Boy receives reply from message in bottle that travelled 4,200 miles

An eight year old British lad, Harrison Mizen, tossed a message in a bottle into the North Sea and was astounded to receive a reply after it had journeyed 4,200 miles to the Caribbean.

Harrison, who learned about this form of communication at school, enlisted the help of his mum Laura, 38, to place a note in an old glass rum bottle that “reminded him of pirates”. The message read: “Hi, my name is Harrison I’ve got a little brother called max. We’re from South Shields in England. I hope this reaches you and I hope you’re having a good day” and included his address.

Together with his four year old brother Max and dad Paul, 41, a heating engineer, they cast the bottle into the sea off Sandhaven beach in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, on January 21. The young lad was amazed when a postcard from St. Lucia arrived on his doorstep on Tuesday, eight months later. The news emerges as one writer visited a market town with ‘UK’s best high street’ — and fell in love with everything about it.

Overjoyed, Harrison took the card to school for show and tell this week. It featured a picture of Gros Islet, located on the northern tip of St. Lucia, with a postmark dated September 8.

The anonymous response read: “I found your note while I was fishing with my dad. The bottle got caught on some nets like the ones on the picture. We’re having a good day thank you, hope you are too.”, reports the Mirror.

Laura, who works as a civil servant, said: “Harrison is absolutely over the moon. It’s lovely that they have taken the time to reply. I can’t believe it got so far. I really didn’t think anything would come of it, I thought the bottle would get caught up somewhere or smashed. Even when we threw it in it kept coming back – we had to do it so many times.”

When Alaina Beresford hurled a message in a bottle into the ocean aged just 12, she gave it little thought.

But she was astounded this year – three decades later – to receive a postcard explaining her old message had been discovered.

It washed up nearly 725 miles away on a Norwegian beach and was eventually found this week by Pia Brodtmann, who was volunteering with a charity on the coastline.

The 27 year old woman responded, dispatching a postcard alongside a collection of captivating photographs.

These include images of the message in a bottle, the vessel Pia is residing on (named the Nemo), and the region she’s working in.

Astonished to see her note had been uncovered and remained readable, Alaina, 43, said: “When I went and checked my mail and thought ‘what’s this, a postcard?’ – not something you see a lot – and when I turned it over it had my name on it.”