( CNN ) -- Here 's a reason to be hopeful if you ever find yourself stuck on a desert island : sending a message in a bottle could actually work . Just ask Corey Swearingen . A teenager in Ireland recently found the bottle and message he tossed off the Florida coast last year . `` I was excited and amazed that my bottle traveled all the way across the Atlantic Ocean , '' said Swearingen , 18 . But Swearingen 's message was n't an SOS . It was part of an experiment in his marine science class at Florida 's Melbourne High School that started 16 months ago . `` The goal was to basically see how the ocean currents work and how the Gulf Stream flows , and eventually it landed in Ireland , '' he said . Swearingen says 17-year-old Adam Flannery and his father made the discovery . `` He was walking along the shore , and he saw the bottle and opened it , '' Swearingen said . `` The message said , 'Please do not throw this away . This is a science experiment . ' '' The note directed the pair to contact science teacher Ethan Hall , which they did . By this time , Swearingen had graduated from high school and was attending Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton , Florida . Hall tracked him down through Facebook and sent him a message with the incredible news . Swearingen said he had yet to speak with the Irish duo who found the bottle , but was looking forward to hearing their take on the find . This is not the first time Hall 's experiment has proven successful , according to Swearingen . People in Georgia , South Carolina and Rhode Island have discovered bottles from other students in Hall 's class . Still , Swearingen did n't expect anyone would ever find his bottle . But he said the fact that it travelled thousands of miles ensured he learned a lesson from the experiment -- more than a year after taking part in it . `` I learned that the Gulf Stream goes really , really far away , '' he said .
A Florida teenager says people in Ireland found a bottle he threw into the ocean . The teen said it was thrown by his father who had been drinking and didn't know what to do with it. Other students ' bottles have been found in Georgia , South Carolina and Rhode Island .