Message in a Bottle Myth #1

Queen Elizabeth I’s “Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles”

Imagine living during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, in the late 16th century… As England expanded its empire and flexed its muscles, information was power—and, in the wrong hands, a threat to the Crown. Legend has it that Queen Elizabeth I insisted on such tight control over the flow of information, that she was even worried about messages in bottles, in case they contained sensitive information about her military. Thus, according to legend, she appointed an Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles…

Many versions of this myth float around the internet. Different sources have put different spins on this story over the years, but here is how it goes, roughly:

Around 1560 (or 1598, depending which version of the myth you encounter), an illiterate fisherman scooped up a message in a bottle on English shores. He opened it, but, being illiterate, couldn’t read it. So he took it to a local official, who in turn took the message (and the fisherman) to higher powers. Eventually, word of this bottled note reached Queen Elizabeth because it contained sensitive military information sent ashore by England’s Navy (or by English spies “on the continent,” depending on the version of the myth). Elizabeth, in order to deter any others from opening messages in bottles and stumbling into secret information, appointed an “Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles”. She also made it a capital offense for anyone else to open messages in bottles, punishable by beheading or hanging. Mercifully, the fisherman was spared because he could not read. The information in the bottle was never at risk in his hands.

Fascinating story, right? But here’s the most interesting part: It isn’t true. None of it. As I explain in my article for Beachcombing magazine, the entire story is a fabrication.

Queen Elizabeth I while still a princess. She never created an “Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles,” but the myth that she did persists.

Although this myth originated in the 1860s, it really got legs from Robert Kraske’s 1978 fanciful and dubious children’s book, The Twelve Million Dollar Note, which contains some true stories about messages in bottles, along with many that are now known to be hoaxes or works of fiction. More on this below.

Alas, National Geographic and Wikipedia have repeated this particular myth, along with the UK’s The Telegraph and countless others. Everyone writes about this story with confidence, saying things like, “This law remained on the books for 200 years,” while never specifying which books or how to find any record of the law (more on this soon). They all point back to Kraske, as best I can tell. No one on earth can provide a single primary source to support this story, because none exist.

The truth is Queen Elizabeth I never appointed an Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles. In fact, this myth was born in a novel by French author Victor Hugo, published in 1869, as I will show.

First, how did we get here? I mean, how is it that so many people believe this legend to be true when it simply is not?

No Evidence That Elizabeth I Appointed an Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles

This story is so strange and unbelievable (put to death for opening a message in a bottle?!) that I have long wondered if it could be true, and I have spent over ten years trying to find out. I certainly hoped it was, and that I could apply for the job of Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles! But I couldn’t find any source that definitively proved the story to be true. And that only fueled my quest. To be honest, I grew obsessed with this story, as the following will illustrate.

One of the earliest mentions I have found of this apocryphal story is a 1954 Saturday Evening Post article by Alan Hynd called “Tales of the Floating Bottles”. Hynd claims the message was “top secret” and “in code” (details omitted by other tellers of this tale) and was dropped by a British Intelligence officer. But did Hynd include a source for this story? Nope.

There is also a 1955 article by Carl Spielvogel for the New York Times, likely inspired by Hynd’s article. Spielvogel shares even more fanciful details. He claims the bottled note was “to the effect that Novaya Zemlya, a 35,000 square mile arctic island, had been seized by the Dutch from Russia.” But, if it was in code, as Hynd claimed the year before, how could Spielvogel have learned this?

The bit about Novaya Zemlya is intriguing, isn’t it? It’s got just enough historical zing to sound believable. Spielvogel mentions real places, real powers that England had to contend with, and drops a message in a bottle right into the middle of that murky situation. As you have guessed already, Spielvogel does not provide a source for the story either.

One Dubious Book, The Twelve Million Dollar Note, Made This Myth Famous

So this story surfaced in various forms throughout the early 20th century–but the moment it truly blossomed and became well known was with the publication of Robert Kraske’s 1978 book, The Twelve Million Dollar Note: Strange but True Tales of Messages Found in Seagoing Bottles. To this day, Kraske’s book is the most commonly cited “source” for this story–when any source is cited at all–among articles on the internet (including Wikipedia). The trouble–the very real, undeniable trouble–is that Kraske’s book offers no source to support the veracity of this story about Queen Elizabeth, or any of the other stories in its pages. For all we know as readers of the book, he could have made up the Queen Elizabeth legend entirely (in fact it was a different author who concocted this story).

Robert Kraske seems to have been a hardworking writer and editor, and well-loved in his community in Minnesota. Many of his books deal with interesting moments and people from history, as well as science. I have no doubt Mr. Kraske did many good and worthwhile things in his life. But at the end of the day, he was neither a historian of messages in bottles nor an expert on Queen Elizaebeth I. We will probably never know where he first encountered the myth about Queen Elizabeth, or why he took it to be true, but one thing’s for sure: His book made this myth famous, convincing many people even to this day that it is true, despite the total lack of any supporting evidence.

I’m not the first to be dismayed by the dubiousness of this story and many others in Kraske’s book. At the time of The Twelve Million Dollar Note’s publication, Kirkus offered the following highly skeptical review:

“Baited with an unverifiable tale of a thousand-dollar promissory note in a bottle washed up in the Azores ‘a few years ago,’ this assemblage of curiosa is as haphazard as the fate of message-bearing bottles altogether. Kraske appears to have collected clippings–many, of the column-filler sort–without necessarily checking them out. The titular story, for instance, tells of a San Francisco dishwasher whose lucky bottle bore a will naming the finder heir to the signatory’s estate And she, one “Daisy Alexander,” was–his friend tells him–‘the only child of Isaac Singer, the American sewing-machine millionaire.’ Now it happens that Singer had a notorious score of children and none of them was named Daisy. No wonder ‘at last report’ in 1955 the twelve-million-dollar claim was still pending–where Kraske is content to leave it. Also left unidentified are the Lusitania bottle-messages, hardly even historical footnotes without attribution But then few of the “true” tales are more than snippets–the bottle-engendered correspondence that doesn’t bloom into romance is a big story–and, by the same token, the factual information on charting currents and other uses of message-bearing bottles is fragmentary too. As an antidote to the $$$ lure, however, there’s much to be said for the bottlefinders who twit the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for its fifty cents reward. Small pickings, then, the best-answered question being why indeed so few of the messages come to light.”

Now, the “Twelve Million Dollar Note” itself is wrapped up in a somewhat complicated story that The Museum of Hoaxes investigated pretty thoroughly, but basically, yes–Kraske got key details of the story flat-out wrong and seems to have filled in other parts as he saw fit.

The messages in bottles mentioned from the Lusitania are all hoaxes, presented in Kraske’s book as fact (like the Queen Elizabeth myth).

Other key fictional stories in the book that are presented as fact include the legend of Chunosuke Matsuyama, a Japanese sailor whose message in a bottle was found after 151 years (this never happened, of course), and the debunked legend that the first messages in bottles were sent by ancient Greek philosopher Theophrastus around 300 BC. Of course, Wikipedia also presents these two myths as historical facts, and cites (you guessed it!) Robert Kraske’s book as evidence.

Particularly frustrating to me is Kraske’s presentation of the completely fabricated story that claims Benjamin Franklin used messages in bottles to chart the Gulf Stream. Kraske didn’t make up this story himself, but he perpetuated it apparently without ever questioning its veracity, and added quite a bit of color to the story as he did so.

The truth is that Benjamin Franklin never did any such thing. I personally spoke with Karie Diethorn, Chief Curator at Independence National Park (you know, the one with THE Liberty Bell), during the making of my documentary The Tides That Bind: A Message in a Bottle Story, and she explained that Franklin used several scientific methods to chart the Gulf Stream, combined with interviews of experienced sailors. No messages in bottles, ever. Karie Diethorn is one of the world’s foremost Benjamin Franklin experts, and she was obviously deeply familiar with the details of this Benjamin Franklin story. There is no chance–none whatsoever–that Benjamin Franklin sent messages in bottles to chart the Gulf Stream.

I could go on, but the point is: Robert Kraske’s book, The Twelve Million Dollar Note: Strange but True Tales of Messages Found in Seagoing Bottles, presents several fictional stories as fact, several myths as truths, all without providing any sources to support its claims, and, in short, is simply not a fact-based history of messages in bottles. This book cannot be trusted, period.

Alas, it is one of the main sources cited by Wikipedia’s “Message in a Bottle” page, and is cited at least six times throughout the page, as of December 2023, which should give you a sense of how much you can trust Wikipedia on the history of bottled messages.

When it comes to Queen Elizabeth’s “Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles,” Kraske’s book is just. Plain. Wrong.

In fact, no one has ever produced a primary source to support the claim that Queen Elizabeth I appointed an “Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles”.

And of course, that is one reason we know it is a myth–thanks to the simple, beautiful concept of “burden of proof”. When someone makes a claim that something is true–that Queen Elizabeth appointed an “Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles,” for example–the “burden” of proving that lies with the person making the claim. It is not my job to disprove it–it is entirely up to the claim-maker to prove what they say is true. And in this case, no one has. Nevertheless, here we are, and I am disproving this claim anyway.

According To the UK’s National Archives, No Such Position Existed

As I traced this myth through a tangled web of articles and books published throughout the 20th century–none of which pointed to a primary source–it dawned on me that I would need to consult a more serious authority on British history than adventure books and magazines aimed at young boys in 1950s America. So I contacted the United Kingdom’s National Archives. Considering that they actually possess the records of proclamations, appointments, etc., made by Queen Elizabeth I, it’s reasonable to believe that if anyone would know whether Queen Elizabeth appointed an Official Uncorker, it would be them.

I explained my mission and the Archives folks explained that yes, jobs like this one would indeed have been officially recorded, and we would be able to know today whether any such job as “Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles” ever existed under Queen Elizabeth I by consulting records of her Proclamations as well as something called the “Patent Rolls Index” where job titles under her reign are recorded.

That makes sense, right? If there was ever such a position in Queen Elizabeth’s government, it would be recorded in black and white in the National Archives. Furthermore, it is obvious that there would have been a “Royal Proclamation” on the subject. As the Archives folks explained it to me: In those days, issuing a Proclamation was the only way to inform the public that it was against the law, and punishable by death, for anyone to open a message in a bottle found on England’s shores.

Graciously, the good people at the UK’s National Archives consulted both records of Elizabeth’s “Proclamations” as well as job titles and appointments under her reign. Here’s what they told me:

“We have searched the C 66 Patent Rolls Index relating to Elizabeth I, where occupations are listed, and had no success in finding a reference to an ‘Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles.’ A search was also made in the publication Tudor Royal Proclamations’ Volume III, The Later Tudors (1588–1603, edited by Hughes and Larkin, Yale University Press, 1969) for a reference to a Proclamation on this subject, but again, without success.”

This means, very simply, that no such proclamation was ever made, and no such job ever existed.

This clarifies, once and for all, that Queen Elizabeth never appointed an Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles, and furthermore that it was never illegal to open a message in a bottle found on England’s shores.

But as one mystery is put to bed (we can be sure that this story is not true), another remains. If no such position ever existed, where did this myth come from? How did it start? How did it grow to the point that news and information outlets like National Geographic and Wikipedia incorrectly offer the story as true today?

Origin of Queen Elizabeth I’s “Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles” Myth

This whole story is one of the “Urban Legends of the Sea” that renowned oceanographer Curt Ebbesmeyer included in his book Flotsametrics, a sweeping study of all that floats. You know of Curt Ebbesmeyer’s work, even if you haven’t heard of him. Have you heard of the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch?” Well, he discovered it and coined that term. Anyway, here’s what Curt had to say:

The tale is often told that in 1560 Queen Elizabeth I of England charged an official with opening any message bottles that drifted on Albion’s shore, in case they might have come from her spies on the continent. Anyone else uncorking a message was subject to death. I traced this account to a story by Victor Hugo, which contained many details that seemed somewhat plausible. Try as I might I have not been able to trace it further…

I am pleased to be the first on the internet, apparently, to put all these scraps of stories and investigations together. Curt is right that the story can only be traced to Victor Hugo. But as for the “somewhat plausible” details–they are all inventions of Hugo’s imagination. No one can trace the story further back than Hugo, because his brain is where the story came from.

If you would like to read Victor Hugo’s 1869 novel, The Man Who Laughs, you can do so at your own peril here. It is a slog. And it is worth repeating: This is a novel, a work of fiction. The events in it did not actually happen outside of Victor Hugo’s head. These people did not exist.

(Fun side note: Season 3, Episode 1 of The Good Place contains a reference to Victor Hugo’s The Man Who Laughs. When Chidi is in the library with a cart full of books, a purple copy of The Man Who Laughs is propped front and center on the cart.)

In the novel, the Duchess Josiana presides over a royal court (she is the fictional illegitimate daughter of King James II). A somewhat comical character called Barkilphedro comes to her, seeking to be appointed “Uncorker of the Bottles of the Ocean”. He basically wants a title and a salary, because he is a bit of a vagrant in the court. Josiana finds the request amusing and the two banter for a while. During their banter, Barkilphedro reels off a story about Queen Elizabeth appointing an Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles in what is clearly an attempt to make Josiana jealous, to make her think, “Well, if Queen Elizabeth did it, then, by God, I will too!” So she does, and Barkilphedro becomes her Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles.

This is the oldest appearance of the Queen Elizabeth message in a bottle myth anywhere, because this is the moment it was born.

And really, that’s all there is to it. Victor Hugo, a French novelist, dreamed up this myth for a comical scene in his fictional 1869 novel, The Man Who Laughs. Amazingly, a century and a half later, some of our most respected information outlets like National Geographic, Wikipedia, The Telegraph, New York Magazine, and more continue to publish this whimsical story as gospel truth. Even Chad Pregracke of Living Lands & Waters, who I much admire, repeats this myth. Today hundreds–maybe thousands–of websites and blogs repeat the myth. It will take forever to correct the misinformation spread by these outlets. In fact, their work may never be undone.

Example of How The Queen Elizabeth Message in a Bottle Myth Spreads

A typical example of how a falsehood like this spreads as truth is exemplified by Wikipedia’s “Message in a Bottle” page. As of December 2023, it states:

“In the sixteenth century, Queen Elizabeth I reputedly created an official position of “Uncorker of Ocean Bottles”, and—thinking some bottles might contain secrets from British spies or fleets—decreed that anyone else opening the bottles could face the death penalty.”

For anyone unfamiliar with the terminology here, “reputedly” does not mean “truly” or “historically” or anything rooted in fact. “Reputedly” here simply means “people believe / have believed” something to be true. You know, like people believe in the Flathead Lake Monster.

Well, my question is: who? Who believes Queen Elizabeth appointed an Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles? Certainly not the UK’s National Archives; not any official source; not any historically factual account of her reign

And remind me–who does Wikipedia cite to “support” their claim that Queen Elizabeth I appointed an Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles? *clicky * clicky * click * Ah, yes. National Geographic and Robert Kraske…

KRAAASSSKEEE!!!! ***shakes fists at sky***

As I’ve noted many times, neither Kraske nor Nat Geo provide any sources for their claims (and, hilariously, it is highly likely that National Geographic actually found the Queen Elizabeth I story on Wikipedia–so Nat Geo and Wikipedia are likely citing each other in a loop without beginning or end! It’s a citation loop…).

This is a multi-level failure to meet the “burden of proof” from top to bottom. It’s turtles all the way down…

The problem is that once you have generally reputable outlets like Wikipedia or National Geographic or New York Magazine, or museums, etc., making a claim like this–and failing to support it with facts–casual readers see only the claim, not the absence of support. And especially when the claim is strange or surprising, it spreads. Just google “Queen Elizabeth message in a bottle” and you’ll see what I mean. Aside from me shouting angrily into the void about all this in a few places, you’ll find the wider internet is willing to embrace and accept this myth as fact. Luckily, the stakes are low in this case–but this exercise is like a lesson on creating and spreading misinformation.

Why Does the Myth of Queen Elizabeth’s Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles Survive?

Because it’s awesome! But also: the internet.

The internet loves an apocryphal story featuring famous and powerful people from history, and this story is the perfect blend: part drama, part romance, part magic, part English-monarchy-fairytale…

From Wikipedia: “The Pelican Portrait by Nicholas Hilliard. The pelican was thought to wound her breast to nourish her young, and became a symbol of Passion and Eucharist, adopted by Elizabeth portraying herself as the ‘mother of the Church of England.'”

The myth of Queen Elizabeth’s Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles hits the bullseye where history, drama, and danger all intersect. England is a legendary land, too. For many of us, the mere mention of England conjures images of King Arthur and Merlin, or Robin Hood and Maid Marian. In a land that’s home to such legends, the idea of England’s most famous Queen appointing someone to a position as magic-sounding as Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles seems totally plausible. So, we went with it.

But in reality, we can trace this myth from today’s internet articles, back to Robert Kraske’s children’s book of 1978, then back to a few fanciful mid-century news articles, and from there, back to Victor Hugo’s imagination.

Obviously I love the idea of a national, official “Uncorker of Ocean Bottles” because I would be awesome at the job! But as of now, this story appears to be merely a work of fiction. It floats in the sea of myth.

One lovely thing that has come from this myth is a children’s book called The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles by Michelle Cuevas. It tells the story of a lonely finder of bottled messages who finds and attempts to deliver a mysterious invitation to a party. I highly recommend it. I received it as a gift from “Lily Mason,” whose message in a bottle I found.

Of course if you have any further information on this story that predates Victor Hugo’s 1869 novel, let me know! I would love to be wrong about this! Until then, I call this story a myth.