Two American brothers recently found a drift bottle (message in a bottle) on a beach in the Bahamas, containing a note written by a 14-year-old boy approximately 50 years ago. The brothers successfully contacted the student who wrote the note back then and are planning to return the drift bottle to him, providing him with a beautiful memory.
According to reports by Associated Press on April 17, one of the brothers, Clint Buffington, enjoys beachcombing and is quite experienced in this activity. He has found over 100 drift bottles in various locations across North America and the Caribbean.
Buffington shared that he and his brother visited a remote island in the Bahamas a few weeks ago. On a sunny day, they discovered the drift bottle covered in sand on the beach.
Inside an old Pepsi bottle, they found a note written by Peter R. Thompson, a 14-year-old student from Massachusetts, in 1976. Thompson was in 9th grade at West Newbury Junior High School at the time and had created the drift bottle as part of his oceanography class, which was then released into the sea by the Coast Guard.
Buffington posted a short video on Instagram, detailing how they found the drift bottle and the content of the note.
The brothers subsequently located Thompson through social media and had a phone conversation with him. It has been 49 years since Thompson made the drift bottle.
Thompson stated that he doesn’t recall writing the note in the drift bottle but remembers taking the oceanography class and enjoying it.
Thompson told WCVB television station, “It’s amazing. It’s been almost 50 years, so it’s a real surprise.”
Buffington mentioned that they plan to return the note inside the drift bottle to Thompson in person.
Hailing from Utah and working as a musician, Buffington had previously expressed in an interview with Associated Press his love for message in a bottle derived from childhood curiosity. He also enjoys connecting with the creators of the messages.
He shared that as a child, he dreamt of meeting everyone on Earth and even calculated how much time it would take before his death to achieve that. Eventually, he realized it was an impossible feat. However, his hobby of collecting message in a bottle rekindled some of those feelings.
Buffington said, “Now, I’m meeting these people I’ve never met, caring about places I’ve never cared about. When I used to hear about news from the northeast of England or some place in France, I wouldn’t pay attention at all, but now I have friends in these places (so I care), which would never have happened otherwise.”
He mentioned that in 2007, he found his first drift bottle on an island in the Caribbean. Having just graduated from college, he was beachcombing with his father.
He recalled finding a note and two $1 bills inside the bottle, reminding him of childhood memories of beachcombing.