When I contacted the webmaster, who was indeed a practising clinical psychologist, he explained that he had launched the site a few years earlier, in June 2002. In its first year it had received some 8,500 visits. ‘What counts,’ he wrote to me, ‘is the hope that one’s internal suffering may be heard, sooner or later, just as when one seals a letter into a bottle. The hope of a reply counts for more than the reply itself.’

Some people, especially adolescents, seem to become addicted to the site itself, and visit it when they are feeling depressed and experience the need to confide their secrets to a stranger. When the webmaster receives an SOS he passes it on to someone who has signed up as being willing to receive messages. He himself only replies if the messages request information about psychology or psychotherapy.

Each site – American, British, French – seemed to represent clichéd views of its country of origin: the British small-scale and hand-crafted, the American with its face to the ocean waves and its initial customer-friendliness, and the French site intellectual and inward-looking.

The French webmaster was intrigued by my quest and also offered to help. The thought crossed my mind that perhaps he saw me as a patient in need of psychiatric attention. His email read:

You could send me a copy of the message your friend found. It is possible that the author has also left a similar message on the ‘letter in a bottle’ site. With a copy, I could compare the message with those on the site, and see if the same person has indeed left a message. Also, as I live in the north of France (Lille), I could try to contact people and organizations who deal with those who have lost a dear one. I think there is a strong possibility that the author of the SOS sent it from a beach in northern France or Belgium.

Chance and fate are sometimes troubling, so perhaps it would be possible to find this person.

I sent him several paragraphs from the letter and encouraged him to do what he could to further the search.

As he became more involved, he set up a page about the letter on his website, and cross-referenced it to a few other French sites with which he had contacts, including a French chansonnier. The request for help sat curiously amongst the discography of the pop star.

The quest began to preoccupy the French psychologist even when he went on holiday. On his return he wrote to me, ‘I think that the person lives somewhere near Calais or Boulogne. There is a place, Cap Gris Nez, whose scenery lends itself perfectly to the idea of throwing in a letter in a bottle. When I saw the place, I just had this feeling, this intuition.’ Cap Gris Nez is a headland with spectacular views over the White Cliffs of Dover, situated on the d940 between Calais and Boulogne. He had no proof other than his intuition, but he decided to throw some of his own professional resources at the problem, and I was delighted to encourage him.