Massachusetts Boy Who Sent Out Message in a Bottle Gets Response From France 9 Years Later| Travel + Leisure
When a 10-year-old boy in Massachusetts launched a message in a bottle into the Atlantic Ocean with his home address on it, he didn’t know if it would be found. Nearly a decade later, he finally got his response.
Max Vredenburgh, now a 19-year-old college student, told CNN that he had forgotten about the letter he wrote as a boy until his dad let him know via text that he had received a note in the mail from — of all places — France.
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The bottle had washed up on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean on Oct. 10, more than 3,000 miles from the spot where he launched it nine years ago.
Last week, Vredenburgh posted photos of the letters on Twitter, which then went viral, since collecting more than more than 500,000 likes and 136,000 retweets.
On August 21, 2010 I threw a message in a bottle into the ocean from a beach in Rockport, MA. On October 10, 2019 that letter was found on the beach in France. I am mind blown. 9 years. pic.twitter.com/Af2tEwoQtq
— māx (@VredenburghMax) November 8, 2019
"It will have taken 9 years to cover the 6000 kms that separates us," G. Dubois, who found the bottle, wrote back. "You had grown a lot during that time: 10 to 19 years old."
The original letter had declared the likes of then-10-year-old Vredenburgh: "I like apples. I like the beach, my favorite color's blue, I like animals, I like cars, and I like outer space."
Years later, he told CBS Boston it made him reflect on who he has become. “Logistically, I think I have a higher chance of winning the lottery than this happening,” Vredenburgh told the station. “When I first read his letter, my heart, my stomach just dropped. I was like, ‘oh my God. My 10-year-old wish just came true. This is insane.'”
Vredenburgh told CNN that he plans on getting in touch with Dubois to thank him for the long overdue response.
“I want to know about him,” the student told CBS Boston, echoing the spirit of his original letter: “I want to know… what his favorite food is, what his favorite color is. Does he like space?”
This isn’t the first long-lost message in a bottle to wash up on a beach years later. Last year, an Australian couple was walking on the beach when they stumbled upon the world’s oldest message in a bottle.
