A message in a bottle

Puzzle

Among the specimens of flotsam and jetsam which the tides and drifting sands cast at times upon the beach, nothing compares in interest with bottled messages, supposed to be the farewell words of shipwrecked humanity, giving a graphic description of the fate which had befallen some long lost and almost forgotten vessel. Such messages from the sea, in times past have told wonderful tales of shipwreck, privations and narrow escapes in a way that suggested the possibilities of the writers being still alive in Arctic regions or on unknown islands, which, in some instances, have been fully confirmed. In the British collection of such tales as have been officially investigated and authenticated are many proven to be true, which furnish clews to the fate of ships lost hundreds of years ago, showing that the messages cast upon the waves had drifted for centuries in mid-ocean before effecting a landing. As a rule, the modren style of the paper, to say nothing of the year 1905 shown on a champagne bottle should throw some doubts upon the genuineness of the document, nevertheless, the subject bears such a fascinating charm that the finders will not be influenced by such arguments as might discredit the truth of the wonderful narratives. Here, for instance, is an oddity presented in puzzle form, assumed to have been written ages ago, and yet in these brief lines it tells so well its story that we can not only compute the probable number of centuries spent in drifting about, but we can tell the name of the writers So positive are we about these facts that such little things as the name blown in the bottle; the modern style of language, as well as unlikelyhood of a shipwrecked mariner taking time to construe his last message in verse, carry no weight whatever. All we have to consider is the paradoxical or unnatural statements of the writer, which from their very unreasonableness furnish "confirmation strong as holy writ:
Now, who wrote it ?

A mighty ship I now command,
With cargo rare from every land.
No goods have I to trade or sell;
Each wind will serve my turn as
well;
To neither port nor harbor bound,
My greatest wish to run aground.

Answer

References

• Loyd, Sam [1914]. in Loyd, Sam, Jr.: Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles Tricks and Conundrums (in English). New York: Lamb Publishing company, page 33.