Girl’s message in bottle travels from Sunderland to Sweden

A 12-year-old girl was “over the moon” after discovering her message in a bottle was found in Sweden less than a year after it was thrown off a pier in Sunderland.

Grace Liddle, then 11, and her brother Harry Liddle, now six, threw glass bottles from filled with hand-written scrolls, which included their names and contact details for their mother, off Roker Pier in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, on 28 August 2023.

On 6 March, their mother Christie Bowley, 35, received a response on Messenger to say Harry’s bottle had been found in Denmark.

While Grace was happy for her brother, she longed for the day her bottle would be found, but was losing hope. Her mother told the PA news agency: “Grace was convinced hers sank and had taken a room up in the Titanic.”

On 3 August, Ms Bowley, who helps out at her partner Jason Liddle’s business, Instaflor Ltd, and lives with her family in Grindon Lane, Sunderland, opened Messenger and saw a note from a man called Freddy Stahlberg, who said he found Grace’s bottle on an island in Sweden called Pinno.

Mr Stahlberg, 72, who lives in Grebbestad during the summer months and in Lund for the rest of the year, told PA when he discovered the bottle on 2 August, he initially found it hard to read the message inside as it had been in salt water for a prolonged period of time.

“Our family tried our best to find words that were useful, and we were finally able to identify Christie’s name, a hint that she had a Facebook address, as well as the word Sunderland,” he said.

“With her name, I found her Facebook page, and looking at the images there I could deduce that she lived in Sunderland, which was mentioned in the message in the bottle.

“With this information at hand, I dared to send a message to Christie.

“She replied some time later and we were all very enthusiastic about having solved the riddle.”

The retired university professor said he often goes on “treasure hunts” with his grandson Edward Stahlberg, five, and the little boy was excited about the discovery.

Ms Bowley told PA: “(Grace) was really shocked, she couldn’t believe it because there was a very slim chance that Harry’s would be found, so when we discovered Grace’s had also been found she was absolutely over the moon.

“They’ve both been found in the space of a year, you wouldn’t expect them to be found so soon – I think it just shows how small the world actually is.

“I just think it’s a miracle, considering how big the sea is.”

Ms Bowley said she initially thought there was “no chance” of the bottles ever being discovered further than the pier, because when her children first threw them out to sea, they started heading back to shore.

She added the similar names of the people who found the bottles made the saga more entertaining.

“Harry’s bottle was found by a man called Frederik and Grace’s was found by someone called Freddy – it is just mad,” she said.

She hopes she can take Harry and Grace to the locations their bottles were found and the family has considered throwing more bottles into the Atlantic Ocean to see if they end up in the United States.

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