The ship's captain, Jennifer Dowker, drives shipwrecks all summer, so she knows she has all sorts of secrets hidden beneath the surface of Michigan waterways, but she was shocked anyway when she found a message on a bottle written in 1926. Dowker owns Nautical North Family Adventures and was diving into the Cheboygan River to clear windows at the bottom of her glass-bottomed boat, the Yankee Sunshine, when she made the discovery.
She has a small collection of bottles and other items she has collected during the dive, so the green bottle that looked old caught her attention. It was sitting at the bottom of the river about 10 feet underwater, she told CNN.
"At first I thought it was just a cold bottle and then when I took it, when I was still under water, I saw that there was a message inside."
She said the bottle was about 2/3 full of water and still had a piece of cork inside, but her seal had deteriorated over the years. Jennifer was able to take out the note with a small tool and gently opened it to read the message. The note bears the date November 1926 and read:
"A do ta kthejë personi që e gjen këtë shishe këtë letër te George Morroë Cheboygan, Michigan dhe të tregojë se ku u gjet?"
Dowker tha se Cheboygan është një qytet i vogël dhe ajo e dinte se disa Morroës jetonin në zonë, kështu që ajo postoi fotografi në faqen e kompanisë së saj në Facebook, me shpresën se një pjesë e vogël e njerëzve do ta shihnin atë.
Kur ajo u zgjua të nesërmen, postimi ishte bërë viral dhe tani është shpërndarë më shumë se 100,000 herë si dhe ka më shumë se 6,000 komente nga njerëzit që ofrojnë këshilla, ose që thjesht donin të dinin më shumë rreth historisë.
"Ajo që po kalonte nëpër mendjen time ishte se ku do të gjej kohë për të bërë kërkime për të gjetur personin", tha Dowker.
Por mesa duket, ajo s'kishte pse të shqetësohej sepse ditën tjetër, vajza e George Morroë, Michele Primeau, e kontakton.
Primeau told CNN she is not on Facebook, but got a call from a stranger who had seen Dowker's post and decided to track her down. She recognized her father's writing when she saw a photo of the note, even though it was written about 20 years before she was born. Primeau said her father's birthday was in November and he must have been 17 or 18 when he wrote the note.
She said her father was always sentimental and the discovery has brought her many good memories. He died in 1995.
"It was interesting that this happened on Father's Day weekend," Primeau added.
Source: CNN
