Boy gets reply from Caribbean after sending message in bottle 4,000 miles

A British boy who speculatively hurled a message in a bottle into the sea has had a reply back after it floated 4,200 miles to the Caribbean.

Harrison Mizen, eight, from South Shields in Tyne and Wear, inserted a message into an old rum bottle because it ‘reminded him of pirates’ with the help of his civil servant mum Laura.

Extraordinarily, he has had a reply and was astounded after a postcard from St Lucia appeared on his doormat on September 23.

The heartwarming message the pirate-obsessed school boy sent on January 21 was: ‘Hi my name is Harrison I’ve got a little brother called Max.

‘We’re from South Shields in England. I hope this reaches you and I hope you’re having a good day.’

Harrison also put his address in the glass bottle which he dashed into the sea after learning about the quaint communication method at school.

The Mizen family, including brother Max, four, and dad Paul, 41, helped Harrison lob the bottle into the sea off Sandhaven beach in north east England.

After receiving the bottle back last week, Harrison took it in for a memorable school show-and-tell where he revealed what was written in the anonymous note.

It read: ‘I found your note while I was fishing with my dad … The bottle got caught on some nets like the ones on the picture. We’re having a good day thank you, hope you are too.’

The reply also included a picture of Gros Islet on the northern tip of St Lucia with a postmark dated just a few weeks ago on September 8.

Laura praised the anonymous poster for taking the time to reply and giving her son a treasured memory.

‘Harrison is absolutely over the moon,’ she said. ‘It’s lovely that they have taken the time to reply. I can’t believe it got so far.’

The civil servant added that she did not think anything would come of it and had predicted the bottle would end up smashed.

It easily could never have left South Shields, she said, after the tide repeatedly swept her son’s message back to shore.

Laura said: ‘Even when we threw it in it kept coming back – we had to do it so many times.’

But through the power of persistence Harrison’s message journeyed from north east England to the Caribbean to eventually give the eight-year-old boy a truly golden moment.

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