A few weeks ago, the Grogan children were swimming at Grimes Cove, Ocean Point, when they saw something bobbing in the water.

Sadie Grogan, 6, implored her brother to go out and retrieve the bobbing object. Eleven-year-old Liam Grogan swam out and plucked it out of the water, and he and his sister and brother Brady, 8, looked at it with wonder.

It was a corked bottle, with messages inside. They opened it up to discover two letters and a treasure map directing them to Burnt Island.

The next day, kids convinced their parents to load everyone up in Ben Lewis’s boat, and headed from his summer home in Juniper Point to Burnt Island with a picnic. They rounded up friends and family to join them on their quest. Cousins Buck, 8, Ryan, 8, and Phoebe, 6, Ben Lewis’s children, were part of the treasure hunting group.

The skeptical adults enjoyed the day while the kids roamed the island in search of treasure. After a few hours, the kids were about to give up, when, in the words of Liam Grogan, “Buck picked up a rock. He didn’t see the 'X' until after he picked it up, but then he did and everyone started screaming that there was the treasure!”

The kids uncovered what Liam Grogan describes as a “picnic jar” filled with “really cool” sea glass and seashells. They decided to take a few, and replace it with a few ocean treasures that they had found, a rule instated by their mother Jill Lewis Grogan before re-burying the treasure and placing the rock atop it. 

“A true island treasure,” she said of the ocean gems found in the jar.

“The kids were incredibly excited once they found the bottle,” Liam, Sadie and Brady’s father Ray Grogan said. “We took them out to the island and told them they probably weren’t going to find anything, and we went along for the ride just to have a nice afternoon. No one complained that there was no money or gold.”

The kids took the bottle and the messages to their grandfather Alan Lewis’ house in Boothbay before the Grogans headed home to Freeport. One of the messages has a Massachusetts address on it, and Liam Grogan plans to write a letter to the author telling her that he found the bottle before resealing it and casting it out to sea once more.

Below are two of the messages found in the bottle:

Dear Reader,
Congratulations on finding this bottle. My name is Susanna and my age is 8 almost 9. I live with my auntie and four sisters and one brother named Cory. My other auntie has a house in Maine and we came to visit her and my cousin. Today we are going to burnt island. I made a treasure map for you (to) enjoy.

Congratulations dear finder,
You are lucky to have found our treasure. I hope you enjoy looking through it. I hope you enjoyed the jar. It was lodged at Burnt Island in 2012 by me and my family. I am Ava Krantz. I’m 10 years old. I live in Oxford, Ma. Enjoy.

From,

Ava

P.S. Sorry if you don’t (find it)