Girl’s mystery message in bottle reaches coast 3,000 miles away four years later
A girl's message in a bottle has been found 3,000 miles away four years later in an amazing discovery.
It traveled across the Atlantic Ocean for four years and was found by a New Jersey couple last week, the sender and receivers have now met.
Frank and Karen Bolger have now made contact with the writer, Aoife, who dated the slip of paper inside the bottle as July 17, 2019.
Aoife Bryne who lives 3,000 miles away in Ireland got in contact with Frank Byrne after she saw the news story circulating.
She said: “I found this little bottle washed up and I said, ‘I’ve just got to put a message in. I won’t get my hopes up somebody would get it.’ And I threw it straight into the middle of the ocean.”
The couple who were cleaning up rubbish with their granddaughter were visiting 14th Street Beach in Wildwood, when Frank spotted the bottle.
Aoife heard the news when the story hit Irish TV (Jam Press)Frank said: “We found the bottle in some seaweed right at the water's edge. We had to take it home to get the note out, it was jammed in the bottle so tightly.”
The note, which was partially damaged and did not include any contact details, read: “Greetings from Ireland. I have thrown this bottle into the sea for someone to find another day
“Maybe it's travelled down to Africa or to Iceland. I won't know if someone found this, but I hope it is found.”
Frank and Karen sent images of the letter to Wildwood Sun by the Sea magazine. Dorothy McMonagle Kulisek, who founded the mag 20 years ago, said: “It has always been their thing to do a trash walk before they settle into their beach day.
The message in bottle travelled 3,000 miles from Ireland to USA (Jam Press)“They were rewarded for their efforts with this loving gift from the sea that found its way to our sandy shores from across the pond in Ireland.”
After their find on August 19, the couple were set on tracking down the mysterious sender. The search quickly became international. Frank shared the story of his family’s findings with IrishCentral, hoping that it might lead them to their Aoife.
News of the Bellmawr couple’s mission quickly went viral, eventually making its way to the letter’s author, Aoife Byrne, of Bray, Ireland, about 15 miles south of Dublin. Aoife’s father, Martin, had been watching a local Irish TV station segment about Frank and Karen’s search and realised the Irish girl the couple was looking for was his daughter.
The father-daughter pair connected with the Bolgers, and Aoife sent them a scribbled note to prove her identity as the note’s author. Fran said: “I was shaking and couldn’t believe it. I never thought we would find her.”
Frank Bolger was visiting the 14th Street Beach in Wildwood, New Jersey, when he spotted it (Jam Press)Aoife said that she had been on Ireland’s eastern shore in 2019 when she found the bottle and decided to send it on a transatlantic voyage.
Internatioanally, the story was an instant hit with readers commenting on Facebook far and wide.
One resident said: “That is so awesome.”
Ashleigh added: “I hope they can find the note writer.”
Karen wrote: “Very cool. And thanks for keeping our beaches beautiful and clean.”
Ann remarked: “Wow.”
Rút commented: “Shared here in Ireland... brilliant.”
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
