Inverness engineer who lost wallet sailing on Cromarty Firth during outing with Cromarty Boating Club is reunited with it – and all its contents – thanks to Buckie fisherman
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An amateur sailor has hailed the miracle return of his wallet after it was swept out to sea – and the generosity of the fisherman who found it and would not even take a reward.
In a tale that almost defies belief David Hawthorn (59) lost the wallet – containing bank cards, driving licence and £70 in cash – while out on the choppy waters of the Cromarty Firth, in his first outing with Cromarty Boating Club.
He did not realise it was missing until he got back to his car and then realised it must have been lost to the waves after being unable to find it anywhere in or around the vehicle or between there and the boat.
“I must have lost it out at sea, at the entrance to the harbour,” he said.
“The sea was a little rough so we were not out for long.
“It was my first time out as a member of the club with fellow sailor Graeme Findlay, on Mynet.
“We turned round before the entrance to Cromarty, so I know we were not out too far.”
Accepting it was gone and taking appropriate steps to cancel and replace all his cards he was then stunned to receive an out of the blue phone call from a Buckie fisherman 20 days later to tell him he had recovered the wallet after it got hauled up in his nets.
Not just the wallet itself but all of its contents, including the cash, were still intact.
“The fisherman told me he found it in his nets about four miles out off the coast,” Mr Hawthorn said.
“That seems a fairly strange location to me considering where I lost it, so I will need to check the maps to find out how it got there.
“My wife had replaced my wallet and I had cancelled the majority of cards, but it was great to get my driving licence back, even just to cut it in half.
“And of course it is quite amazing to get it back at all considering how I lost it.”
During the brief surprise conversation with the fisherman Mr Hawthorn, who owns two engineering companies, forgot to ask the finder’s name.
However the Good Samaritan handed the wallet in to Denholm Seafoods in Peterhead – in a strange coincidence a company that Mr Hawthorn, who owns two engineering companies, provides services to.
Retrieving it from them, inside the wallet was a note revealing the name of the finder, a Ryan Smith who works aboard the Chloe Ella registered as BCK 215.
Mr Hawthorn said: “I had asked the finder to keep the £70 as way of a thank you for returning my wallet, but he has not kept it, he has returned the full amount.
“If I cannot give him anything for his kindness then I will be donating it to the RNLI.
“It really is quite an incredible story.
“I do not have the fisherman’s phone number to say thank you, so I want to do it through the pages of the newspaper!”
