When nine-year-old Emily and her four-year-old sister Lily saw the bottle in the water they assumed it must be pirate's treasure.

Instead it was treasure of a different kind – a message in a bottle thrown into the water five months ago more than 1,000 miles away from Bermuda's shores.

Andrew Peters and his daughters Emily and Lily saw the bottle and assumed it was litter so they fished it out and noticed a letter inside.

Mr. Peters, who works at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science (BIOS) said: "When we took it out of the water we thought it was old because there were barnacles growing on the bottom.

"The children were very excited and thought it was something to do with a pirate's treasure and we took it home to open it."

He said when he looked at the print he noticed it was a recent letter.

"The note was from a lady in the States giving her e-mail address. Emily e-mailed her and we have just heard back," said the St. George's resident.

The letter was from Stacy Frenz, of Ohio, who said she was on a cruise with her brother in the Bahamas in March.

Out of curiosity, on March 2, 25 miles out of Fort Lauderdale, she threw the bottle overboard. It floated on the Gulf Stream for five months and 1,100 miles to be collected on August 23 off the east end of Bermuda.

"She was very pleasantly surprised when she got a e-mail that the bottle travelled to Bermuda. Being geeks at BIOS, we have started trying to figure out the currents that brought it to Bermuda," added Mr. Peters.