Watch: Hurricane Debby leads to discovery of WWII-era message in a bottle

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- A Florida woman cleaning up debris washed ashore by Hurricane Debby made an unexpected discovery -- a message in a bottle dating back to World War II.

Suzanne Flament-Smith, 46, of Tampa, said she was picking up trash on Bayshore Boulevard in Safety Harbor when the bottle caught her eye.

"There was sand in it, but you could clearly see the writing," she told People . "You could see the beautiful penmanship, The letter was almost rolled outside, so you could see the writing. It stood out."

Flament-Smith opened the bottle and discovered the letter was accompanied by sand, a coffee stick, a bullet casing and a miniature cannonball.

"We opened the letter and you could see it was really faded. So some of it you can make out and you could see the letterhead on it," she said.

The letter, dated March 4, 1945, has a letterhead marked "United States Navy, Amphibious Training Base in Little Creek, Virginia."

"Dear Lee, Received your letter yesterday, was glad to hear from you," the letter opens.

Flament-Smith said much of the letter is too faded to read, but the writer, who may have been named Chris or Jim, details starting at "radio school" and promises to write again the next day.

Flament-Smith said the letter presents an intriguing mystery.

"My husband and I had so much fun trying to think, 'OK, did they throw it from the ship?' But it's like, 'No, there's sand in it.' If they threw it from Virginia Beach, how did the current not bring it back into shore? What's the purpose of the letter? It sounds like they're friends. You kind of come up with all these scenarios in your head."

April Phillips, a Navy public affairs officer, said officials at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, more than 800 miles from Safety Harbor, are investigating to see if they can identify the sender or recipient of the letter.