While diving off the coast of Barbados, Alex Davis found a ring belonging to an alumnus of McMaster University in Canada. Morgan Perigo, 83, lost the jewel in 1977.
He thought she was lost forever. The day before his 83rd birthday, Morgan Perigo, a Canadian living in Ontario, received an unexpected gift to say the least: his graduation ring, lost almost 50 years ago, carefully wrapped in a package placed on his doorstep .
On October 16, Alex Davis, a 34-year-old fisherman, was diving in the waters of Barbados, an island in the Caribbean Sea, when he saw a strange, sparkling object using his metal detector. in the sand.
It was a gold ring adorned with a dark red gemstone. Returning to the surface, Alex Davis noticed a funny inscription on the ring: “McMaster University 1965” and the initials “FMP”. He now had enough information to try to find his owner.
“We had the school, the year we graduated and three initials,” Alex Davis told CNN.
The ring lost in 1977
Launched in search of the mysterious owner of the ring, Alex Davis first consulted the website of McMaster University located in Hamilton, Ontario (Canada), but without success.
After contacting the university's alumni office, Alex Davis finally got his answer. The initials matched those of Frederick Morgan Perigo, an alumnus of the Class of 1965.
“The worry we had now was whether he was still alive, because 1965 was a long time ago,” Karen McQuigge, the director of McMaster's alumni office, told CNN.
Contacted by McMaster University, Morgan Perigo said he had lost this ring during a family trip to Barbados in 1977. While he was helping his son who had been knocked down by a wave, the ring had slipped from the finger before falling into the ocean.
“This ring had been lost for some time, longer than I have been on this earth,” Alex Davis told the Washington Post, stunned by Morgan Perigo’s story.
A “wonderful gift”
As a sign of fate, Alex Davis found Morgan Perigo's ring just a few days before her birthday. “This story couldn't be more beautiful. Not only did we find her after 47 years at the bottom of the sea, but also, a week before her birthday,” rejoiced the diver.
Without delay, Alex Davis rushed to ship the ring from Barbados to Canada so that it reached Morgan Perigo on October 22, one day before his birthday.
“What a wonderful, unexpected gift for my 83rd birthday,” said Frederick Morgan Perigo at McMaster University.
For Alex Davis, the thrill of solving a decades-old mystery was more than satisfying. He also said he was ready to embark on new investigations if he were to find other lost treasures.
