Message in a bottle is received after 10 years in Southern Ocean

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In 1996, John Williams threw a message in a bottle into the ocean off Cape Horn. Williams, a crewmember on the BT Global Challenge, wrote that he was doing a race and enclosed a copy of Santiana, a melancholy Welsh sea shanty that was one of his grandfather’s favourites.

The bottle must have circulated in the opposite direction, riding the Southern Ocean currents, maybe even doing a circumnavigation itself, until it was found this summer. After a decade’s voyaging it had washed up in Strahan, Tasmania where it was picked up by artist Janet Claridge. She contacted the Royal Australian Yacht Squadron, who put her in touch with John via Challenge Business.