14-year-old tossed a 'message in a bottle' into the sea in 1976. Nearly 50 years later, he received the call

In 1976, 14-year-old Peter R. Thompson was a ninth-grade student at Pentucket Regional Junior High School in West Newbury, Massachusetts. As part of an oceanography class, he wrote a short note, sealed it in a glass Pepsi bottle, and had it launched into the Atlantic by the Coast Guard. The assignment was meant to be a science experiment, which, nearly fifty years later, turned into a reunion.

The message inside read, "I'm a ninth-grade student from Pentucket Regional Junior High School. This is a science experiment because I am in an oceanography course. Will you please send this back to the address at the bottom and say where you found it, what day and time, and how? This was launched by a Coast Guard ship in the month of May 1976." That note drifted more than 1,000 miles before it was discovered by brothers Clint and Evan Buffington during a trip to a remote out-island in the Bahamas, reported WCVB. They had nearly canceled the trip after both came down with an illness, but decided to go anyway.

Clint told WCVB, describing the moment, "Beautiful sunny day, the waves are lapping, the sun is glistening on the water, not a cloud in the sky. All of a sudden, I hear my walkie-talkie crackle to life, and my brother says something like, 'You're not going to believe what I just found.'" Inside the bottle, they found the sand-covered note, browned with age but still legible. They were struck by its potential, not just as a relic, but as a connection. In a Facebook post, Clint reflected on the meaning of the note from the perspective of the young boy who wrote it. "Now, to some, this may sound like a pretty 'straightforward' message, no romance, no pirate treasure map. But just think what it meant to the 14-year-old kid... who sent it in the 70s! The dreams of where it would travel, where it might wind up, who might find it," he wrote, as per People.

He continued, "Well, after who knows how many trips around the North Atlantic, drifting past whales and cargo ships, shimmering under the northern lights, it wound up on a very sparsely inhabited out-island of the Bahamas and rested in the sun as world leaders and wars came and went, music and clothing styles rose and fell. Somewhere in there, my brother and I were born, grew up, went to school, got married, and had kids. And all that time, this message was waiting to be found." He also said that "there's way more going on with this message than you could ever imagine just by reading it." Clint told WCVB, "I always think the most important thing about these messages is not how old they are or how far they’ve traveled. It's the people on the other side." 

Determined to find out who had written it, the brothers turned to social media. With help from Boston journalist Emily Maher, they tracked down Thompson, who now lives in Leominster, Massachusetts. Maher told Clint during a call, "I have found someone that you’ve been looking for. I’m going to hand the phone over to Mr. Peter Thompson." Thompson said, "It’s amazing. It’s almost 50 years later. It’s a big surprise." Thompson told WCVB he doesn’t remember writing the exact message, but he does remember the oceanography class. He also seemed glad to take a trip down memory lane. The Buffington brothers plan to return the note to Thompson soon, unraveling an eon's worth of memories and stories.