I recently read an anecdote about Daisy Singer Alexander, heiress to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune. The story was that in lieu of a will, she put a message in a bottle and tossed it into the Thames River. The message said that whomever found it could lay claim to her money. A man in San Francisco found the bottle 10 years later.
This story has “urband legend” written all over it in my mind, but I can’t find any info on Snopes or anywhere else. Is anyone familiar with this tale, and is there any truth to it?
The chances of a bottle tossed into the Thames showing up in San Francisco in ten years (or even 100) are close to nil.
Showing up in Kiel, possible.
<i>The chances of a bottle tossed into the Thames showing up in San Francisco in ten years (or even 100) are close to nil.<i>
That’s part of what made the story so unbelievable…that bottle had to make its way through the Isthmus of Panama or some such to get to San Francisco. A bottle with a mission.
I’m wondering also if the story was attributed to a Singer heir because it would be so difficult to trace - apparently Isaac Singer produced 24 children between his two wives and many mistresses.
Is anyone familiar with this tale?
No, but I share your suspicions. On the web, it crops up mostly as an inspirational story on religious websites, the near-identical wording with slight garbling (e.g. the finder is sometimes called “Wurm” and sometimes “Wrum”) suggesting it’s just being copied around without validation.
Isthmus of Panama
This version alleges a scenario of it going up into the Arctic, eastwards over the top of the former USSR, then down through the Bering Straits into the Pacific.