Soccer ball lost in Nunavut waters recovered on Newfoundland beach

The sun had just begun to come up on the morning of May 30, when Newfoundland fisher Lee Croucher decided to get out of his boat and fetch the soccer ball he'd noticed on the beach a few days earlier.

Little did he know that the lonely ball he'd spotted in Beaumont, Newfoundland, on the south end of the province, had made an epic journey to get there – lasting some 10 years and more than 3,000 kilometres. 

"I have young daughters, and I was just going to get the ball [...] for them to play with," he said. "After I found the school name, then there was way more interest in the ball."

The seven letters – Ulaajuk – scrawled on the ball in black marker, didn't ring a bell, Croucher said, so he decided to Google them that evening.

"It came out with … Pond Inlet in northern Baffin island," he said. 

News spreads on social media

Nearly 3,000 kilometres to the north, Pond Inlet sits at the top of Baffin Island in eastern Nunavut. 

The community has two schools, including Ulaajuk Elementary, which welcomes students from kindergarten to Grade 6.

Suddenly, Croucher found himself fascinated by a territory he had never visited. 

News of his discovery spread rapidly among his family members, and a cousin in Hopedale, Nunatsiavut posted about it on Facebook.

Within days, the post had been shared hundreds of times. 

That's how the news made it to Ulaajuk Elementary School principal Sandra Rutledge in Pond Inlet. 

"I think I was most amazed [by] how far it traveled and that the sharpie was clear as day," Rutledge said.

She was especially excited that the post generated so much interest in the community. 

"We're proud that our name has gone viral on Facebook as well as [that] our soccer ball went all the way to Newfoundland," she added.

'Like a message in a bottle'

"We were all kind of laughing. It's like a message in a bottle. We wish we had put other messages on the soccer ball. Everyone is still in awe."

The writing on the ball appeared to be that of a former teacher, since retired, who got into the habit of labelling the school's belongings in black marker around 10 years ago, Rutledge said. 

The teacher did not want to be identified, but she confirmed to the principal that it was indeed her handwriting.

She also recalled to Rutledge a summer day several years ago when some students decided to see just how far into the water a ball would travel if they kicked it with all their might.

School staff have since tried to locate the student or students who came up with the idea. 

Rutledge believes the ball must've spent around ten years at sea.

"It was pretty interesting, you know, that it travelled that far," said Croucher, the fisher, who is familiar with the currents in the region.

"But I guess the Labrador current that runs south so …  it got caught up in that. That's where it would end up coming this way."

School plans to do it again

For now, the ball's future remains uncertain.

School staff would love to show it off in a display case at the school. But Croucher has no intention of parting with it, he said — at least for now.

He wants to be able to show it off as part of an epic family story.

In Pond Inlet, however, the situation has already generated so much excitement that the staff at Ulaajuk Elementary School say they plan to reproduce the experience at the start of the next school year – by launching two more soccer balls into the sea to see where they end up.