Message in a bottle

Above: Scott Cousins, 10, reveals the bottle’s drawing. – Courtesy of Kyrstal Cousins

By RYAN KING

ROCKY BARACHOIS – On Oct. 3, Jamie Cousins came across a message in a bottle following some stormy weather in Rocky Barachois, a small area nestled between Grand Bay West and Cape Ray.

“It was Sunday morning. My husband found it. He was on his way back from duck hunting because we were up at the cabin. He went duck hunting in just what they call the slip, which is that gut that is just up from the cabin, and on his way back down that’s when he noticed it,” said Kyrstal Cousins. “It was almost on the inside of the gut where it had broke free to the ocean. Because, see what happens up there is every so often when we get a certain storm, the beach breaks free and that lake drains out, and that’s what they call the gut. So, a couple weeks ago, it opened up again with that last storm, and it drained out.”

As he made his way out of the area, the bottle caught Jamie’s eye. It stuck out of the sandbank on the edge of the gut where the water had broken free.

“So we don’t know if it was in the gut and it drained out or if it had washed in from the sea,” explained Kyrstal.

Fearing that the message inside might be damaged, it was decided to wait until the bottle was taken home for father examination. However, what they found only prompted more questions.

“We weren’t sure if we were going to get the message out without tearing it. So once we got it home and opened it up, it was actually damp on the inside from condensation, and we were able to pull it out without breaking the bottle. And once we opened it – it’s a drawing of a ship of some sort. It looks like a child drew it. We don’t really know, and that’s all it is. It’s just a drawing of a ship. There’s no name. There’s no date. Nothing,” said Kyrstal.

The bottle itself was an old glass lime Crush bottle with a metal screw top, which is an older design.

The Cousins family are hoping that through the power of social media they may be able to find out who put this message out to sea, especially their son, Scott.

“It would be pretty cool if we could. Because I mean, our little boy, our 10-year-old son, he’s completely fascinated by it. So it would be pretty neat if we could find where this came from, and how long ago,” said Kyrstal.

This is not the first interesting object found by the family on the beach. Scott has an interest in searching for hidden objects in the sands.

“He’s always picking things up from the beach We’ve got a collection of some pretty weird and unique items from up there. A couple of weeks ago, he brought back a – it’s like a steel plate, and it looks like that it might have come off a ship. It’s got a star in the middle of it. It’s pretty neat. He’s a big historian buff. He’s got a metal detector and stuff, so he’s up there beachcombing all the time,” said Kyrstal.

Another interesting piece of history found by the family is what may be a piece of an old wooden ship.

“There’s a lot of interesting things up there. We also got a piece of – it’s a piece of a ship, and it’s got the wooden pegs into it. So that’s how we know it’s really old.”

Near the family’s cabin is a complete ship that is buried in the sand.

“Actually, just down from our cabin, when you first enter what they call Bottle’s Beach, there is an old ship buried in the sand, and every so often when the beach changes the sand will uncover this old ship. We’ve tried digging it up many times, but it’s just buried down way too deep, we can’t get at it. But there is so many interesting things up there.”

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