Message In Bottle Finds Way With Boone Help

In October of 2007 USS Boone (FFG 28) traveled to Rockport, Massachusetts. The ship anchored in Sandy Bay overlooking the coast of the small patriotic town of Rockport. The citizens of Rockport and the crew of Boone exchanged stories and time to tour the town and the ship. The crew participated in softball games, golf games, and public service projects. The visit to Rockport was of historical significance because it reflected an image of inspiration originating from the powerful history of the United States Navy.

Boone had a great port visit and the crew was left with a positive experience that was enhanced even further due to a special request from two of Rockport's citizens. Rosemary Lesch and her close friend Sharon Chace, requested that Boone's crew throw a message in a bottle over board in remembrance of her sister's late husband Arnold Willhite.

Willhite joined the Navy in 1939 and was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He was also present at the Peace Treaty Ceremony in Tokyo Bay in 1945. Willhite graduated from the Submarine School in New London in 1942 and served on submarines for the rest of Word War II. He passed away on April 2, 2007.

Rosemary Lesch, one of Rockport's Harbor Master's, described an idea she and Chace, an accomplished poet, had to honor Willhite. Their idea was a memory bottle. The bottle would carry a letter describing the life of Willhite and his association with the sea. His widow, Laura Willhite, had hoped that the bottle would make it to Scotland - the land of Jack's ancestry. The plan called for Lesch to take Chace out on a pilot boat and meet up with another friend who would then deposit the bottle off the Rockport coast and in the Gulf Stream.

After the funeral services, Willhite and Chace decided to carry out their plan for the memory bottle. The two women went out on a patrol boat, but were turned back because of a bad storm. When Boone stopped in Rockport they came up with an alternate plan.

The day before Boone was due to depart Lesch approached the commanding officer and asked him to launch the bottle during Boone's trip back to Mayport.

The ship's track took it 100 nm off the coast, in the ideal position to get the bottle into the Gulf Stream. Lesch said she was thrilled and the deal was sealed.

On Oct. 15, 2007 Boone got underway from Rockport once in the Gulf Stream a ceremony was held on the flight deck. Willhite's memory bottle was thrown into the sea, in hopes that it would reach Scotland.

Miraculously, on May 17, 2008 the memory bottle was found - not in Scotland as was originally hoped, but Portugal.

Andr Azevedo found the bottle while walking in the sands of Vila Ch beach, near Vila do Conde, north of Oporto, Portugal.

Coincidently, Azevedo's friends are scuba divers, and their favorite diving spot is a WWII German submarine U-1277. Azevedo shared the message in the memory bottle with his friends. Delfim Trancoso, a friend of Azevedo who responded to the message with a letter to Chace describing their discovery.

Chace passed on the information that the bottle was found to a very pleased Willhite family.

Chace was very thankful for Boone's willingness to support the message in the bottle; she said she was inspired by the display of patriotism and pride that connected the Willhite family to Boone with the following sonnet:

SONNET FOR SAILORS

Arnold B. Willhite veteran mourned

Pearl Harbor, submarines, saw Treaty signed.

While comrades gave tribute, my idea was born.

A memorial bottle hearts to bind.

"Laura, a message off Cape Ann?" I asked.

Will be fun. Scotland bound?" Children agreed.

Harbormaster Rosemary joined in task.

Billy Lee offered to take it to sea.

Then United States Navy came to town.

The U. S. S. Boone anchored in Sandy Bay.

Commander Evans's crew with plan most sound

Launched bottle in Gulf Stream on its wavy way.

Meriden to Rockport, Gulf Stream water,

Scotland's coast through Navy's goodwill porter?

On May 28, 2008, Laura Willhite, the widow of the veteran Jack Willhite for whom the bottle was intended to remember, passed away. The last week she was alive she learned that the bottle had been recovered. According to Chace, the finding of the bottle made Willhites's last days happier then she could have possibly imagined. The entire Boone family is proud to have been a part of the message in the bottle story. The event symbolized patriotism and pride for those veterans who have risked their lives to maintain freedom for the American people.