A message in a bottle discovered off the west coast of Ireland has revived hopes for answers about the fate of a Taiwanese fishing crew that disappeared four years ago. The note, written in a mixture of Chinese, Indonesian, and English, has been linked to the Yong Yu Sing No 18, a Taiwanese fishing vessel that was found adrift with its crew missing in 2021.
Matthew Long, who found the bottle on a beach on Inisheer, a small island off County Clare, posted about his discovery on the social media site Reddit. The note reads, “Please send help! We are lost since 12/20. There are 3 of us here. We don’t know the name of this island. We are injured. HELP. HELLO. SOS.” The note ends with the Chinese character for “Li” and the name “Yong Yu Sing No 18.”
Long said he used Google Translate to decipher the message and initially believed it to be a hoax. However, after posting it online, internet sleuths quickly got to work trying to track down its origin. “We posted it in a few places online, but when we posted it in r/beachcombing, it blew up and clever Redditors were able to trace it back to a real missing ship crew,” Long said.
The Yong Yu Sing No 18 was reported missing on January 1, 2021, after its owner lost contact with the ship’s captain, a man surnamed Li, two days earlier. The fishing vessel was later found approximately 600km from Midway Atoll, an unincorporated United States territory in the North Pacific Ocean, with its crew and lifeboat missing. The incident was later ruled an accident by Taiwanese prosecutors, but the fate of Li and his nine Indonesian crew members remains unknown to this day.
The discovery of the message in a bottle has sparked debate online, with some users believing it to be genuine and others questioning its authenticity. In Taiwan, the note has been taken seriously by advocates for the families of the missing crew, including the Su’Ao Fisherman’s Association. “This association relays the hope that the government will verify the situation through appropriate channels, and if confirmed to be true, is willing for the government to cooperate with international organisations to coordinate rescue efforts,” the association said in a statement to local media.
Long said he is uncertain about whether the note is genuine but believes it is possible. “I don’t know about the note’s authenticity or if it was really sent by the crew of that ship,” he said. “I was very sceptical at first and believed it to be a hoax when I first opened and read the message, but since then, it is starting to look more plausible to me.”
The case of the Yong Yu Sing No 18 remains one of the most baffling maritime mysteries in recent years, and the discovery of the message in a bottle has brought new hope to those searching for answers about the crew’s fate.