October 21st 2024.
Grace Liddle, a 12-year-old girl from Sunderland, was ecstatic when she found out that her message in a bottle had finally been discovered in Sweden. It had been thrown off a pier in Sunderland and had made its way across the north sea, taking almost a year to reach its destination. The bottle was found by 72-year-old Freddy Stahlberg, who lives in Sweden.
Interestingly, this was not the only message in a bottle thrown by the Liddle family. Just a few months prior, Grace's brother, 6-year-old Harry, had tossed his own bottle into the sea. And to their surprise, it had been found in Denmark! Both Grace and Harry had written their names and their mother's contact details on pieces of paper before putting them in bottles and throwing them off Roker Pier in Sunderland on August 28th the previous year.
Christie Bowley, the mother of Grace and Harry, received a message on Facebook on March 6th informing her that Harry's bottle had been found in Denmark. While Grace was happy for her brother, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of disappointment that her bottle had not been found yet. It had been her dream for so long, but as time passed, she had begun to lose hope. In fact, her mother recalls that Grace had even joked about her bottle sinking and becoming a part of the Titanic.
But then, on August 3rd, Christie received a message on Facebook from Freddy, who said he had found Grace's bottle on an island on Sweden's west coast, about 90 miles north of Gothenburg. The bottle had traveled an impressive 1,500 miles! Freddy, who spends his summers in Grebbestad and the rest of the year in Lund, had come across the bottle on August 2nd. However, it took him some time to decipher the message as the paper had been damaged by salt water.
Freddy shared, "Our family tried our best to find words that were useful, and we were finally able to identify Christie's name, a hint that she had a Facebook address, as well as the word Sunderland. With her name, I found her Facebook page, and looking at the images there, I could deduce that she lived in Sunderland, which was mentioned in the message in the bottle. With this information at hand, I dared to send a message to Christie. She replied some time later, and we were all very enthusiastic about having solved the riddle."
The retired university professor often goes on "treasure hunts" with his grandson, 5-year-old Edward Stahlberg, who was equally excited about the discovery. Meanwhile, Christie was in shock when she first found out about Grace's bottle being found. She couldn't believe it because the chances of Harry's bottle being found were already slim, and finding Grace's bottle as well seemed like a miracle.
The family was amazed by how small the world can be, considering the vastness of the sea. Christie admitted that she had initially thought there was no chance of the bottles ever being discovered further than the pier, as they had started heading back to shore when her children first threw them into the sea.
What made the whole story even more fun for Christie was the similarity between the names of the two people who found the bottle. Harry's bottle was found by a man named Frederik, while Grace's was found by someone named Freddy. "It is just mad," Christie said with a laugh.
She hopes to one day take Harry and Grace to the spots where their bottles were found, and the family has even considered throwing more bottles into the Atlantic Ocean to see if they end up in the US. In 2016, there was a story about what was dubbed as the "world's worst message in a bottle," found by 13-year-old Robbie Chappel in Hampshire. He had been walking his dog when he spotted the bottle near Langstone Harbour and excitedly ran home to find out who it was from. The teenager even got his dad to film the reveal, but was somewhat disappointed to find out that the note was from two men named Dan who had been on a cocaine binge the day before. If you missed it, you can watch the video here.
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