Message in a bottle on Formby beach

When Michael Cockerill was walking his dog, Hercules this morning, Friday 19th February on Formby beach, his dog sat down next to an object on the sand.

Michael said: "Herc just sat down in front of what I thought from a distance would be a stick or something. I soon realised it was a bottle. I was going to ignore it when I noticed that there was a note inside."

Michael was surprised to see a note inside the bottle. It was a miniature bottle of Glenfiddich whisky with a screw cap on. "It was hard to get out so I used a piece of dried marram grass and bent a hook in the end to fish it out."

The message inside that read:

"Dear Gods of all the Seas, Let us celebrate this New Years Eve in New Zealand PLEASE! - J & R

We would love to trace who threw this bottle in the water. What do you think it means?

Formby Bubble think maybe it was someone in Scotland (hence the scotch whisky), who wanted it to reach New Zealand. It still made quite a journey to Formby beach. Assuming it was thrown in at the beach in Scotland, it would have travelled a minimum of almost 100 miles to reach us at Formby.

Michael's dog Herc is a little star for finding this. They were walking between National Trust beach at Victoria Road and Lifeboat Road part of the beach around 8am this morning.

Michael said: "Actually there is a message on the back as well. It looks like it's been ripped out of a diary or notepad."

The message on the back of the original says:

"P.S. Also help me got a job to buy that ship! May the winds be kind!"

We would love this post to be shared so we can possibly find out the original story behind the message. Michael said: "I don't know if this is legit but, I'd like to think it is!"

So would we Michael.

Minature bottle of whisky with the note inside

Message inside the bottle

The message inside the bottle

Hercules the dog who discovered the message in the bottle