Bottled Messages May Bring Fortunes
ALIVE|November 2016

Some times, they can be instrumental in unleashing your bottled up fate.

T. Rajagopalan
Bottled Messages May Bring Fortunes

A bedraggled starving man wholly broken through the loss of his life’s savings, Jack Wurm by name, stood on seashore in San Fransisco in March 1949 to jump into the sea and take his life out. When he was about to take a plunge into the waters he found, to his astonishment, a bottle in the waves that crashed near him.

Impelled by curiosity, he picked up the bottle and browsed the contents of an epistle he found therein. “To avoid confusion, I leave my entire estate, to the lucky person who finds this bottle and to my attorney Barry Comen. Signed Daisy Alexander, June 10, 1937.”

The finder of the bottle came to know that Daisy Alexander aka Daisa Singer was none other than an eccentric heiress to some $1,2,000,000 of the Singer Sewing Machine fortune. In 1938, Daisy who was then in the twilight of her life had expired of stroke and no final will could be found.

After Jack Wurm in California cracked the missing case of this will, Daisy’s close associates recollected that one of her eccentricities was to toss bottles into the river or sea and contemplate where would they sail and ultimately reach.

As an ocean-current expert explained that a bottle dropped into the Thames River in London could wash to the English Channel, then to the North Sea, through the Berring Straits into the North Pacific and end up in California or Mexico.

According to him, this would take approximately a dozen years. It took 11-and-a-half years actually. It took another seven years for the case to travel through various courts before Wurm was paid the fabulous sum.

Similarly a young boy, who worked in a farm, found a sealed bottle on the sands of a beach which contained a note that the finder would win an award of 10,000 dollars if the note was forwarded to an address in New York.

This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM ALIVEView all
Donald John Trump brings the US to inflection point
ALIVE

Donald John Trump brings the US to inflection point

The president elect is being looked upon with more apprehensions than appreciation.

time-read
6 mins  |
December 2016
Demonetisation: ‘Unleash the black money demon'
ALIVE

Demonetisation: ‘Unleash the black money demon'

An audacious move but there is a need to differentiate between despotic and democratic ways.

time-read
3 mins  |
December 2016
High Tech Courts Of Social Justice
ALIVE

High Tech Courts Of Social Justice

These can provide speedy justice to the needy sections in an inexpensive way. 

time-read
7 mins  |
December 2016
Gujarat Ke Gadhey!
ALIVE

Gujarat Ke Gadhey!

Netaas May Call These Animals ‘Gadheda’ (Donkey), but for Me, They Are ‘Ghudkhar’ (Wild Ass), Says a Guard at the Wild Ass Sanctuary in Surendranagar.  

time-read
5 mins  |
April 2017
I Wish to Get a National Award Shakuntala Barua
ALIVE

I Wish to Get a National Award Shakuntala Barua

A famous Bangla Cinema actress talks about her past, present and future.

time-read
3 mins  |
April 2017
On Keeping Secrets
ALIVE

On Keeping Secrets

A little-known tale from Mahabharata that is so often used by men to prove male chauvinism.

time-read
4 mins  |
April 2017
Cho Ramaswamy: Not Just A Film Comedian
ALIVE

Cho Ramaswamy: Not Just A Film Comedian

Even in octogenarian phase of life he continued as the editor of ‘Tughlak’ and ensured the weekly never lost its sting. 

time-read
3 mins  |
April 2017
Bombay High Court quashes ban on women in Haji Ali Dargah
ALIVE

Bombay High Court quashes ban on women in Haji Ali Dargah

Removing the status of persona non grata for women at religious sites.

time-read
4 mins  |
January 2017
Pullela Gopichand
ALIVE

Pullela Gopichand

The man behind the coaching factory of badminton. 

time-read
3 mins  |
January 2017
Asha Bhosle's gift of lineage
ALIVE

Asha Bhosle's gift of lineage

Some untold aspects of the singing legend.

time-read
6 mins  |
January 2017