Message in a bottle Brit is traced to a cruise ship

THE Brit who dropped a message in a bottle from a ship almost 50 years ago found out that it had finally been discovered – as he got off a cruise boat.

Paul Gilmore was 13 when he threw the bottle over the side in the Indian Ocean as his family emigrated from the UK in November 1969.

A father and son who found it at Talia Beach, South Australia, put the story on social media – and was featured in the Mirror. It was SURPRISE Paul Gilmore spotted by members of Paul’s family. Retired teacher Paul, 63, of Harrogate, North Yorks, got “a crazy number of messages” on his mobile about the discovery when his cruise ship docked in Estonia this week.

Paul said: “There was no signal on the ship and just as we got off... everything arrived. Strangely enough, I said to my wife just a couple of days ago – we were standing on deck and looking out to sea – ‘fifty years ago, I threw a couple of bottles in the water’.”