Message in a Bottle from 1945 Found Along Florida Bay After Hurricane Debby, Woman Says

Tropical Storm Debby continues toward the Northeast after it made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane in Florida earlier this week. But out of the damage it has wreaked, an artifact from World War II-era times emerged that a Florida woman unexpectedly discovered while picking up garbage on Wednesday, Aug. 7. 

Suzanne Flament Smith, 46, of Tampa, tells PEOPLE she was collecting storm debris on Bayshore Boulevard in the city of Safety Harbor, located on the west side of upper Tampa Bay. As she was on her third trash bag, Flament Smith noticed a corked glass bottle containing something unique: a handwritten letter. 

“There was sand in it, but you could clearly see the writing [through the glass],” she says. “You could see the beautiful penmanship, The letter was almost rolled outside, so you could see the writing. It stood out.”

Flament Smith says she put the bottle in the trunk of her car and drove back home to share the discovery with her family. There, she uncorked the bottle and poured out its contents – among them sand, a bullet casing, a mini cannonball that resembled a Whopper candy and a coffee stick. She eventually had to crack the bottle to pull out the letter. 

“We opened the letter,” Flament Smith says, ‘and you could see it was really faded. So some of it you can make out and you could see the letterhead on it.”

The letter in cursive writing is dated March 4, 1945, with its letterhead marked “United States Navy, Amphibious Training Base in Little Creek, Virginia.” The letter begins with: “Dear Lee, Received your letter yesterday, was glad to hear from you.” 

Due to the wear of the letter, some parts of the letter appear readable while others are not, such as, “I'm going to school again, radio school. It seems to be a lot of fun” and “Well, Lee, I have to fall out for school now, but we'll write again tomorrow and tell you how moving out in Norfolk tonight.”

Flament Smith initially believed that the name of the letter’s sender was “Chris,” but someone pointed out that it may be “Jim.” 

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Flament Smith then shared the letter on Facebook hoping that someone might recognize the letter’s sender, the intended recipient or their living relatives. She doesn’t know how many responses she received after sharing the note but says that the Facebook post had about 200 reshares. For her, having the letter finally delivered or in the hands of the appropriate person is also personal. 

“My father's passed away,” Flament Smith says. “Both my husband's parents have passed away. And so if somebody ever came across something of any loved one's passing, I just think it would be so wonderful to try to get it back to them and the personal items in there. I think it would be such a cool circle. it's like human history in tangible form.”

CBS affiliate WTSP, which earlier interviewed Flament Smith about her discovery, contacted April Phillips, a spokesperson for the U.S. Navy, about the Amphibious Training Base (which now goes by the name of Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story) and the letter. Phillips told the outlet that the Navy will investigate the letter to ascertain its authenticity and the sender's identity.

“We’re going to [do] some sleuthing and see what we can track down and I can’t wait for this journey to discover what we are going to learn,” Phillips said. 

Flament Smith says she plans to contact the Navy regarding the letter as well. She still has questions about the bottle's origins.

“My husband and I had so much fun trying to think, ‘Okay, did they throw it from the ship? But it's like, no, there's sand in it.  If they threw it from Virginia Beach, how did the current not bring it back into shore? What’s the purpose of the letter?’ It sounds like they’re friends. You kind of come up with all these scenarios in your head.”

She says the takeaway from her discovery is that good things come from good deeds like taking time to pick up litter.

“I could have just kept walking and gone my way and lived in my own little world,” she says. “I think it's important to try to seek out opportunities to do good deeds, and I hope that's what people take away from it. That’s the main thing I tried to tell my kids from this experience – that I was glad I did the good deed because a really cool story came from it.”