--- title: Man Who Wrote Message in Bottle 50 Years Ago Has Been Found description: Paul Gilmore's family says he's currently on a cruise and he doesn't know the letter he wrote in 1969, when he was 13, has been found yet canonical: https://time.com/5629145/australia-message-in-a-bottle/ author: Amy Gunia article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-07-18T07:01:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:59:35.204Z og:title: Man Who Wrote Message in Bottle 50 Years Ago Has Been Found og:description: But his family says he's away at sea again og:url: https://time.com/5629145/australia-message-in-a-bottle/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37ddc8a1879133a3/698a002d656a3f209abd89c2/message-in-bottle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2121 og:image:height: 1193 og:image:alt: Message in a bottle floating in ocean og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man Who Wrote Message in Bottle 50 Years Ago Has Been Found twitter:description: But his family says he's away at sea again twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37ddc8a1879133a3/698a002d656a3f209abd89c2/message-in-bottle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Man Who Wrote a Message in a Bottle 50 Years Ago Has Been Found by [Amy Gunia](https://time.com/author/amy-gunia/) ## Amy Gunia Gunia was a reporter for TIME based in Hong Kong. Jul 18, 2019 7:01 AM UTC  Eleuthera, Bahamas Eleuthera, BahamasDennis O'Clair—Getty Images/Cultura RF by [Amy Gunia](https://time.com/author/amy-gunia/) ## Amy Gunia Gunia was a reporter for TIME based in Hong Kong. Jul 18, 2019 7:01 AM UTC The man who wrote a [50-year-old message](https://time.com/5628029/australia-message-bottle-50-years/) in a bottle found on Wednesday has been [tracked down](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-18/paul-gilmore-found-50-years-after-message-thrown-overboard/11319962). ABC located Paul Gilmore, who wrote the letter when he was 13, through his family in Australia and England, who say that he’s currently on a cruise in the Baltic and he doesn’t know his letter has been found yet. But his family was pleasantly surprised by the resurfacing of his letter. “It’s amazing, absolutely incredible,” his sister Annie Crossland said, according to ABC. “He’ll be chuffed to bits.” She added that “he sent about six of them.” Paul’s younger brother, David, said the letter belonged to him, according to ABC. “It’s really strange,” he said. “I’m looking at the message now and yeah, I can see it’s my brother’s writing — he’s obviously a bit younger then.” Gilmore threw the letter overboard while on a ship traveling with his family from England to Australia, where they emigrated, according to ABC. He was looking for a penpal. According to ABC, he included his future address in the Australian state of Victoria and wrote: “We are 1,000 miles east of Fremantle, Western Australia … please reply.” The ship traveled from Southampton in the U.K. and sailed via the Canary Islands and Cape Town before a layover in Western Australia. After the stop, it went on to Melbourne. Gilmore’s family thinks he dropped the bottle during the last stretch of the journey, according to ABC. Nine-year-old Jyah Elliott found the bottle on a beach in South Australia, according to ABC, and wrote back on Tuesday. 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