Skegness Magazine

Message in a Bottle
Message from the Sea

Whilst walking along the seashore at Skegness last Thursday evening, Mrs R V Turner, of Tattershall House, and her daughter observed a sealed bottle in the sea which was subsequently washed ashore by the tide.
The ladies secured it and took it home and with difficulty abstraced a piece of rough, thick paper upon which was some writing in pencil was noticed.
Unfortunately, owing to the difficulty of abstraction the paper was torn, rendering the writing almost undecipherable, but on one portion the words “Help at once” can be plainly read and the word “under” and “V C” can also be made out. The words “Help at once” have a somewhat ominous portent and it is unfortunate that the remainder cannot be deciphered.

Who knows what grim tragedy of the sea, learnt or unlearnt, that mutilated message conveys? And, on the other hand, pleasure-boat parties are notorious for their “larks”.
It is, however, a mystery.

Source: Skegness, Mablethorpe and Alford News 1913