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18th Jul 2019

Boy finds message in a bottle that was thrown over ship in 1969

Jade Hayden

Nice.

A boy who found a message in a bottle that was written in 1969 has located the author of the note.

Paul Elliot and his son Jyah found the bottle when they were out fishing in their native south Australia.

The message identified the author as then 13-year-old Paul Gibson, a boy from Britain who was travelling to Melbourne from England on the Fairstar Sitmar Line cruise ship.

He wrote that he was going to Australia on the ship and urged whoever found his message to “please reply.”

TIME reports that Gibson has since been located and is currently on another cruise ship in the Baltics.

His sister, Annie Crossland, told ABC News that he will be “chuffed” to know that his message has been found.


“It’s amazing, absolutely incredible,” she said. “He’ll be chuffed to bits. He sent about six of them.”

“It’s really strange,” said Paul’s younger brother, David. “I’m looking at the message now and yeah, I can see it’s my brother’s writing – he’s obviously a bit younger then.”

Gilmore’s family have said that they think Paul dropped the bottle into the ocean towards the end of their journey.

The ship had travelled from Southampton via the Canary Island and Cape Town, before taking a layover in western Australia. It then continued on to Melbourne.

Thousands of British families emigrated to Australia during the 1960s when the government reduced their fares.

Many returned in the years that followed.

Gibson’s family have said that he will will contact Paul and Jyah once he returns from his cruise.

Topics:

Australia,news