A message in a bottle thrown out to sea by a little girl in Kent has been found on the Dutch coast - 20 years ago after it was cast out into the waters.
Susie Hampton, then 10, put a handwritten note inside a plastic bottle and set it adrift off of Sheppey in August 1997.
And the bottle survived the 216 miles journey across the North Sea and landed in Vlieland, an island in northern Netherlands, where it was discovered during a beach clean up last Monday.
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Now the bottle's finder Pieter Schaper hopes to track down Susie who would be now aged around 30.
Pieter, who works for conservation agency Staatsbosbeheer, said he was amazed when he prised the message out of the plastic bottle and found it had been written by Susie who lived in Minster at the time.
It was addressed to "whoever picks up this bottle", and read: "Hi my name is Susie Hampton. I'm 10 years old.
"I put this bottle in the water on 25/8/97.
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"Can you write and tell me where you found it and when?
"49 Kings Road, Minster-on-Sea, Sheppey, Kent, ME12 THL."
Pieter, who opened the letter and read it out to his colleagues, said: "Wow, this is special, this letter took 20 years to reach somebody."
His colleague Anke Bruin-Kommerij, a forest keeper on Vlieland, said the whole team was excited about the find.
She said: "We were cleaning our beach with a lot of people, volunteers from the island and tourists, but also the local sea rescue station and Islanders who work here for community service.
"We do this every year."
Stock image - Messages in a bottle are popular in castaway stories. Credit: PA Images
"It would be so funny to track down Susie. She must be about 30 years old now and I hope she remembers her message in a bottle."
But it is understood Susie no longer lives at the address on the letter and she may now have a different surname.
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