A Message in a Bottle Embarks from Massachusetts, Reaches the West Indies

July 17 (UPI) — A University of Michigan student who was visiting the island of South Caicos in the West Indies made an astonishing discovery. Cassidy Beach stumbled upon a message in a bottle among some marine debris on a cliff.

Beach and her classmates opened the bottle and were thrilled to find a message inside. The message was dated September 30, 2004, and was written by Pennel Ames, who shared that he had thrown the bottle into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nantucket.

Upon conducting further research, Beach and her friends learned that Ames had tossed multiple bottles into the ocean during his time as a commercial fisherman. These bottles had been found in various locations such as Louisiana, Bermuda, Cuba, England, Ireland, and France.

The message included an address for a reply, and Beach took the opportunity to reach out to Ames. In her letter, she mentioned that she would be in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, for a summer internship with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Ames and his wife, Sharon, were overjoyed to receive Beach’s letter and extended an invitation for her to join them at their Surfside cottage for dinner. They expressed that meeting someone who found one of their messages was a rare occurrence and it was only the second time they had the opportunity to do so.

The couple emphasized the significance of the discovery, stating that the bottle had traveled the longest distance and had also spent the most time in the ocean compared to their other bottles.