Debra Brown and her family were picking up litter at Wharton Beach near their home in Australia when they came across a message in a bottle that was over a hundred years old.
The bottle contained two letters, both from Privates shipping out to fight in France during World War I.
The first letter was from Private Malcolm Alexander Neville, of Wilkawatt in South Australia, written to his mother. The letter included her home address and asked whoever found the bottle to pass the note along.
When Brown found the letter, even though it was 109 years after it was tossed overboard, she successfully tracked down Neville's great-nephew to pass the letter on to.
Brown said that reading the notes was very emotional, telling ABC,
This poor darling had gone off, not knowing what he was about to face, and he seemed quite chipper in the letter.
Private Neville was killed in action several months after writing the letter.
The second letter was written by William Kirk Harley. His letter was passed on to his five living grandchildren, who were amazed to learn about the letter. His granddaughter Ann Turner, telling ABC,
We are all absolutely stunned.
...
We're all in constant contact since it happened and we just can't believe it. We do very much feel like our grandfather has reached out to us from the grave.
Harley's letter notes that the ship was "somewhere in the bight" when the bottle was tossed out.
Australian oceanographer Charitha Pattiaratchi, says that the message in a bottle likely traveled for a few weeks to a month from the Great Australian Bight to the shores of Wharton Beach. Once there it was buried in sand and remained hidden for over a century.
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