Message in a bottle washes up after  76 years

A New Zealand man has found a bottle with a note inside that was apparently tossed into the sea from a ship 76 years ago.

Geoff Flood, who found the bottle Sunday on Ninety Mile Beach, in the far north of the country, told the New Zealand Herald, “It could easily have been two or three times around the world.” 

The note inside, dated March 17, 1936, was handwritten on a sheet of paper bearing the P&O shipping company’s logo and a picture of the liner SS Strathnaver.

It read, “At sea. Would the finder of this bottle kindly forward this note, where found, date, to undermentioned address.” It is signed H E Hillbrick, 72, Richmond Street, Leederville, Western Australia.

Flood said he had tracked down a distant member of Herbert Ernest Hillbrick’s family who was “very excited” about the discovery.