Just Ducky-A-Story
I found this wonderful story a few years ago in a coffee shop. it was from a local coffee
newspaper with little interesting stories in it, but I was never able to credit
it to the author as it never mentioned who had written it. This is another
version of the same story but I can now credit this one to the London Evening
Standard. Please note that the original was very fun and whimsical and I had to
share the last paragraph of the story I had originally read. I share it with
you at the bottom of this article. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did
and still do as it hangs on my wall in my soap room.
newspaper with little interesting stories in it, but I was never able to credit
it to the author as it never mentioned who had written it. This is another
version of the same story but I can now credit this one to the London Evening
Standard. Please note that the original was very fun and whimsical and I had to
share the last paragraph of the story I had originally read. I share it with
you at the bottom of this article. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did
and still do as it hangs on my wall in my soap room.
They were toys destined only to bob up and down in nothing bigger than a child's
bath - but so far they have floated halfway around the world.
The armada of 29,000 plastic yellow ducks, blue turtles and green frogs broke free
from a cargo ship 15 years ago.
Since then they have travelled 17,000 miles, floating over the site where the Titanic
sank, landing in Hawaii and even spending years frozen in an Arctic ice pack.
And now they are heading straight for Britain. At some point this summer they are
expected to be spotted on beaches in South-West England.
While the ducks are undoubtedly a loss to the bath-time fun of thousands of children,
their adventures at sea have proved an invaluable aid to science.
The toys have helped researchers to chart the great ocean currents because when
they are spotted bobbing on the waves they are much more likely to be reported
to the authorities than the floats which scientists normally use.
And because the toys are made of durable plastic and are sealed watertight, they
have been able to survive years adrift at the mercy of the elements.
Boxes of the bath time toys - made in China for the U.S. firm The First Years Inc -
were washed overboard in the eastern Pacific Ocean one stormy January night in
1992 and broke open.
In the intervening time oceanographer, Curtis Ebbesmeyer, has devoted his
retirement to tracking the little yellow ducks and their friends over 17,000
miles and it is he who has predicted that this summer they will land in the
West of England. Mr Ebbesmeyer said: 'We're getting reports of ducks being washed up
on America's eastern seaboard. "It is now inevitable that they will get caught up in the Atlantic currents and
will turn up on English beaches.
"Cornwall and the South-West will probably get the first wave of them."
Mr Ebbesmeyer said the toys will be easy for British beachcombers to spot because
they have largely faded to white and have the words "The First Years" stamped
upon them.
George Bush Sr was still US President when the toys from The First Years Inc. were
made in China, packed into a container and put on a ship for the US.
But after falling overboard, the sea water corroded the cardboard packaging and the
toys floated free. They circled the northern Pacific once before being washed
up on the Alaskan shore, then all down the West coast of Canada and the US.
Mr Ebbesmeyer saw immediately how valuable the little toys would be to scientific
research of the great ocean currents, the engine of the planet's entire
climate.
He correctly predicted what many thought was impossible - that thousands of them
would end up washed into the Arctic ice near Alaska, and then move at a mile a
day, frozen in the pack ice, around their very own North-West Passage to the
Atlantic.
It proved true years later and in 2003, the first "Friendly Floatees" were found,
frozen and then thawed out on the eastern seaboard of the U.S. and Canada.
So precious to science are they that the US firm that made them is offering a £50
bounty for finding one.
THE JOURNEY SO FAR:
10 JANUARY 1992:
Somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean nearly 29,000 First Years bath
toys, including bright yellow rubber ducks, are spilled from a cargo ship in
the Pacific Ocean.
16 NOVEMBER 1992:
Caught in the Sub polar Gyre (counter-clockwise ocean current in the Bering
Sea, between Alaska and Siberia), the ducks take 10 months to begin landing on
the shores of Alaska.
EARLY 1995:
The ducks take three years to circle around. East from the drop site to Alaska,
then west and south to Japan before turning back north and east passing the
original drop site and again landing in North America. Some ducks are even
found In Hawaii. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
worked out that the ducks traveled approximately 50 per cent faster than the
water in the current.
1995 - 2000: Some
intrepid ducks escape the Sub polar Gyre and head North, through the Bering
Strait and into the frozen waters of the Arctic. Frozen into the ice the ducks
travel slowly across the pole, moving ever eastward.
2000: Ducks begin reaching the North Atlantic where they begin to thaw and move Southward. Soon ducks are sighted bobbing in the waves from Maine to Massachusetts.
2001: Ducks are tracked in the area where the Titanic sank.
JULY TO DECEMBER 2003:
The First Years company offers a $100 savings bond reward for the recovery of
wayward ducks from the 1992 spill. To be valid ducks must be sent to the
company and must be found in New England, Canada or Iceland. Britain is told to
prepare for an invasion of the wayward ducks as well.
2003:
A lawyer named Sonali Naik was on holiday in the Hebrides in north-west Scotland when she
found a faded green frog on the beach marked with the magic words 'The First
Years'. Unaware of the significance of her find she left it on the beach. It
was only when she was chatting to other guests at her hotel that she realized
what she had seen.
As quoted from the story I first read
called “The Big Splash” If anyone out there knows who I should credit this
story to please let us know.
“The moral of this Story? Garbage never
disappears it just drifts: fate is a fickle friend;
Chinese manufactrures produce one tough
duck. It’s your choice, but I prefer to leave you with this warning: If you
happen to come upon a faded duck, beaver, frog or turtle the next time you are
beachcombing do not attempt to pick it up!
These little suckers are not what they
appear; they are no longer gentle and lovable bathtub friends.
No, my friends these are seasoned
seafarers, hardened by 15+ years of ice, wind and cold salt water. They’re wild
now and should be admired from afar”.
bath - but so far they have floated halfway around the world.
The armada of 29,000 plastic yellow ducks, blue turtles and green frogs broke free
from a cargo ship 15 years ago.
Since then they have travelled 17,000 miles, floating over the site where the Titanic
sank, landing in Hawaii and even spending years frozen in an Arctic ice pack.
And now they are heading straight for Britain. At some point this summer they are
expected to be spotted on beaches in South-West England.
While the ducks are undoubtedly a loss to the bath-time fun of thousands of children,
their adventures at sea have proved an invaluable aid to science.
The toys have helped researchers to chart the great ocean currents because when
they are spotted bobbing on the waves they are much more likely to be reported
to the authorities than the floats which scientists normally use.
And because the toys are made of durable plastic and are sealed watertight, they
have been able to survive years adrift at the mercy of the elements.
Boxes of the bath time toys - made in China for the U.S. firm The First Years Inc -
were washed overboard in the eastern Pacific Ocean one stormy January night in
1992 and broke open.
In the intervening time oceanographer, Curtis Ebbesmeyer, has devoted his
retirement to tracking the little yellow ducks and their friends over 17,000
miles and it is he who has predicted that this summer they will land in the
West of England. Mr Ebbesmeyer said: 'We're getting reports of ducks being washed up
on America's eastern seaboard. "It is now inevitable that they will get caught up in the Atlantic currents and
will turn up on English beaches.
"Cornwall and the South-West will probably get the first wave of them."
Mr Ebbesmeyer said the toys will be easy for British beachcombers to spot because
they have largely faded to white and have the words "The First Years" stamped
upon them.
George Bush Sr was still US President when the toys from The First Years Inc. were
made in China, packed into a container and put on a ship for the US.
But after falling overboard, the sea water corroded the cardboard packaging and the
toys floated free. They circled the northern Pacific once before being washed
up on the Alaskan shore, then all down the West coast of Canada and the US.
Mr Ebbesmeyer saw immediately how valuable the little toys would be to scientific
research of the great ocean currents, the engine of the planet's entire
climate.
He correctly predicted what many thought was impossible - that thousands of them
would end up washed into the Arctic ice near Alaska, and then move at a mile a
day, frozen in the pack ice, around their very own North-West Passage to the
Atlantic.
It proved true years later and in 2003, the first "Friendly Floatees" were found,
frozen and then thawed out on the eastern seaboard of the U.S. and Canada.
So precious to science are they that the US firm that made them is offering a £50
bounty for finding one.
THE JOURNEY SO FAR:
10 JANUARY 1992:
Somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean nearly 29,000 First Years bath
toys, including bright yellow rubber ducks, are spilled from a cargo ship in
the Pacific Ocean.
16 NOVEMBER 1992:
Caught in the Sub polar Gyre (counter-clockwise ocean current in the Bering
Sea, between Alaska and Siberia), the ducks take 10 months to begin landing on
the shores of Alaska.
EARLY 1995:
The ducks take three years to circle around. East from the drop site to Alaska,
then west and south to Japan before turning back north and east passing the
original drop site and again landing in North America. Some ducks are even
found In Hawaii. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
worked out that the ducks traveled approximately 50 per cent faster than the
water in the current.
1995 - 2000: Some
intrepid ducks escape the Sub polar Gyre and head North, through the Bering
Strait and into the frozen waters of the Arctic. Frozen into the ice the ducks
travel slowly across the pole, moving ever eastward.
2000: Ducks begin reaching the North Atlantic where they begin to thaw and move Southward. Soon ducks are sighted bobbing in the waves from Maine to Massachusetts.
2001: Ducks are tracked in the area where the Titanic sank.
JULY TO DECEMBER 2003:
The First Years company offers a $100 savings bond reward for the recovery of
wayward ducks from the 1992 spill. To be valid ducks must be sent to the
company and must be found in New England, Canada or Iceland. Britain is told to
prepare for an invasion of the wayward ducks as well.
2003:
A lawyer named Sonali Naik was on holiday in the Hebrides in north-west Scotland when she
found a faded green frog on the beach marked with the magic words 'The First
Years'. Unaware of the significance of her find she left it on the beach. It
was only when she was chatting to other guests at her hotel that she realized
what she had seen.
As quoted from the story I first read
called “The Big Splash” If anyone out there knows who I should credit this
story to please let us know.
“The moral of this Story? Garbage never
disappears it just drifts: fate is a fickle friend;
Chinese manufactrures produce one tough
duck. It’s your choice, but I prefer to leave you with this warning: If you
happen to come upon a faded duck, beaver, frog or turtle the next time you are
beachcombing do not attempt to pick it up!
These little suckers are not what they
appear; they are no longer gentle and lovable bathtub friends.
No, my friends these are seasoned
seafarers, hardened by 15+ years of ice, wind and cold salt water. They’re wild
now and should be admired from afar”.
copyright © 2006 Sisters Making Scent Company. All rights reserved
