The woman has traced the letters back to a pair of World War I soldiers, who left Australia for France in 1916. Photo / 123rf
The woman has traced the letters back to a pair of World War I soldiers, who left Australia for France in 1916. Photo / 123rf
A message in a bottle has washed up on a Western Australian beach, over 100 years after it was first written by World War I soldiers.
The two Australian men were departing for France when they threw the bottle overboard “somewhere in the Bight”, the BBC reports.
It wouldbe 109 years before Esperance woman Deb Brown found the bottle buried in the sand on Wharton Beach.
“We do a lot of cleaning up on our beaches and so would never go past a piece of rubbish. So, this little bottle was lying there waiting to be picked up”, Brown told Associated Press.
Inside the bottle were two letters that have been dated back to the HMAS Ballarat, which departed from Adelaide on August 12, 1916.
Brown was able to locate relatives of the two soldiers, Private William Kirk Harley and Private Malcolm Neville, who she now plans to return the letters to.
Harley survived the war and returned home to Australia, where he went on to have children and grandchildren.
His granddaughter, Ann Turner, told ABC News the discovery of the letters felt like “a miracle”.
“I feel very emotional when I see that the other young man had a mother to write to, and that message in the bottle was to his mother, whereas our grandfather long ago had lost his mother so he just writes it to the finder of the bottle.”
Malcolm Alexander Neville was killed in action in 1917, never returning to Australian shores. Photo / Virtual War Memorial Australia, Sue Urban
Pte Neville was killed in action at age 28 on April 11 of the following year, only a few months after he left Australia.
Writing to his mother at home, the serviceman said he was “having a real good time” on his voyage and was “as happy as Larry”.
Herbie Neville said it’s “amazing” how much information has surfaced about his great uncle’s wartime experiences.
While Neville may have never returned home, a small piece of him is believed to have remained in Australia after his departure.
Oceanography professor Charitha Pattiaratchi said the bottle had likely washed ashore shortly after it was thrown overboard.
“It probably would have been a few weeks, it could have even been a month before it actually got to Wharton Beach,” he explained.
“Once it got to the beach it could have stayed there and got buried in the sand, so it could have been there for 100 years.”
Brown, for her part, was delighted by the discovery, which she described as “absolutely wonderful”.
“We get to keep the bottle, and Malcolm’s cover letter that was addressed to the finder.”
