Message in a bottle writer traced back to Middle Tennessee
By Josh Cross From The Tennessean
Illinois man found bottle on a small island in the Turks and Caicos after it was thrown from cruise ship
When it was opened, the envelope located inside a wine bottle Bob Buffington found while on vacation in the Caribbean in 2009 was empty. Under closer inspection, a message was found written on the back of the envelope with most of the ink having faded away due to the weather.
THE MESSAGE
June 5th 2005 1:10 a.m.
To whom it may concern, this is a message in a bottle. It was thrown from the Royal Caribbean Cruise ship called Mariner of the Seas. If you receive this and are willing to do so, please write back. It would be interesting to see if this works.
Our address is: Keith McComas and Kristy Suttle 204 Wilson Rd Lebanon, TN 37087
P.S. Mom says hi!!!
One of two authors of a message in a bottle that was thrown from a cruise ship nearly a decade ago and found on a remote island in the Caribbean could now be living in Gallatin.
At least that’s what the man who found it thinks.
While on vacation in 2009, Bob Buffington of Makanda, Ill. found the message inside a green wine bottle that had washed ashore on a small island in the Turks and Caicos.
Because of the way the current flows, the island chain located about 600 miles southeast of Miami, acts as a kind of catcher’s mitt for items floating in the Atlantic Ocean, said Buffington, who spotted the bottle containing the letter at the end of a long walk around one of the islands.
“I looked up to my left and there was a bottle laying up there about 30 to 40 yards from the shoreline,” he said. “I could tell there was something different about it, so I went and picked it up and sure enough it had an envelope inside.”
The message in a bottle is one of about 15 that Buffington has found while traveling since 2004.
After he returned home and removed the envelope, Buffington found that it was empty and there was nothing he could see written on the outside other than ‘To my waiter’ which was printed in six different languages on the front.
“I thought, ‘Why would somebody put a tipping envelope to their waiter in their bottle?’” Buffington said. “But again, we’ve learned that if somebody has taken the time to put something in a bottle and it’s on a legible type of paper then you have to look harder.”
It wasn’t until Buffington’s now 29-year-old son, Clint, held the envelope up to the light that they discovered the indentions of words that remained in the paper after the ink had all but faded away.
“It took the better part of a day going back and forth in different angles of light to get all of the impressions on that piece of paper to where we could make words out of it,” Bob Buffington said.
According to the transcribed message, the bottle was thrown from Mariner of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, on June 5, 2005 by Keith McComas and Kristy Suttle. The letter also listed their address at the time as being on Wilson Road in Lebanon, Tenn.
“If you receive this and are willing to do so, please write back,” the message said. “It would be interesting to see if this works.”
Search complicated by move
When Buffington tried to contact McComas and Suttle he learned they had moved. Attempts to locate the pair have been unsuccessful since the search began in 2011.
“This one has been a little harder I think and a little longer to actually (find) where they might be because they have relocated,” Bob Buffington said.
According to his research, Clint Buffington said he believes that Suttle could now be living in Gallatin.
“I believe that (Suttle) is not her last name anymore,” he said.
Since 2007, Clint Buffington has collected 60 messages in bottles although most remain unopened. To date he has made contact with 15 senders from as far away as the Philippines and met four of them in person.
“It’s just great fun,” Bob Buffington said about devoting time to finding the authors. “The reactions you get from the people you finally make contact with are worth every minute you spend doing it. They’re just so excited.”
The Buffingtons hope that someone locally might know Suttle and could put her in contact with the family who found the letter thrown overboard into the Atlantic Ocean nearly a decade ago.
“You just don’t know who you’re going to find at the other end of this thing,” Bob Buffington said. “I’d be tickled to death to say, ‘Guess what? I found your bottle. Good job.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Clint Buffington through his website, www.messageinabottlehunter.wordpress.com, Facebook page or on Twitter @Clintelby.
PHOTO: Bob Buffington of Makanda, Ill., with the message in a bottle he found on a remote island in the Caribbean in 2009. / Submitted
For more on this story go to:
