London - When Adele Devonshire lost her camera while scuba diving off Scotland, she assumed she’d never see it again.
So she was astonished when it was found three years later washed up 600 miles away in Sweden – and still worked.
Mother-of-two Mrs Devonshire, 37, was diving off St Abbs, Berwickshire, in July 2013 when the clip holding her Fuji camera and its waterproof case snapped. She only realised it had gone when she resurfaced.
Lars Mossberg, 57, then found the camera on the shore of Gullholmen, a tiny Swedish island home to just 90 people, where he lives. The plastic case was covered in scratches but, incredibly, the camera inside still worked and did not even need to be charged.
Mr Mossberg, a father of two, found around 500 photos on the device. He then managed to track down Mrs Devonshire in just five hours thanks to Facebook. He posted some of the photos, of her father Roger and her husband Paul, on a Lost at Sea group on the website, which were recognised by one of her friends who had been on the diving trip.
Mrs Devonshire, an ecologist from Manningtree, Essex, said: “It’s mad really. I’m still shocked. To think that it had presumably been bobbing around in the sea for all that time – and still works – is remarkable. It just goes to show the power of the internet and the kindness of people.”
Mr Mossberg, a management consultant, said: “The more I think about [the camera] and the journey it has been on, the more exciting it is. It is really very, very good.”
He had spotted the camera among sea grass and shells on the rocky coastline during his daily morning stroll from his home in a fishing village, also called Gullholmen, on the 70-acre island on Sweden’s west coast.
Mr Mossberg said he left the camera for a while after finding it because he didn’t believe it would work. He posted the photos online , and was set to post the camera back to Mrs Devonshire. She said: “I never did buy a new one so I’m really looking forward to getting it back. It has been on quite the journey.”
Daily Mail