Girl gets reply from her message in a bottle after it turned up 550 miles away

But on August 3 Christie opened a message on Facebook from Freddy, who said he had found the bottle on an island on Sweden’s west coast, around 90 miles north of Gothenburg, call Pinnö.

The bottle had travelled around 550 miles.

Freddy, who lives in nearby Grebbestad during the summer months and in Lund for the rest of the year, told PA News he found it on August 2.

He initially struggled to read the note as the paper had been damaged by salt water.

‘Our family tried our best to find words that were useful, and we were finally able to identify Christie’s name, a hint that she had a Facebook address, as well as the word Sunderland,’ he said.

‘With her name, I found her Facebook page, and looking at the iages there I could deduce that she lived in Sunderland, which was mentioned in the message in the bottle.

‘With this information at hand, I dared to send a message to Christie.

‘She replied some time later and we were all very enthusiastic about having solved the riddle.’

The retired university professor said he often goes on ‘treasure hunts’ with his grandson Edward Stahlberg, five, and the little boy was excited about the discovery.

Christie said: ‘(Grace) was really shocked, she couldn’t believe it because there was a very slim chance that Harry’s would be found, so when we discovered Grace’s had also been found she was absolutely over the moon.

‘They’ve both been found in the space of a year, you wouldn’t expect them to be found so soon – I think it just shows how small the world actually is.

‘I just think it’s a miracle, considering how big the sea is.’

Christie said she initially thought there was ‘no chance’ of the bottles ever being discovered further than the pier, because when her children first threw them out to sea, they started heading back to shore.

What added to the fun of the whole story, Christie explained, was the similarity between the names of the two people who found the bottle.

‘Harry’s bottle was found by a man called Frederik and Grace’s was found by someone called Freddy – it is just mad,’ she said.

She hopes she can take Harry and Grace to the spots where their bottles were found and the family has considered throwing more bottles into the Atlantic Ocean to see if they end up in the US.