U.S. Student's Message in Bottle Found in Ireland

Corey Swearingen's message in a bottle successfully crossed the Atlantic. (Mykl Roventine)

A message in a bottle sent by a Florida high school student as part of his marine science class has come ashore in Ireland.

Corey Swearingen put the bottle into the Atlantic Ocean in April 2009 and it followed the current all the way to the small fishing village of Kilbaha, Ireland, in County Clare, on the western coast.

A 17-year-old boy and his father found the bottle during a family holiday there. Stephen Flannery of Athlone, Ireland, and his son, Adam, responded via e-mail to the letter, which had urged the reader to write with details of the bottle's location.

Swearingen told Melbourne newspaper Florida Today he didn't expect the bottle to be found. He's now studying at Florida Atlantic University.