Message in a bottle written by two teenage schoolgirls from Kent in 1979 finally gets a response almost 40 years after it washed up in the Netherlands
- The note was found months after but the Dutch family who found it have only recently got in touch thanks to the power of social media
- Miss Smyth said at first she struggled to remember the day the message in a bottle was sent on its way
- The son of the woman who found the bottle tried contacting people on social media with the same name but didn’t have any luck at first
A message in a bottle thrown into the sea off the coast of Kent more than 40-years-ago has finally received a response after washing up in Holland.
The faded note was inscribed by Natalie Smyth and Nadine Warren, both ’15 and-a-half’ at the time, and sent from Dungeness on July 10, 1979 and it asks the recipient to send any reply to an address in Maidstone.
But now, one of the women who wrote the note all those years ago told how a Dutch family got in touch.
Miss Smyth, now 56, said the bottle washed up months later in 1979 in Westkapelle, Holland.
Natalie Smyth and her friend Nadine Warren at school in 1979. Nadine is fourth in on the left on the back row, Natalie is third from left on the third row
The letter thrown into the sea by Natalie Smyth and her friend Nadine Warren in 1979
The note was kept safe by a woman for all these years, but when it was discovered by her son, Roger Woldenberg, during a home de-clutter he suggested harnessing the power of social media to see if he could find the people behind it.
Mr Woldenberg messaged another Natalie Smith from Maidstone, asking if she was one of the girls who sent the message.
It wasn’t her, but Ms Smith posted a picture of the note on Facebook, in the hope the Natalie Smyth in question could be found.
Miss Smyth, a former Maidstone Grammar School for Girls pupil, said at first she struggled to remember the fateful day the message in a bottle was sent on its way.
She added: ‘After a while, I remembered that me and Nadine were on a geography field trip to Dungeness and Rye. And I do have a memory of us throwing plastic bottles into the sea.
‘I cannot remember if doing this was part of the trip – to see how currents move – but it’s possible we were just being rebellious and doing it. If that’s what it was, I feel a bit embarrassed now given how polluting we now know plastic to be.
Natalie Smyth, pictured, now 56, has revealed a Dutch family has finally responded
‘It feels amazing to think someone held onto that note for 40 years and I certainly didn’t expect any of this attention.’
Miss Smyth now lives in Oxford, where she is head of catering at St Anne’s College at Oxford University.
She added: ‘I remember Nadine living at Bedgebury Close in Vinters Park, but I believe she has since emigrated to Canada.’
The Facebook posts have also led to Miss Smyth re-making contact with several of her school friends.