TIME TRAVEL

‘Miracle’ as WWI Soldier’s 109-Year-Old Message in a Bottle Washes Ashore

The bottle contained messages from two Australian soldiers on their way to the frontlines.

A message in a bottle written by two Australian soldiers during World War I has washed ashore after spending over a century lost at sea. The bottle, which contains messages from Privates Malcom Neville, 28, and William Harley, 37, sees the two men pen cheerful notes just a few days after setting sail for the frontlines in France. Writing to his mother, Neville said his fellow troops were “happy as Larry” and praised the food on board the ship. Harley, addressing the note to whoever found the bottle, said they tossed the bottle overboard “somewhere in the Bight” off southern Australia. The bottle was discovered on Wharton Beach, Western Australia, by Deb Brown, who tracked down the two men’s families. Neville’s family said the discovery was “unbelievable,” with his niece recalling her uncle leaving for war and never returning. “It really does feel like a miracle, and we do very much feel like our grandfather has reached out for us from the grave,” Harley’s granddaughter Ann Turner told ABC.