Message in the Bottle

This article in the Dallas Morning News captured my attention and imagination. During my early childhood days I used to enjoy reading Phantom comics and would wonder how he managed to remain powerful, fast and strong through generations. One of the stories involved kidnapped scientists putting out a SOS message in a bottle and throwing it into the sea. This message is found by Phantom and he rescues them and solves a mystery.

The news item I read is about a similar but amazing incident. This time around the message sender is not kidnapped but an elementary school student who in a burst of enthusiasm placed a letter in an envelope and inserted it in a bottle and set it afloat in the sea. The message read "This letter is part of our science project to study oceans and learn about people in distant lands. Please send the date and location of the bottle with your address. I will send you my picture and tell you when and where the bottle was placed in the ocean. Your friend, Emily Hwaung."

The bottled letter sent from a suburb in Seattle was found 1,735 miles away in an Alaskan fishing village, accessible only by boat or plane, 21 years after it was sent. Amazing isn't it. The finder did contact the sender of the message, who had totally forgotten about the school project and the bottle. Anyway all that is well ends well, the sender and the finder are both surprised and happy at the developments.

Emily Shih, who is now an accountant, said she didn't remember the project that required her fourth-grade class to send a message in a bottle out to sea. That note was found 21 years later in an Alaskan village 1,735 miles away.