‘My message in a bottle reached the Netherlands’

Rose Prior, 15, from Ashingdon, tried her luck in sending out a message, which included her phone number, and couldn’t believe it when she received a text days later from the person who found it overseas.

The teenager said she was inspired to test her luck after seeing people do it on social media but had no idea whether it would be found.

She said: “I have never done this before but had seen it on social media.

“I have seen people posting about this on Facebook and Instagram in the past and I thought that it would be a nice idea.

“I went to the end of the pier on my own as I was in Southend at the beginning of August and just threw it off the end into the sea.

“I wrote a message on the piece of paper and put my name, Instagram account, where I was from and my phone number and sent it off.

“I used a plastic fizzy drink bottle and on Tuesday, September 5, I had a text from the person who picked up the message in the Netherlands.”

The bottle landed off the coast of Vlieland, a small island in the northern Netherlands after a journey of more than 200 miles.

The person who found it contacted Rosie and said: “Hi Rosie, I found your message in a bottle last Monday September 5, on the beach of Vlieland.

“It was washed on shore. Greetings from the Netherlands.”

Astonished Rose then posted the message on Twitter to share how far her message had reached.

She said she was at school when she received the message.

She added: “At first I was unsure if it was a real message of perhaps some sort of joke.

“It was so shocking as I didn’t think I would get anything back at all.

“I didn’t really think that it would work or anything – I thought it would just wash back to the shore in Southend to a different part of the coast.

“I told my friends and family and they all thought it was so cool.

“I would definitely do it again but perhaps from somewhere else like a different pier in the UK, I do not drive so would need to get someone to take me.”