A Canadian family has been comforted with the discovery of a message that was thrown into the sea by their late father more than 12 years ago.
Lewis Knight passed away in 2011. He was a sailor with Marine Atlantic and then with the Woodward Group in Labrador and to entertain himself he often threw messages in bottles into the sea. Between 1970 and 2008 he received over a dozen responses and his children, Susan and Yvonne Knight say that the experience brought him so much joy.
Last week the sisters were connected with Donegal man Donal Gallagher who found one of Knight’s bottles on a beach in Inisheane.
“The first one pretty much all made us cry, because it felt like there was a piece of him living on,” Susan tells CBC. “This year, when we got this one at Christmastime, it’s almost like a little Christmas gift from him.”
The siblings say their fathers messages were not complex, usually just a hello and an address where someone could write back. He became fascinated with where they would end up.
This latest bottle had been thrown from the Northern Ranger off Labrador in November 2004.
Donal Gallagher found the bottle when he was on holidays with his daughter.
“The first thing we saw was the date of 2004. This is unbelievable, because the bottle itself was in quite good condition,” he says. “The actual message, it was in great condition considering what it went through.”
Donal posted the image on Facebook and it was shared into a group called Lost At Sea. There he connected with Yvonne.
“It just takes you back to the excitement that he would have had if he had still been alive,” the bereaved daughter says, “and just share the love that he had for the sea, and throwing things overboard to see where it would go.”
“That’s exciting to see, that it’s not just fun and fascinating for us, but that other people find it quite intriguing too,” continued Yvonne.
“He got to see a little bit of a world even though he didn’t have to go there.”
Knight’s home, where the family still lives, is filled with postcards and responses to his bottled messages.
