If you ask me, it feels totally random. I’m not familiar with Yi but I remember even Yi got some sense in its drawing (and you can tell some direction in it). Could it be a joke??

I don’t see a single character repeated.

It must be Yi: note the top row, second from the left…

@BSF: you know what this character means?

@ TJ: I think he’s joking. That character vaguely looks like “yi”

lol oh well ….. who knows …. hmm coincidences in life never cease to surprise me!

Any help in having this interpreted would be greatly appreciated. I have waited 47 years and tried every path I know. Thanks so much,

Many of these glyphs look to me as variations of the character for I in Chinese (我),

@Ethan If you look at the fourth row you’ll see one that looks almost identical to the first one. I guess it’s possible there’s an intended pattern (all the variations of “s” shapes with the cross-bars), but otherwise the shapes don’t look like they are repeated very skillfully.

It does look a lot like Yi, more than I thought when I look at the syllabary chart, but I would have no idea as to even identify the characters… Other than that I’d probably suggest that it’s just a doodle with no meaning, which would make sense given the inconsistency of the characters.

There are variants of Yi and other Sinitic scripts from that area … gotta be someone out there who can say yea or nay to this idea.

There is Liangshang Yi, Eshan yi and some others, plus sui, and dongba, maybe it’s one of those?

After I found this note I took it to the University of Oregon “Discovery Day” and they told me they thought it was authentic and the paper from a ships log book (about 4″ X 5″ in actual size)and the ink waterproof; obivously since even though it was corked and waxed over there was a small amount of water in the bottle.

Thanks to all helping to disipher this note. I believe it is authentic, possibly the sailor was not too literate!