Pupils look to Internet to reply to message carried by ocean currents

Pupils from a primary school in Co Waterford are attempting to make contact with a 14-year-old Canadian schoolboy whose message…

Pupils from a primary school in Co Waterford are attempting to make contact with a 14-year-old Canadian schoolboy whose message in a bottle was washed up on a beach.

The bottle was found on January 23rd by the father of a pupil at the Edmund Rice Primary School in Tramore. Inside was a Canadian flag and a message from a Francis Chenier, with an address in a small town called Granby, near Quebec.

According to Mr Liam O Neachtain, a teacher at the school, the pupils were amazed to see the date on the boy's letter was May 5th, 1999.

"The journey of 4,500 miles from the Canadian coast took a little over seven months," he said.

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The school's reply was put together by Michael Costello, the sixth-class pupil whose father found the bottle, and his reply was posted on January 26th. In it he tells the Canadian boy about Waterford and Kilfarrsey beach, where the bottle was found. A reply has yet to be received.

In the message the boy tells a little bit about himself and lists 12 questions for the finder to answer.

He says his first language is French, but he is studying English.

Mr O Neachtain said the pupils were surprised that a message in a bottle could travel so far. The bottle was a little "battered" from the months in the ocean.

The school is also trying to locate the boy via the Internet. "We wish we had his e-mail address so we could contact him straight away, but we'll just have to wait for the conventional post," said Mr O Neachtain.