Message in a Bottle Crosses the Atlantic

If you stick a message in a bottle, you might consider it a fat chance anybody will pick it up. If you see a bottle floating in the water, you might deplore modern day pollution. How surprising, therefore, when Jerry Pope’s October 2010 bottle, released in the Niantic Bay of Connecticut – complete with his name, address, and request for reply – inspired a postcard to be sent 17 months later – form England! On March 22, Jerry received a postcard signed by James Roberts and six others, wishing him to “Have a great 2012!”

He reported that when he received, “I thought to myself, ‘Who do I know in England?’” – he had forgotten about his little bottle experiment – “Then I read it, and I couldn’t believe it. My bottle was found.”

The bottle had been fished up 28 miles off the southwestern coast of England in the Isles of Scilly – a modest 4,000 mile journey for said bottle.

“Where it would end, I wouldn’t have said England. I couldn’t give a country or a continent where it was going because I had no idea. I didn’t even know if it was going to get out of here, but evidently it travelled 4,000 miles all by itself on a lonely journey.” He also added, “When I received my postcard back, it jarred my memory because I forgot I I did it, and I said isn’t that something.”

Sparked by his surprising success, Pope is anxious to experiment again: “One day I’m going to do it either this summer or in the fall, and just see. I’m going to mark bottle number two and just see if it gets there again.”