While strolling on a Lithuanian beach, a woman found a curious message in a bottle. After some research, she located the sender – a 12-year-old girl from Germany.
One sunny autumn day, Vilvidė Sriubienė was walking along the Baltic coast on the Curonian Spit between Pervalka and Preila with a group of friends. They were picking up litter – and came across a plastic bottle.
“My husband said: there's bound to be a message in it. We just laughed it off, but there was indeed a message in the bottle,” Sriubienė recalls.
The message was in German. It read: “Hello, people! My name is Shafrica and I was the captain from pirate ship the Floating Nut. I am floating in the ocean because we drowned. Iceberg! Can you rescue me? Please call me, I am 12 and I want to live.”
The letter also gave a phone number and a home address. Sriubienė says she tried to call the number, but unsuccessfully.
However, she posted a photo of the message on social media, where it was spotted by another Lithuanian, Vida, who lives in Germany.
Vida decided to try to get in touch with Shafrica and wrote her a message on Facebook.
“On that same day, in the afternoon, I got a response, first from one of the girl's parents and then we exchanged a few messages with her. She was very happy that her message in a bottle was found,” Vida says.
Apparently, Shafrica and her family were holidaying in the Polish town of Mielno on the Baltic coast. She threw the bottle into the see on October 20 and, 11 days later, it reached the coast of the Curonian Spit in Lithuania.
Shafrica has told LRT TV that she was inspired by her dad who used to send messages in bottles as a kid. Asked whether she has heard anything about Lithuania, she said no.
Sriubienė says she has discovered messages in bottles before, some in languages she does not understand.
While it is a romantic find, throwing bottles into the sea is a bad idea – they pollute water and do not always get discovered.
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