Scuba diver stumbled on a bottle underwater—what she found inside carried a 99-year-old request

Some discoveries might feel no less than magic. A scuba diving instructor and boat owner, Jennifer Dowker, who runs the North Nautical Family Adventures, found such a treasure back in June 2021. She dived in the sea to clean the windows of her glass-bottomed boat when she found a green glass bottle lying on the seabed. She picked it up and found a special message inside the bottle sent out by a whimsical 18-year-old almost a 100 years ago in 1926, per an Instagram post by @nauticalnorth.familyadventures.

The letter inside the bottle read, "Will the person who finds this bottle, return this paper to George Morrow in Chebogyan, Michigan. And tell where it was found?" The year was marked as 1926. Dowker also shared pictures of the green glass bottle. In the caption, she explained, "Who’s ready for scuba? Look at this amazing find after cleaning windows. I seriously love my job!" People shared their thoughts on the interesting discovery in the comments section of the post. @harrybeard wrote, "I think I know this family. Please message me. It would mean a great deal just to get the message to them. No lie." @mk_ohyeah commented, "Wow. Definitely track him/his family down…never know what it means to them!" @barbie.gutzz remarked, "This is so cool and makes me so happy that it was found."

Many people engaged with the post on Instagram and helped Dowker reach out to George's daughter, Michele Primeau, who could recognize her dad's handwriting on the note, per an update. The diving instructor got in touch with Primeau after that. "What a surreal experience it was to connect over Zoom today." Dowker had planned to have Primeau on the boat in September 2021. "Michele told us she would love it if we displayed her Father’s note and bottle for all our passengers to see," the boat owner added. "So this is exactly what we plan to do… The name 'George Morrow' will live on in the shop of the Yankee Sunshine."

The daughter also wrote a letter to Dowker and sent it via email, along with some pictures of her father when he was 18 years old and put the green bottle in the ocean. The letter read, "I can't believe this picture of my father that I found, as I only have a couple of when he was young." She continued, "It was labeled '18 years old,' which was about the time all of this happened." She shared, "He also lived on Ward no. 4 on Division St in 1920. We are looking forward to meeting you in September. Isn't this fun!" She signed off with her name.

In the caption, Dowker revealed, "Michele (George’s daughter) sent this to me via the mail. Enjoy the picture of George at age 18, would be what he looked like when he put the little green bottle in the water. She reports that he was sentimental like that, exactly his character. I love this." The pictures included a snapshot of young George with his dog, a photo in the park, a close-up of his face and one of him as an older man with his daughter on her wedding day.

You can follow Jennifer Dowker (@nauticalnorth.familyadventures) on Instagram for more lifestyle content.

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