TAMPA, Fla. — It’s not uncommon to find trash and debris from the storm surge of hurricanes and tropical storms, but one Tampa Bay woman made a historic discovery after Hurricane Debby blew through: a World War II-era message in a bottle.
Suzanne Flament-Smith told CBS News affiliate WTSP that she was walking on Bayshore Boulevard when she saw how much trash there was following the storm in Safety Harbor, a city on the western shore of Tampa Bay.
“There was so much plastic. I’m like, ‘Okay, this is driving me crazy,'” she said. “I usually keep a trash bag and gloves in my car.”
Flament-Smith decided to take the initiative and begin cleaning up the trash. It was then that she came across the bottle.
“On my third bag as I was filling it up, I noticed a glass bottle and you could see the writing — the note and scripture,” Flament-Smith said. “I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I think I just found a message in a bottle.'”
Knowing it was not any ordinary litter, she kept it safe and brought it home to crack it open with her family.
Inside the bottle, Flament-Smith found all sorts of contents: a few shells, a bullet casing, a “mini cannonball,” and sand; but, the biggest surprise was the note inside, she told WTSP.
In pictures shared on Facebook, the note is seen written in cursive ink on an old piece of paper with most of the words faded.
“Dear Lee, received your letter yesterday, [and] was glad to hear from you,” Flament-Smith read to WTSP.
What she was able to make out seemed like a message between friends named Lee and Chris.
“I’m going to school again, radio school,” the letter continued.
What was remarkable about it was the date: “3/4/45” was etched next to a U.S. Navy letterhead from the Amphibious Training Base in Little Creek, Virginia.
“It appeared to be a Navy military to a friend of some sort because it mentioned how he wants to see him soon and things like that,” Flament-Smith said.
Over 800 miles away from Safety Harbor, that same naval base still stands but now with a different name: Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.
“We were established because with World War II going on, they needed a place to train amphibious forces like the folks who landed on D-Day on Normandy 80 years ago,” Navy public affairs officer April Phillips told WTSP.
When WTSP shared Flament-Smith’s story with the Navy, Phillips said they are looking into the letter to determine its authenticity and its author.
“We’re going to [do] some sleuthing and see what we can track down and I can’t wait for this journey to discover what we are going to learn,” Phillips said, adding that the letter could be a first-person account dating back to when the base first opened in the 1940s.
Flament-Smith’s good deed of cleaning up may have unearthed a unique piece of history, WTSP reported, and one that she hopes can be shared with those close to its mystery.
“Well, I try to tell my kids if you do good, good things happen,” she said. “There is a sense of excitement, and also like a story — a story that hopefully we can find its home.”
