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| Age is starting to fade some of the writing on the Howlett's message in the bottle. (Supplied: Kent Howlett) |
The family of a Queensland man who discovered a mysterious message in a bottle on Fraser Island 60 years ago is trying to track down the author's relatives.
The message was penned by a family from Ballarat, Victoria, on a voyage from Sydney to Auckland in 1935.
Jack Howlett was fishing for bream and whiting with his father when he spotted the bottle poking out of the white Fraser Island sand.
He said it was an exciting find for a 16-year-old.
"[We] couldn't work out how to get [the message] out and in the impatience we broke the bottle which was a bit of a pity," he told ABC Radio Brisbane.
"Inside was a menu and a note from the captain and a couple of the people onboard, including a young lad."
The note read:
Thrown overboard by Mr & Mrs Robert Hare and son Billy 11/9/35 en route Syd/Auck. Will finder please communicate with above at Ballarat, Vict - Aust, The City Beautiful, Largest inland city of the commonwealth.
Mr Howlett sent a letter to the Victorian address listed on the back of the menu but abandoned his search for the author when he did not receive a reply.
The menu and notes were tucked away in the back of a cupboard for decades and were not re-discovered until last year when Mr Howlett moved to a new house.
"It'd been tucked away in a box with all my treasures that come out about once every 20 years," he said.
"[I] came across it and raised it with the family and one of my sons, Kent, took off with it."
Clues faded, but not lost
Kent Howlett and his children have carefully examined every inch of the message in search of details that could help connect them with relatives of the family who wrote it.
"It'd be great to say, 'This thing exists', because they probably don't even know about it," he said.
Kent recently made a few discoveries with help from his daughter and a small black light borrowed from her toy chest.
On closer examination, he said they believe the bottle was thrown off a ship called the MV Wanganella roughly 800 kilometres off the coast of Sydney.
He estimated it was at sea for 25 years before his father found it.
Kent has also tracked down more information about Billy Hare, the young boy mentioned in the note.
"I've done some digging on Billy Hare and it appears, if I'm correct, that this is William Hare who became a professor," he said.
"[He was] something of a founding father of radiology in Australia.
"If it is the right guy I think he passed near on 10 years ago, so we're probably talking to his kids in turn."
The University of Melbourne published an obituary for Professor Emeritus William Samuel Calhoun Hare in The Age newspaper on June 4, 2013.
It said Mr Hare was survived by his son and daughter, six grandchildren, a niece and a nephew.
The note also named the ship's commander, Captain R Darrock, and a witness by the name of W Elsdon-Dew, who was an engineer on the ship at the time.
"There's lots of names that'd be cool to link up for no other reason than to say we've done it," Mr Howlett said.
Puree of oysters and boiled salmon on the menu
The best-preserved piece of the puzzle was the menu from the MV Wanganella's voyage to Auckland.
It listed the night's entertainment and what guests could expect to eat for dinner.
Cinema entertainment was organised on the Promenade Deck at 8:15pm that night and featured titles such as New Zealand Pictorial, Feathered Neighbours, and Strike It Rich.
"And dancing will take place till 11pm," read the typed itinerary.
The dinner service on the ship showed it was a pretty decadent affair.
It included dishes such as puree of oysters, boiled Canadian salmon, roast beef and lamb, a selection of four desserts, and cheese and preserves to finish.
The menu, dated Tuesday, September 10, 1935 was one day old when it was stuffed into the cork-topped bottle with a handwritten note and thrown into the ocean.
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