SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1951. 
Distress Note in 
Found on 
Local naval authorities are investigating a tattered, scribbled note 
which, apparently, four prisoners on a small Pacific island slipped 
into a bottle years ago and threw into the ocean. 
The note was discovered recently on the tiny, deserted island of 
Laysan, 300 miles southeast of Midway island by John Perkins, sec¬ 
ond mate of the George Vander¬ 
bilt yacht Pioneer 
s}: *{( 
AFTER YEARS of floating on 
the ocean currents the note is bare¬ 
ly readable. The message reads: 
‘‘4 men held prisoner on small is¬ 
land near Midway. Position un¬ 
known.” 
Four names are affixed to the 
end of the note but naval intelli¬ 
gence officers who examined it 
could only decipher “Pitee —,” “A. 
C. Kiste—‘‘John L—and “Lar 
— K “ 
sky, Laysan, and Gardner are the 
only ones close to Midway and 
they have been inspected regularly 
by airmen flying between Hawaii 
and Midway. 
The mystery note, however, was 
sent to Washington, D. C., where 
it will undergo laboratory analysis j 
by specialists to determine tne 
complete names of the signers. 
THE NOTE, officers said, might, 
jhave been penciled by American! 
iseamen captured by the Japanese' 
pom a sunken ship as far back as 
[1941 and temporarily imprisoned 
|on one of the volcanic islands near 
IMidway before being transported 
Jto a prisoner of war camp. 
t The possibility that the authors 
)f the note may be still alive was 
iiscounted by naval officers, 
THE ISLANDS of Kure, Lisian- 
mi- 
<&tr.jW r 2.,t‘rS'7 
Robinson Crusoe Existence 
2 Hardy Scientists On 
Lonely Laysan, Mission 
Laysan is a small, uninhab¬ 
ited island 900 miles from here 
on the way to Midway. 
For the past 12 days two Ha¬ 
waiian scientists have been liv¬ 
ing on Laysan like a pair of 
Robinson Crusoes, except that 
they have a nice tent, good 
fishing and trapping gear, a 
short-wave radio, and (ugh!) 
plenty of C-rations. 
sft jjg 
THEY ARE David Woodside, 
of Hilo, a biologist with the 
Division of Fish and Game, and 
Richard E. Warner, an ento¬ 
mology assistant with the Ha¬ 
waiian Sugar Planters Assn. 
Their mission on the lonely 
2 by %-mile isle is to capture 
three pairs of the rare Laysan 
teal (a type of duck) which 
lives in and around Laysan 
lagoon and apparently doesn’t 
care to live anywhere else. If 
they capture the teals, the birds 
will be brought here to see how 
they like boarding on Oahu. 
jj; ,, 
FOR MR. .WOODSIDE, a 
bachelor, the mission is just 
another assignment. 
But for Mr. Warner, who vol¬ 
unteered to go on the job for 
no pay, it’s a chance to do his 
bit for science and a chance 
to see what it’s like far, far 
off the beaten track. Mr. Warm 
er has a wife, Ruth, a private 
nurse in the surgical depart¬ 
ment at Queen’s Hospital/and 
tWo children. 
A bird man and an animal 
man, Mr. Warner has done 
studies of birds and rabbits on 
Rabbit Island. He couldn’t 
turn down the chance to go 
to Laysan, even though it 
paeans, poof, there goes his 
vacation time. 
THE COAST GUARD hauled 
the men and their gear to the 
island on June 22. The Coast 
Guard is to pick them up, prob¬ 
ably tomorrow, and bring them 
home. 
The theory is that a tidal 
wave or shifting sand may 
wipe out the Laysan lagoon 
and the life of the Laysan 
teal. But it is a lonely mission, 
even with the radio. 
“They are sort of ex-com- 
municado,’* said a Fish and 
Game official. 
AUK 
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