Message in a Bottle Brings Rebuke

Finding a message in a bottle would seem to be a romantic kind of thing. It could have been sent a hundred years ago by an island castaway — just bones now. Or, a lover with a message for a sailor who never returned from the sea. Or, a scientist studying the circuitous paths of the world’s ocean currents.

So, last week, when Capt. Harvey Bennett opened a package plastered with the stamps of Great Britain to find one of the five plastic bottles he’d tossed into the ocean from Napeague in August, he was eager to learn what excited child or curious beachcomber had found it, and where. Eagerly, he reached for the letter nestled beside his bottle in the box. It read:

Dear “Captain” Bennett, I recently found your bottle while taking a scenic walk on the beach by Poole Harbor. While you may consider this some profound experiment on the path and speed of oceanic currents, I have another name for it, litter. You Americans don’t seem to be happy unless you are mucking about somewhere. If you wish to foul your own nest all well and good, but please refrain in future from fouling mine.
Sincerely,
Henry Biggelsworth

“I kind of felt like no good deed goes unpunished,” Mr. Bennett said yesterday before quickly moving past Mr. Biggelsworth’s chastisement to his address: Bournemouth in County Dorset on England’s east coast.

For the rest of the story, go to The East Hampton Star