite amusing, and signed with a full name so I could trace the author!

after just 5 minutes I found this message in a bottle nestled in the seaweed

The unedited version of the message in a bottle that I found during our expedition

I was delighted and I think I can safely say that Tom was too. David, my boyfriend was happy too, and by the way, he was also a star as he carried the camera equipment a fair way along the coastline! (thanks David!). And he took a few behind the scenes pics. Mischa the labrador was thrilled, but then she always is!!

Including one where I look like I might knock Tom over the head with my trusty tideline prodding stick!

It was amazing to find a second message too – although this one was totally illegible and I have yet to find a way of deciphering bleached messages.

So after 2 message in a bottle finds in quick succession, I rather thought I was going to find even more messages, but that was it. I would have been very happy to keep walking along that coastline for the rest of the afternoon, but reluctantly, we turned around and headed for home. Very happy!

Through twitter, I traced Sean, the author of the message. He was pretty surprised at the whole story. I don't think he ever expected his message to be found at all!!

And 3 weeks later, when the video documentary came out, I was so completely impressed with Tom’s editing work. If you haven’t watched it then you can find the link at the top of this post. For all my talk of letting go of the outcome and of expectations at the end of the video, I was still kind of apprehensive.

There have of course been comments following the documentary regarding the rubbish and pollution, and I would like to make it clear to those who are anxious on that front, that I am not advocating throwing rubbish into the water at all. The focus of this video was on the finding of messages in bottles. There’s only one place for a plastic or a glass bottle without a message in it, and that….is in the recycling bin! And that’s common sense and we can all make a difference on that front.

Post video release, I was thrilled to realise it went out on BBC News, and I even did a 45 second interview on Radio 5 live which was a great experience although nerve wracking.

But what I really love too is the fact that BBC foreign languages “Learning English” used it in one of their videos. The link is here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2014/09/140917_vwitn_message_in_a_bottle.shtml

So, anyway, it’s now back to reality. I’ve found another 6 or so messages since the video documentary (I will be detailing them on my blog asap), and am looking forward to my next expedition. So thank you to Tom Beal, David Nolan and Mischa the labrador who all contributed to making this great mini documentary. It was a fabulous experience. So do have a peek at "Message in a bottle - hunting for the words of strangers" and the other videos on the Real Time Series!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28904275

Enjoy!
Nicola

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Go go Power Rangers

27/11/2013

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That oft used phrase "needle in a haystack" could not have been more appropriate today.
Replace the needle with a message in a plastic bottle and the haystack with the enormous pile of discarded purposeless plastic water bottles that so adorn our tide line and you'll understand where I'm coming from.
I'm guest writer today on Nic's blog, so indulge me in allowing me to tell you a true story that will both captivate and enthrall.
It is as much a reflection upon the power of modern media as it is the simplicity of the centrepiece of the story.
So, on a cold November morning by the Thames, in the remote marshland that spawned the imaginary Abel Magwitch, in the lee of where once the less fictional prison hulks were moored, a message in a bottle is found.

"I wish I could be a dino thunder Power Ranger, the red ranger. From Jack Hodges"

It is always a delight to find a message from a child. The innocence of such a request and the means by which it was conveyed made us determined to find Jack and to make his dream come true.
So,with a mission Nic set about using "Twitter" and tweeted out the picture and a request for any information about young Jack.
A minute passed, then another minute passed, quickly followed by another...

We went and opened a bottle of wine and waited to see what the outcome would be. Neither of us being great twitter users, it was all a bit of an experiment.

But.... within 3 hours...find him we did.

Once that virtual ship was launched there was no stopping it. After an incredible flurry and some seventy tweets later across the ether that we call the internet community - someone actually identified him! Through the kindness and detective work of the twittering community, we established that four weeks ago seven year old Jack, accompanied by his Mum and Dad, threw his message and his wish of being a red power ranger into the Thames from his native Greenwich.

Incidentally, for those who don't know what a Dino Thunder red Power Ranger is - see below:

What particularly delighted Nic was the idea that Jack threw a wish into the river and got an answer. Now that is quite magical. A bit like the power rangers really! The outfit is on its way Jack! Go Go Power Rangers! :) David

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A message from pirate sam and one other

8/9/2013

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Well I thought it was about time to update you on our recent finds although this latest message from Pirate Sam was found in August. hope you can read it! if not, it says "Dera Stranger, hope you found my tresure. I thought I gave it to you if you hafnt fand it, you will find it. from Pirate Sam!"
Thank you Pirate Sam! I didn't actually find a treasure trove, but I did find some pretty cool pieces of lovely pottery, and, a dolphin skull! which figures quite high up on the treasure ratings :)

a dolphin skulll which we found at Egypt Bay, not far from Pirate Sam's message in a bottle!

The same day as finding Pirate Sam's message, and the dolpin skull, (I mean, when things couldn't really get any better), A battered bottle caught my eye on the shore line wedged between some rocks, with some paper in it. On closer examination, it was indeed a letter...in German. I was pretty excited - to see that it was in fact a message in a bottle competition, and it had been thrown into the sea in Belgium on the opening of "SeaWorld", in August 2003, almost exactly 10 years previously. The number of the bottle was 222. I could hardly wait to write to them to tell them the news, that we had found the bottle on their 10th anniversary.

Sadly, Seaworld were not interested, and did not respond to my messages. Finally, I rang them, and was told that there was not database of bottles thrown in, and it was no longer the policy of Seaworld to throw plastic bottles in the sea..... So, whoever threw bottle number 222 in the sea will never know that it was finally found! By the way, I quite agree that it is not good form to throw plastic bottles, or anything other than biodegradable waste, in the sea, but still..... it''s still exciting to find a bottle with something in it! That 's all for now, but I have more in my archive, and, one which we found today in Grain, Kent, so I will back soon to share them with you. X

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A collection of messages in bottles

5/8/2013

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We found our first message in a bottle at Egypt Bay in Kent in 2011. It was written by a little girl 2 years previously. Since then we have always kept an eye open for messages thrown into the river Thames or the River Medway and we have found several. Some poignant, some funny, some philosophical and some....well some are quite rude actually! Each of them tell a story though and so I am starting to keep a record of them. The first message which I will write about, we found in January 2013. It is the most poignant we have found, and was a bottle containing the ashes of a young lady called Clare who had been about to sail the world before very sadly, she died without fulfilling her wish. Her family hoped that by sending her ashes out to sea, her spirit would be set free. I have no doubt that it did. We subsequently met Clare's family which was really lovely.

This is the message which Clare's family placed in a bottle before throwing into the River Thames. We found it 6 months later near Greenwich.

message from finn found in a broken beer bottle. it floated down the river from southwark and ended up on the shores of an old ship breaker's yard in Greenwich.

Our next message was found in a broken beer bottle in July whilst we were mudlarking in Greenwich. It was from a 12 year old boy called Finn. We wrote to him to tell him we'd found his message, and he invited us to visit him on the barge where he lives on the river with his family. We haven't been yet, but fully intend to. We were also contacted by a TV producer who had been with Finn when he threw the message in the Thames, who asked if he could film us down by the river where we found the bottle. This we did, but my commentating skills were not that great and certainly not entirely natural!! ( I would not make a great news reporter or weather girl!), and so I do not know if he got a good enough clip of me trying to explain how we found it, and why we are always down by the river searching for things...... I did however manage to turn the tables and get a picture of him in return for me having to repeat my script about 7 times!!

Here is Danny the film producer, after filming us talking about our message in a bottle find!

message to Jeff from his grandchildren

This next message, also found in July 2013 was a personal message from children to their grand father Jeff whom they had never met, so once we had read it, we put it back in the bottle and sent it on its way. We found it in the Medway near Cliffe in Kent.

cryptic message destined for .... we will never know!

To finish off this evening's first message in a bottle blog entry, Im including the short, sweet and a bit rude message, unsigned of course - found yesterday again along the Greenwich shores, carefully inserted into a plastic bottle. I wonder who he was writing to! I'm sure whoever it was, would be very flattered (!?) or maybe not. I shall continue tomorrow with some more. if anyone, finds any messages in bottles themselves, I'd love to hear about them. X

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Hi, I'm Nicola - Im currently enjoying finding a variety of messages in bottles and discovering the stories behind them! you can watch a video here of a recent message in a bottle finding expedition! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28904275

BBC News - Real Time Series - Behind the Scenes of “Words from the Water”

Go go Power Rangers

A message from pirate sam and one other

A collection of messages in bottles

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