Kicker: Message in a bottle

MEGAN BASHAM, HOST: Strolling along the shore in western Alaska, Tyler Ivanoff eyed something intriguing. Sound courtesy KNOM.

IVANOFF: I just happened to stumble across the bottle, and I could see inside there was like a note.

The green bottle had two sheets of paper in it: one blank, protecting the other sheet with the faded ink of a handwritten note.

IVANOFF: My kids were pretty excited. They were wondering if it was a pirate’s note.

Well, it was not the writing of a pirate, as it turned out.

Ivanoff posted a picture of the note on social media to ask for help translating the writing. That’s when reporters with the state-owned Russia One network saw the note and tracked down retired Russian Navy Captain Anatolii Botsanenko.

Botsanenko teared up when he saw the note, which offered a simple greeting to the finder. He said he was 36 years old when he dropped it into the sea—50 years earlier. 

It’s The World and Everything in It.

(Photo/Tyler Ivanoff)

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