Friends find message in a bottle washed up after dramatic high tides

Laurence Younger, a local birder from South Shields, was out walking with friends around 12pm today, Saturday January 14, when the group spotted a bottle among the debris washed up on the shore.

He was with friends Stuart Thompson and Sid Gibson, who spotted the bottle and is hoping to reunite it with the person who dropped it into the sea.

Mr Younger said: "I was with fellow birders Stuart Thompson and Sid Gibson when we found this message in a bottle near Shields pier.

"We were lucky to find it, as hundreds of bottles had washed up in the surge.

"Sid picked it up first and opened it."

Reading the message, the friends realised it hadn't travelled as far as they were expecting - as it said it came from a seven-year-old who lives in Sunderland.

The message read: "If you find a pirate ship and have a weapon, you could take over their ship so it is yours."

Sid said: “We were walking among rocks on Sandhaven Beach and as we turned around to leave I just happened to look down and said to Stuart and Laurence ‘look at what I’ve found’, then opened it to reveal the message.”

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