Glass Floats

[Sam_MaineBottles]

The float pictured above is a dark green and about four inches across. The knotted string around the float isn't that old as it is made of nylon.

About 20 years ago while vacationing in the Bahamas I saw several floats in a local restaurant. When I asked about them I was told that they sometimes washed up on the beach but that they weren't as common as years before. I was determined to try and find one so I spent many hours during the week checking the beaches - but no luck until my last day there when I happened to find this one half buried in the sand among the sea oat grass way above the high tide mark - I was some tickled to find it.

- Sam

 

[ashott]

My husband has one of these. I thought it was really nothing except something that my husband's Grandmother gave to him with a story of it you found one of these it was meant to be a token of good luck. It was found off the coast of the Keys In FLA.If anyone knows anything else let me know!! I would send a pic but am having trouble i have blue and green floaters and they are in a netting of some kind.

 

[David E]

Hi thanks for the good luck thing (I need that).I am in Wasington State just North of Seattle. I know when I was younger we used to search for them on the Ocean Beaches.
I guess the ways the currants flow, Vancouver Island in Canada is the best place to find them (on the Ocean side). I live in walkinfg distance to Puget Sound but never heard of anyone finding one here, as they would have to come off the ocean and down the Straits of Juan de Fuca into Puget sound. (have make a right turn off the Ocean).
Believe ours come from Japan, we do have the Trade Winds Here.

Dave

 

[ashott]

Ok so i would send a pic but the kb's are too big like in the 400's. If anyone knows how to get them lower let me know and i will try it.
thx

 

[yawningdog]

much nicer than mine.
I has 3 green and geen blue, one with a salt water etching that shows where the net was. I got mine in Anchorage in 1995 for $10 for the 3.

 

[LaidBackJack]

I fished in AK back in the late 70's-early 80's, and we used to collect those glass floats like driftwood on the beaches in the Aleutians. Believe it or not, we used them for target practice! I only have a few left, but I kept a nice variety of colors & sizes, yellow,blue, green, aqua, and from 3" to 8" sizes. I sold a few on Ebay, but they didn't bring very much..like 5-8 bucks..so I'll hang on to the rest. I've seen them up to 12" in size.

 

[Tandy]

[] Years ago, I often used to visit our South East, and stay at a town called Robe. At Robe, the isd a long beach called, appropriately Long Beach, and it is from this beach that a few large glass balls were picked up. In those years, I was not interested, but I think I'll go back and see what I can find.

To give you an idea where I am takling about, look at this URL, and the towns of Kingston, Robe and Beachport. I think our glass balls probably came from Asia.

http://www.ozhorizons.com.au/sa/map.htm

 

[LaidBackJack]

Most likely Japanese in origin. The Japanese used millions of them for their drift gillnetting operations throughout the Pacific Ocean. We used to find individual drift gillnets that were several miles long! They would still be catching fish, anything that got in their way...so we would sink the floats to put a stop to the destruction. The fishing boats would cut the nets loose & skeedaddle if they thought the Coast Guard was coming after them. As the nets rotted away, the floats would come loose, drift with the currents, and finally haul up on some beach. They can be found on most any beach, anywhere in the Pacific, but the Japan current favors Alaska, British Columbia, and the US Pacific NW.

 

[ashott]

So where would they have come from if they were found in the Keys off Florida?

 

[LaidBackJack]

Couldn't say. Glass floats are old technology, but at one time their use was world-wide with the commercial fishing fleets. The Japanese continued to use them much longer than most.