a historic sailing ship, ocean currents, and a message in a bottle

My this-week's message-in-a-bottle story took me to some interesting places--first, to the story of the STS Sedov, a famous sailing ship.
STS Sedov, image from Wikimedia Commons


It started its days as the German Magdalene Vinnen II, built in 1921 as a cargo ship. According to Wikipedia, she carried all sorts of cargo:

apart from coal, she took timber from Finland, wheat from Australia, pyrite from Italy and unit load from Belgium.

She changed her name to Kommodore Johnsen when she was bought by a...