An Alaska man's hunt for firewood ended with the discovery of a different kind after he came across a 50-year-old message in a bottle. Tyler Ivanoff found a letter written in Russian, and posted an appeal for a translation on his Facebook page.
It transpired the letter had been written by a sailor on board the Russian ship Sulak on 20 June 1969.
The story was picked up by Russian media, which tracked down the letter-writer, Captain Anatoly Botsanenko. Mr Ivanoff said he had been searching for firewood some 20 miles (32 km) west of his home village of Shishmaref when he came upon the bottle, with a plastic cork stopper.
His appeal on Facebook prompted a translation of the still legible note:
When Cpt Botsanenko, now 86 years old, was told of the note he reportedly burst into tears of joy.
He told the Russian TV channel Rossiya 1:
Cpt Botsanenko was reported to have overseen the construction of the Sulak in 1966 and sailed on it until 1970.
Mr Ivanoff noted on Facebook that it was "pretty cool how a small photo grew into a story", and has said he may consider launching his own message in a bottle one day.
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