Message in a bottle found after 5 years at sea - 10/09/09

The Baltimore Sun today has the fascinating tale of a "message in a bottle" from a cruise ship that apparently survived more than five years at sea as it traveled thousands of miles across the globe.

The news outlet says the barnacle-encrusted but still sealed wine bottle, thrown off a Royal Caribbean ship sailing in the Bahamas in June, 2004, washed up on a beach in England in July. It was discovered by a retired electrician walking his dog.

A note inside the bottle said it was from Daniel Knopp, a Baltimore area resident who was 14 in 2004 when he lobbed it off a balcony on the Grandeur of the Seas during a Caribbean cruise. 

"Hello, my name is Daniel Knopp. I am on a cruise ship. I hope whoever reads this finds great joy. God bless. I live in the Baltimore/DC area," the note reads.

"I never thought of it again," Knopp, now 19, tells the Sun. "I completely forgot about that day. I thought it would be unreal if it were ever to be found, but I figured it would be destroyed by the ocean environment."

Tony Hoskings, the man who found the bottle, spent weeks tracking Knopp down, the Sun says.

It isn't the first time a message in a bottle has weathered an improbable journey. In October 2008, a bottle from a Holland America ship was found on a Caribbean island beach after surviving 35 years at sea.

Source - USA Today