Russian sailor's message found in Alaska

A 50-year-old letter in a bottle from a Russian sailor has been found on the shores of western Alaska.

Tyler Ivanoff found the handwritten Russian letter while gathering firewood near Shishmaref about 966 kilometres northwest of Anchorage, television station KTUU reported.

Ivanoff shared his discovery on Facebook where Russian speakers translated the message to be a greeting from a Cold War Russian sailor dated June 20, 1969.

The message included an address and a request for a response from the person who finds it.

Reporters from Russian network, Russia-1, tracked down the original writer, Captain Anatoli Prokofievich Botsanenko, who was sceptical that it was his note until he saw his signature on the bottom.

The message was sent while the then 36-year-old was aboard the Sulak, Botsanenko said.

Botsanenko shed tears when the Russian television reporter told him the Sulak was sold for scrap in the 1990s.