The “bottlepost” was from the supertanker Torm Gertrud. The bottle had been afloat in the Northwest Atlantic for almost three months, and the illustrations were faded by sunlight.
The red and white flag of Denmark is called Dannebrog which literally means “cloth of the Danes”, and it is one of the world’s oldest national flags. The vertical part of the white cross is closer to the hoist side of the flag, a design element adopted by other Nordic countries.
As the bottlepost letter explains, the ship’s crew prepared the message, sealed the bottle and dropped it into the stormy sea at 48° North, 44° West. At this position the supertanker would have been in the Labrador Current, 650 km east of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Eighty-one days later the bottle, having traveled at least 1320 km, was found on Sable Island.