A young boy from Britain tossed a message in a bottle into the North Sea and received a response after it traveled 4,200 miles to the Caribbean. Harrison Mizen, an eight-year-old, decided to try this old-fashioned method of communication after learning about it at school. With the help of his mother, Laura, they placed a message in a glass rum bottle that reminded Harrison of pirates. The note included basic information about Harrison and his family, along with their address.
The Mizen family, including Harrison’s four-year-old brother Max and their father Paul, a heating engineer, released the bottle off Sandhaven beach in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, on January 21. To their surprise, eight months later, a postcard from St. Lucia arrived at their doorstep, with a picture of Gros Islet and a postmark dated September 8.
The postcard contained an anonymous message from someone who found the bottle while fishing with their dad. The sender expressed gratitude for the message and shared that they were having a good day in St. Lucia.
Laura, a civil servant, expressed her joy at Harrison’s excitement upon receiving the postcard. She was amazed that the bottle had traveled such a long distance and was thrilled that someone had taken the time to reply.
In a similar story, Alaina Beresford, who threw a message in a bottle into the sea at the age of 12, recently received a postcard after three decades. The message had traveled nearly 725 miles to Norway and was found by Pia Brodtmann, a volunteer with a charity. Pia sent a postcard back to Alaina with photos of the message in the bottle, the boat she was on (named the Nemo), and the area where she was working.
Alaina, now 43, was surprised and delighted to see that her old message had been discovered and was still readable. She expressed her amazement at receiving the postcard and learning about the journey her message had taken over the years.
