Message in a bottle found after 20 years

“I found a message in a bottle when I was 12 so I always keep an eye on the shoreline. Then, suddenly I spotted another one,” German-born Malte Bonender told the Värmlands Folkblad newspaper.

The original message was sent, along with many others, by students from the Hammarlundens school in south Hammarö close to Karlstad in west central Sweden.

Students wrote the notes in both English and Swedish and encouraged whoever found the bottle to get in touch.

Student Anna-Lisa Kihlman, who was among the original group of students two decades ago, got a laugh when she heard her bottle had resurfaced.

“My entire body shuddered when I heard about it,” she told Värmlands Folkblad.

“I remember that we gave one of the bottles to a sailing family who were down on the west coast. They must have carried out the mission!”

Having found the battered bottle on a shore close to Strömstad on Sweden’s west coast, Bonender has got in contact with the school to say that the message has been received.

Bonender, 25, was only five when the bottle was dropped in the water and much younger than the students who sent the message.

“It’s fantastic to think all the adventures that this bottle must have been on over the years,” he said.

Both Bonender and Kihlman have since become friends with the Swede hoping that the finder will reunite her with the bottle in the future.

“There is a water theme in the coming school year and in spring there is another outing. One can think maybe some of the students from 1993 will come along and talk to us.

“It would be great fun if Malte also came along with the bottle and the old letter.”