Message in a Bottle Took 'a Hell of a Journey'

Dog walker in Scotland discovers note thrown overboard from Canadian ferry
Posted Mar 20, 2026 5:47 AM CDT
Canadian Message in Bottle Washes Up on Scottish Beach
Stock photo.   (Getty Images/peppi18)

A beach walk with the dogs in Scotland turned into a trans-Atlantic surprise. Mike Scott says he was out two weeks ago in St. Cyrus, south of Aberdeen, when Maggie, his Labrador retriever, nosed a wine bottle out of the shallows, reports UPI. "The brown glass bottle was well sealed and contained a short note," Scott wrote on Instagram, adding that the letter was tucked into a plastic bag inside the bottle, written in French, and dated August 2024. The note said it had been tossed overboard from a ferry traveling between Canada's Prince Edward Island and Quebec's Iles-de-la-Madeleine, and its author, identified as Annie Chaisson, asked any finder to contact her on Facebook.

Scott's wife thinks she located Chaisson's profile, but she hasn't heard back and suspects the account may be inactive. "For it to actually land on this beach is actually quite something," Scott tells PNI Atlantic News. "That bottle had a hell of a journey." It's not the only long-haul message in a bottle to reach Europe from Canada, per UPI: A separate letter launched off Newfoundland in 2012 reportedly landed on Ireland's Dingle Peninsula last July.

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