Sending Out an S.O.S.

Next time you're marrooned on a desert island and you think putting a message in a bottle just might be your ticket to safety, think again.

A wine bottle carrying a note written by a Maryland student and tossed into the ocean was finally discovered on an English beach... five years after it was sent out. Luckily, the note's author wasn't hoping to be rescued.

Cornwall resident Tony Hoskings, who found the bottle on July 18th while walking his dog, spent seven weeks trying to track down the note's author. He finally found 19-year-old Daniel Knopp, reports The Baltimore Sun.

Knopp was a 14-year-old high school student on a cruise with his parents (and no doubt bored out of his skull) when he wrote the short note on June 21, 2004. When he tossed the corked wine bottle out of his family's suite window, the ship had just departed Freeport in the Bahamas, some 4,000 miles from where it finally washed ashore where Hoskings found it. When had to cut the bottle with a glass cutter to extract the note, which read:

"Hello, my name is Daniel Knopp. I am on a cruise ship. I hope whoever reads this finds great joy. God bless. I live in the Baltimore/DC area."

After several Internet searches and with some help from the Baltimore Sun, Hoskings finally tracked down Knopp who confirmed he was the author. Luckily the note contained a lovely sentiment.

Photo courtesy of aland_1965 via Flickr.