LOOK what’s appeared on the Isle of Dogs along the Thames foreshore. It looks like a giant SOS’ message bottle washed up by the incoming tide, opposite the O2 venue

By Mike Brooke

LOOK what’s appeared on the Isle of Dogs along the Thames foreshore. It looks like a giant SOS’ message bottle washed up by the incoming tide, opposite the O2 venue.

The 20ft high message in a bottle’ was the idea of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution to represent “a plea for help” as part of their annual fundraising.

The giant plastic has been doing the rounds of the British Isles as part of a mystery’ tour to remind the public that the RNLI is a charity relying on donations to keep afloat.’

Crew members from Tower RNLI lifeboat station plucked the bottle from the river washed up’ at Trinity Buoy Wharf at Blackwall, a hive of cultural and artistic activity in London’s East End.

“We had a few looks from river users as we wrestled with this cumbersome green bottle,” admitted crew volunteer Steve Wheatley. “It seemed to have a mind of its own when the wind took it, but we just managed to get it under control.”

The inflatable represents the quintessential example of a call for help, the theme for the annual SOS’ fundraising day with its �500,000 target.

The Big Green bottle is now moored up at Tower lifeboat station for safekeeping after having bobbed up at the White Cliffs of Dover, Fistral Beach in Cornwall, the Angel of the North in Gateshead and the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh.

Tower lifeboat station is by far the busiest anywhere in the British Isles. It rescued 148 people in distress during 2009 when it launched 380 rescue missions, according to figures released last month.