Heritage Development Officer at The Castle in Bude, Janine King, is accustomed to receiving unusual artefacts and objects of interest handed in to the Heritage Centre by members of the public for posterity.

Last week, however, she received her first ever ‘message in a bottle’, which was discovered at a remote beach north of Bude after the early January storms.

Paul Clark, from Holsworthy, was walking at the secluded Stanbury Mouth on January 7 this year, when he discovered the bottle nestled into the stones.

“It was really interesting to find a bottle with a note in it on this remote beach,” said Paul.

“There was a gale blowing and quite a bit of rain, so I waited to open it until I got back to my vehicle.”

Inside the bottle, Paul found a picture of two teenagers holding up two enormous fish, and on the back of the image was a lot of detail about who they were, the boat, crew, where they were when they released the bottle – plus a phone number should anyone ever find it. Paul decided to get in touch with them.

“As a kid, I can remember throwing a message in a bottle into the sea – I would have been over the moon to get a message back,” he said.

“Finding their bottle was the next best thing, so I sent the two lads – Orren and Daniel – a message. They were very excited to hear from me.”

Orren and Daniel had set off from Nova Scotia, Canada in July 2021 on a fishing trawler called Miawpukek Challenger.

They were heading to the Grand Banks to catch some halibut, and threw their bottle and note into the sea on 16 July.

“It’s amazing to think that this bottle has travelled so far and so quickly, and that everything came together so it would be found on a remote beach in north Cornwall six months later,” said Paul.

Paul decided to hand his find into The Heritage Centre at The Castle in Bude as Orren and Daniel didn’t want him to return it to them. “It will be kept safe by the museum, and in years to come I’m sure it will be even more interesting,” Paul added. “The lads have also said that one day they would like to come to Bude and see the bottle again, and where it was found, which would be really great!”

The bottle has been documented and safely stored in The Heritage Centre’s archives, but Janine hopes it will go on display in a future exhibition.

“It’s a really interesting story,” she said.

“The message is of interest because it is so well preserved and detailed and to have a photograph of the two boys who threw the bottle over board is also fantastic.

The fact that it only took six months to arrive on our shores really indicates the power of the tides. And that the bottle has survived its long journey largely intact demonstrates how long plastic can survive in the ocean without disintegrating. What’s also so impressive,” Janine said, “is that Paul has documented absolutely everything – the exact time and place of his discovery, his text conversations with the two boys and all supported with images and maps.

“He really should have been an archivist himself!”