Sign Off

from Flotsam and Jetsam on Vimeo.

Seven years on from starting this blog and I’m finally writing the sign off. Working on this film was easily the happiest I’ve ever been at work and the proudest I’ve ever been about a final outcome.

The film has been screened all over the world, on television and at festivals and we've been featured on blogs magazines as well as gallery. If you've got a minute I'd say these are my highlights from the blog. I hope you enjoy the film.

Thank you Darling.

Cor Ellen

On the 6th of May 2012 Cornelius Ellen passed away at the age of 85. There's so much you can say about a man who escaped the Nazis, had a bust of his own head in his living room and girlfriends all over the world, but I’m a bit lost for words. He really lit up our film and I feel incredibly lucky to have met him.

On the 23rd of September 2012 his ashes were scattered in the Wadden Sea with the wind blowing from the east.

Happy Christmas


If the novelty of looking at things covered in snow hasn't worn off yet I've uploaded this Jpeg of some flotsam with snow on. I was going to write 'Happy Christmas' on it in a san serif font but what's the point?

It's been over a year now since we started working on the film including treatments and just under a year for the blog. Every hit, comment and piece of feedback has been really appreciated (Nell this means you).

I've also attached my favorite Christmas song 'Just like Christmas' by Low, if you haven't heard it this year you should bang it on.



We're nearly finished hopefully in January well have a film to show you.
Merry Christmas

Message in a bottle of the week


Modest Stefan's English is pretty good, way better than my Swedish which is normally the case. As a triumph of ignorance and the Empire we made too and from Holland last week with out a word of any other language.

Message in the Bottle of the week
(a couple of weeks late)


Not much to say about this one it's written in Dutch and when we got it translated most of it dose make sense. It starts of with "I'm your big bear man" the rest of is an address and incoherent sex noises!

The funny thing about the address is the message was found very close to where it was sent. Where's the dignity?

Message of the Week
(click on the image to read)



Reading between the lines Cor found a chair with this companies logo on and tracked them down. I love the tone of this letter and how intrigued the sender is.

I've had a look at Hans Jørgen Wegner wikipedia page the chairs he design in 1949 were the Wishbone Chair



and the Round Chair



So I'm presuming its one of them but it might of been this little guy floating around.

Message of the Week.

With this blog being sorely under used I've decided to upload a message found in a bottle on shores of Texel by beachcomber Cor Ellen every week. This week's letter comes from Paul Murphy and he's in distress.



I have no clue what's going on with this I think it was found in 90's by Cor and Conoco Kotter is a North Sea oil rig. I googled it to no avail - so where ever Paul is and what exactly is going on is still a mystery to me. I hope he's ok.

Lonesome Polecat 2

The people at b24.net have been back in contact and they are certain that the downed airman That Cor Ellen saw was radio operator S/Sgt Eugene Francis Darter from B-17F 42-30255 QW-V 'Lonesome Polecat II' of 412th BS, 95th BG which was lost on 16th December 1943.

8 of the crew managed to bail out, before this ship went into sea with both
pilots. However, S/Sgt Darter being one of the first, landed into the
Wadden.

His injury's were supposed to be so bad he could get out of his parachute. I'm not sure who's who in the photo but ill keep updating as I find out more.

As an update I found Gone with the Wind by Micheal I Darter looking for Cor's arbitrary. It seems really beautifully written and researched.

Downed Pilot

I'm currently putting together a revised proposal for North West Vision. I've been looking this story from the independent. Its a first hand account of Beachcomber seeing a downed Airman in the waters around Texel.

I ask about a picture of a young airman displayed prominently on his wall. Ellen is silent, his mood suddenly reflective. "It was December 1943," he says finally. "I was on the beach when I saw a man drifting down from the clouds. He called to me - 'Help, help' - but he missed the dyke and went into the sea." Ellen pauses again then spreads his hands in a gesture of helplessness. "I can swim but the water was too cold and he was too far out. I watched him die in front of me."

After the war, Ellen saw a letter from America in the local paper from the airman's brother asking for any information about how he died. "I contacted him, and we are friends now too," says Ellen.

Through contacting the people at www.b24.net They think it might be Sgt Donald Pippitt of our 579th Sqdn. Pippit was a tail gunner that some how got separated from his plane and fell to his death.


Sometimes the Internet blows my tiny little mind. I'm not 100 percent sure but the dates match. Ill post more about this as it unravels.

Through a Dutch Google search I’ve come across an article published by trouw.nl about Cor Ellen one Texel’s oldest, most respected, beach combers.



Image courtesy of Lab Partners



Beachcomber Cor Ellen found over 400 messages in bottles.

Cor Ellen has a short white beard, bright blue eyes and two thick grey-white eyebrows, (one sticking up!) The 77-year old has been wandering the beaches of Texel for over 65 years and Ellen's house is decorated with things that the waves brought to the island.

His beachcombing life began at twelve in 1938. During the war the beach was a good source of firewood. " I was surprised by the different things that have been washed ashore on islands.''

With all the surprises from the sea there have been hundreds of messages in bottles. “I normally smash the bottles open where I find them, because I'm so curious. If the letter is wet, I put it on my head in my hat and then take it home to dry. The bottles make me so happy, I imagine that that person wants to know me and that I look forward to getting to know them.” If there is an address Ellen sends a ‘greetings from Texel’ postcard.

Ellen has collected a total of four hundred and twenty three letters, all carefully preserved in a special box. "I like to see them, so they must always be within reach. In recent years I have realised that the letters are vulnerable so I have started to keep them in plastic sleeves, some are on display. Over half the messages are written in Dutch. The rest are in German and English, Norwegian, French and some times Spanish, one letter came all the way from distant Venezuela.

He found his first bottle in 1936. “It was a postcard in English, so I couldn’t read it.” Ellen’s replies were with another bottle, promising the finder a bag of Texel cake. But the finder was a Texel fisherman. “That was a disappointment” said Ellen.

The second bottle Ellen found wasn’t until 1950 because of the war. “There was a lot of trouble and people apparently had no need to send a bottle.''

Ellen goes to England at regular intervals to visit June Goodwin from Leicester. He met her through a bottle he found in 1956 and contacted her though the local English newspaper. He has also been in contact with a sea Captain from Rotterdam, who threw a bottle overboard in the North Sea. “Suddenly I stood at his door in shorts with bare legs! We got along so well. He is a wonderful guy. We’ve stayed in touch ever since.”

Out of the 400 times that Ellen contacted a bottle thrower half have replied. Normally by post but twice the reply has been by bottle addressed to Cor Ellen that have been washed up on the beach at Texel.

Asked why he thinks people send messages in bottles Ellen replies, “Out of solitude, boredom or drunkenness? Sometimes the message is on the payroll of a deep-sea boat. Other times they are children who have signed a treasure map, and some times it’s a drunk man who want to find a sex star!”