A mum felt like she 'won the lottery' after discovering a century-old 'message in a bottle' while scuba diving - before tracking down the owner's daughter.
Boat captain Jennifer Dowker was out with a client on Friday, June 18, when she decided to go diving herself, hoping to find something special to peak his interest in the sport.
The 45-year-old was swimming in the Cheboygan River, in Michigan, US, when she came across a green bottle sat on a fish bed, briefly making out a word through its tinted glass.
Rushing back to her boat, the mum-of-three unravelled the message, which read: "Will the person who finds this bottle return this paper to George Morrow, Cheboygan, Michigan and tell where it was found? November 1926."
After posting online in the hope of finding its owner, Jennifer says she was 'in awe' as the daughter of George, Michele Primeau, 74, reached out.
The daughter recognised her dad's handwriting and admitted the 'sentimental' character often wrote notes and left them in places.
Though George passed away in 1995, Jennifer has vowed to keep the rare treasure and tell its story to her clients, hoping to spark their own underwater adventures.
Jennifer, from Cheboygan, in Michigan, US, said: "I am just so flabbergasted by the whole situation.
"It's incredible. I am sitting back in awe at everything. It was like winning the lottery in my mind.
"We can tell the story to our clients and inspire them when they go on their own scuba dives."
Jennifer had been cleaning the windows of her boat last week when she decided to join her friend Walter in the water, as he had been practising breathing through a regulator.
As Jennifer discovered the green bottle, she feared its contents would be destroyed as it had water inside, but on unravelling the note, she was taken aback.
The boat owner, who runs Nautical North Family Adventures, then swam back to her friends on the boat, clutching the piece of history in her hands, before scrambling on to the deck to read the note.
That night, she posted a picture on social media in the hope a local resident might come forward and know the owner - but had no idea the response she would receive the next day.
Since then, the post has attracted more than 98,000 shares and 5,900 comments from amazed readers.
Jennifer said: "I run this small business almost completely alone. I have two employees that help me immensely and I'm a single mom of three teenage boys. I'm super, super busy.
"I kind of forgot about it on Friday night. I posted it in the hope that I'd find somebody locally because I went to high school with a Morrow.
"I thought 'ah, someone will let me know and I'll get it back to George and his family'.
"On Saturday morning I was out on the boat doing a scuba dive with some of my clients and once they were in the water, I looked at Facebook and thought 'what has happened?'"
George's daughter Michele, from Farmington Hills, in Detroit, Michigan, said: "I can't believe all this.
"It was interesting because it was Father's Day that weekend and it brought back lots of memories about him. I knew immediately it was my dad.
"He was very sentimental and did things like that. I remember one time when we were camping, he did that in one of our great lakes here, Lake Keiran.
"It shocked me because he died in 1995. It's a long time. To see his handwriting after all this time was quite moving.
"His name will live on if Jennifer has it and displays all this, as opposed to me having it in my home."
