BROTHERS DISCOVER A 50-YEAR-OLD MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE ON A REMOTE BAHAMAS ISLAND
Finding a message in a bottle may seem like something from a fiction or a movie, but brothers Clint and Evan Buffington experienced that while visiting a remote Bahamas island. As part of a personal experiment to see if it would ever be found, 14-year-old Peter R. Thompson wrote the message inside in 1976, carefully sealed it in a glass Pepsi bottle, and threw it into the Atlantic. After over half a century, the answer to that question has finally been found.
"I'm a ninth-grade student from Pentucket Regional Junior High School," the message stated. Since I'm taking an oceanography course, this is a science experiment. Would you kindly return this to the address at the bottom with a note explaining how, where, and what time you found it? This was launched in May 1976 by a Coast Guard vessel.
During a day at the beach, the brothers found the bottle, which had travelled more than 1,000 kilometres before washing up. According to Clint, it was a "wonderful sunny day." He says, “The waves are lapping, the sun is glistening on the water, not a cloud in the sky. All of a sudden, I hear my walkie-talkie crackle to life, and my brother says something like, ‘You’re not going to believe what I just found.’”
When they unscrewed the bottle, they discovered the sand-covered, weathered message that Thompson had penned as a youngster. Clint posted his opinions about the note on Facebook, speculating about what the young child who wrote it decades ago must have thought of it. This may seem like a fairly "straightforward" message to some people—no romance, no pirate treasure map. However, consider the significance it held for the 14-year-old who sent it back in the 1970s! "The dreams of where it might go, where it may end up, and who might find it," he continues.
Clint continues, “Well, after who knows how many trips around the North Atlantic, drifting past whales and cargo ships, shimmering under the Northern Lights, it wound up on a very sparsely inhabited out-island of the Bahamas and rested in the sun as world leaders and wars came and went, music and clothing styles rose and fell. Somewhere in there, my brother and I were born, grew up, went to school, got married, and had kids. And all that time, this message was waiting to be found.”
The Buffington brothers looked to social media to help them figure out who had written the note. Additionally, they were able to locate Thompson, who currently resides in Leominster, Massachusetts, courtesy to Boston writer Emily Maher. Clint and Thompson are now preparing to return the note to its original author after Maher assisted them in getting in touch over the phone.
Thompson remembers the oceanography class that inspired the statement, but he cannot remember the actual message itself. Thinking back on the bottle's discovery, he remarked, "It's incredible. Nearly fifty years have passed. It's quite unexpected.
It's amazing to note that the Buffington brothers had found a message in a bottle before. In 2007, Clint discovered his first and became "immediately captivated." He has already discovered more than 120 others, and he even posts their biographies on his site, Message in a Bottle Hunter. "Totally impossible, vividly real" is how he characterises the sensation of discovering a bottle in sand. A lightning strike so strong you'll never forget, like your first kiss or your first heartbreak. Every time I locate one, I get the same feeling. The magic never wears off!