50-year-old message in a bottle washes up in Australia

A message in a bottle, thrown into the sea more than 50 years ago by a young British traveller, has washed up on the shores of Australia.

When 13-year-old Paul Gilmore threw his message over the side of a ship in 1969, little did he know that five decades later, nine-year-old Jyah Elliott would find it on Talia Beach in South Australia.

News of the find was shared by the boy’s mother, Carla Elliott, via Facebook in hopes of finding it’s author.

Paul Gilmore’s sister, Annie Crossland, eventually came forward but revealed that her brother was unavailable as he was once again at sea, this time enjoying a cruise in the Baltic.

It was revealed that the original message was dropped in the Indian Ocean during the family’s emigration to Australia in hopes of finding a new friend.

The letter gave the ship’s location as “1,000 miles east of Fremantle, Western Australia” the intended destination of the voyage and asked for the recipient to “Please Reply”.

He had sent six bottles from the TSS Fairstar, so others may one day wash up on another beach if they haven’t sunk to the bottom of the sea.

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