Message in a Bottle

On Sunday May the 7^th 2017 at two o'clock in the afternoon and exactly 102 years after the sinking we stood at the Old Head Signal Tower and witnessed the opening of the Lusitania Memorial Garden and its twenty metre long sculpture bearing the names of all of the 1962 people known to have departed New York on the liner. Victoria's name was not there but as we looked out to sea where just twelve miles and twelve hundred months distant she had died, we remembered her.

I hoped that we had been able to give her life some meaning in spite of her tragic premature death. Victoria had thought long and hard about what to do with her money, wrestling with the knowledge that the jewels might have been obtained dishonestly. Ultimately she had elected to keep 10 million pounds for herself and for her parents and the remaining 30 million pounds was put into a charitable trust. This trust was tasked with providing financial aid to the families of merchant seamen lost at sea. It was called The Victoria White Trust.

I remembered what the old wise boatsman had said just over two years ago.

"Message in a bottle. Maybe it'll tell us where the treasures hid."

And of course it had, although my real treasure was the gorgeous creature standing beside me holding tightly onto my hand.

I wondered if it was fated. A story starting and then continuing with a Victoria.

And an event occurring 70 years before I was born would be part of me for the rest of my life.

***

The following day we were married. It was a civil ceremony held in Liverpool at the Titanic Hotel on the Albert Dock with a reception for 70 friends and family afterwards, and where we stayed for our wedding night.

Later when we were alone in our hotel room I held her in my arms and kissed her hard and deep. Then Victoria drew back and smiled. I'm going to shower and make myself beautiful. You should have time to read the part of Victoria's diary you never have. I'm sure she would approve. After all you're family now. And then she handed me the diary transcript. I heard Victoria turn on the shower and sitting at her dressing table I started to read.

"Mrs Latham," he said.

"Victoria," I replied.

And then I kissed him. He was a quick learner and with his strong arms around me we embraced and kissed. I was impatient and crossed to the bed and sat on the edge and then slipped my night shirt over my head revealing my naked body to him. I saw his eyes widen with surprise.

"Will you strip for me please?" I asked.

He nodded, and hesitantly at first, and then a little more boldly he removed his jacket, shirt, and tie, and then his socks and trousers. He stood hesitantly in front of me in his cotton briefs. I could see his erect penis straining to be free.

"Don't be shy."

He stepped out of his briefs, and I saw that he was uncircumcised. He had beautiful muscular thighs and a flat hard belly. As he stepped towards me I, still sitting, took his manhood into my mouth and started to fellate him. I moved my mouth up and down for several minutes as he quietly moaned but then I was worried he might come too soon so I stopped what I was doing and asked him to kneel between my legs. Then with my knees apart and my feet firmly planted I allowed him to lick me.

His tongue soon found my bud and as he licked and nibbled my passion grew, my juices flowed, until soon enough I took my first orgasm and as my thighs trembled I pushed my sex into his mouth and squealed with ecstasy.

I lay on the bed, and he lay beside me as I slowly took him in my hand and milked him until I felt his rock hard bone start to pulse and a jet of semen erupted in an arc onto my belly. We lay still and wrapped in one another for maybe fifteen minutes and then his member started to stir. David is young and filled with male urges and it was so easy to harden him once more with mouth and tongue.

"Now you get to fuck me, "I said.

"I want it hard and fast. Don't come in me."

Then he lay between my outstretched legs, and I guided him slowly inside me. first he ploughed me with long smooth strokes but when I tightened my legs around him he moved hard and fast and as I frigged myself I came again and again as his belly slapped against mine. I was biting the pillow so as not to scream. Cabins are not soundproof. He flipped me over and fucked me doggy style. His penis seemed to go the heart of me, and I must have come several more times. And then he slowed, gave a couple of little thrusts, and pulled out, and a few seconds later I felt his hot goo splash on my bum and lower back.

We lay together and Edward seemed inordinately pleased with himself and I realised I had taken his virginity.

Just before he left my cabin to return to his he turned to me and kissed me on the lips.

"Goodnight," he said.

I smiled. "Yes it was, and I expect a repeat tomorrow night please."

Then he was gone.

And I remember thinking if I die tonight I will die happy.

4/5/15

10 am ship's time

He came to me late last night. It was well after midnight when he knocked on the door. I remember thinking that he had already learned the trick of keeping a woman waiting.

Last night our lovemaking was different, he entered me straight away and as he moved on and in me he looked deep into my eyes and watched me take my pleasure. And after my thighs tightened around him and I writhed in pleasure and cooed like a dove I saw him smile. Three more times he gave me an orgasm before he withdrew, took his penis in his hand, and ejaculated on my belly.

A little later I showed him how a woman rides a man, and it was my turn to look down on him as I took my pleasure over and over again.

When I had finished reading I was hard and wondered whether this was what "my" Victoria intended.

She had entered the room and was now sitting on the end of the bed. Her long brown hair was wet, her green eyes sparkled, and her lips were moist. She looked beautiful. Then with one movement she slipped her nightie over her head and sat naked.

As I stood and crossed the room towards her she spoke,

"Will you strip for me please?"

Don't be shy?

And she giggled.

***

On honeymoon, and a week later Victoria and I flew to Barbuda early one morning. We crossed Codrington lagoon by boat and ate shitty leathered barbequed lobster for lunch. Then we walked hand in hand down Eleven Mile Beach. After lunch we took a tour of the lagoon and I showed Victoria where I had found the bottle and our life together had started. Finally in Codrington village we found the old boatsman. He had just returned from the lagoon.

"Do you remember me?"

"The man who found the bottle," he replied.

"Well there was treasure. This is for you. Don't say anything. Nobody will ever believe you anyway."

Then we gave him a case containing a quarter of a million US dollars and walked away.

And we never looked back.

Endnote.

In 2018 a message in a bottle was found that had survived 132 years. It was found on a beach north of Perth in Western Australia having been thrown into the Indian Ocean by a German merchant sailing ship as part of a study to understand ocean currents.

In 1915 a bottle was found on the shore of Amrum an island off the north-western coast of Germany. It had been thrown into the sea to study Baltic sea currents in 1906, 108 years before.

The furthest a message in a bottle has travelled is from Roker in Tyne and Wear, north-east England to Perth in Australia in a voyage of over 9000 miles and lasting 17 months.

There are multiple examples of bottles crossing the Atlantic from the north-eastern coast of the United States and being found variously in Ireland, France, or the Azores.

***

In September 2017 Hurricane Irma passed over Barbuda. It was a Category 5 storm and winds of 185 mph destroyed 90% of the island infrastructure and breached the Western side of Codrington lagoon leaving it open to the sea. The environmental effect on the lobster hatchery and Frigate bird colony is not established but the effect on the Barbudan people has been profound.

Following Irma it was feared that a second Hurricane, Jose, would strike the island and a forced evacuation of the 1800 Barbudans was carried out. They were not allowed to return for three weeks although many had nothing to return to. Although many of the Barbudans have since returned to the island their traditional communal way of life is now threatened. A large International airport is in the process of construction against the wishes of the population. Prior to Hurricane Irma the land in Barbuda was owned communally. What this meant was that if land was to be leased for development it had to be approved by the majority of adults. This was enshrined in the Barbuda Land Act in 2007. In 2018 The Antiguan Government repealed the Land Act ending the Barbudans right to communal land ownership which had been theirs for 200 years.

A large number of private developments are now planned against the wishes of Barbudans and there is even a plan to build two private residences on around 100 acres of land inside Codrington Lagoon.

Many consider the Antiguan Government to be "land grabbing" and having no respect for the rights and way of life of the indigenous Barbudans. The government wishes to exploit the land for tourism but many environmentalists question whether their plans are ecologically sound.

Currently at least five different lawsuits are ongoing.

***

The RMS Lusitania was a British registered luxury passenger liner belonging to Cunard Lines. At ten past two in the afternoon on the 7^th of May 1915 and when it was sailing about eleven and a half miles from The Old Head of Kinsale in Southern Ireland it was torpedoed and sunk by a German Imperial Navy U boat.

The ship took only eighteen minutes to sink. Although only one torpedo struck the Lusitania the initial explosion was closely followed by a second one which may have been caused by a coal dust explosion or munitions that the ship was carrying.

Only 761 of the 1962 on board survived. Of the 1201 who died 123 were American citizens and 94 were children. The bodies of 885 of those who died were never recovered.

The sinking resulted in huge anti German sentiment and contributed to the entry of America into the First World War in 1917.

The German Imperial Embassy did print a warning against travelling on the Lusitania. This warning was posted on the 22nd of April 2015 alongside advertisements for Lusitania's voyage from New York to Liverpool. The warning was printed in fifty newspapers.

NOTICE

TRAVELLERS intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY

Washington, DC 22 April 1915

This caused concern amongst some of the passengers, but they were wrongly reassured by the ship's captain, William Turner, that the ship was too fast to be caught by a submarine.

The wreck of the Lusitania lies on her starboard side in 93 metres (305 feet) of water.

***

The ocean continues to be the most dangerous workplace in the world. The most dangerous profession is deep sea fishing whilst the second most dangerous is commercial seafaring. On average two ships sink every week and an estimated 2000 lives per year may be lost. Commercial seamen transport 90% of the world's trade often in poor working conditions and poorly maintained vessels. Fifty thousand merchant ships trade internationally manned by a million seamen. Many sinkings are unreported in the Western press because only a small proportion of these seamen are from western nations. Twenty five percent of all seamen come from the Philippines with China, Indonesia, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine being the remaining top contributors.

***

Ruby with amethyst, sapphire, emerald, and diamond is one of the five traditional cardinal gems. It is a pinkish red to blood red gemstone and is a variety of carborundum composed predominantly of aluminium oxide. The word ruby is derived from the Latin word ruber for red. The colour of a ruby is due to the presence of trace amounts of the element chromium and the strength of a ruby's red increases with the amount of chromium present.

The quality of a ruby is determined by its colour clarity and cut together with its carat weight and this in turn affects is value.. The most valuable and rarest rubies are from The Mogok Valley in Myanmar (formerly Burma) and are a deep shade of red called blood-red or pigeon blood. Most rubies mined in Myanmar are heat treated to improve colour and clarity. Pigeon blood rubies so pure and bright they do not need heat treatment are exceedingly rare and very valuable indeed.

The world's most expensive ruby is the Sunshine Ruby. This Burmese pigeon blood ruby weighs 25.6 carats and sold for 30 million dollars at auction in 2015.

***