A man from Singapore has been reunited with photos he thought were lost forever after his camera was found on the sea bed in Australia by a British ice swimmer.
Mr Fitzgerald, who lives in the UK, was swimming in Balmoral Bay, Sydney, in 2015 when he discovered the camera – which was beyond repair, though the memory card still worked.
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On it was a picture of someone wearing a Marina 21K Finisher t-shirt, so he posted the image on Facebook hoping that someone would claim the card. Mr Lisheng, who lives in Singapore, didn't see the post until five years later after searching for himself online.
In total the SD card contained almost 4GB of photographs dating all the way back to 2011 – and the memories that have been returned to Mr Lisheng are priceless.
"I've been swimming across the globe and you find a lot of things, most often gold balls," said Mr Fitzgerald in an interview with the BBC. "I like to do the right thing and return objects to where they belong."
Since the SD card was such a miraculous discovery, Mr Lisheng didn’t want to risk having it sent to Singapore. Instead, he waited until he had to come to a wedding in the UK where he met up with Mr Fitzgerald to collect the card.
We've experienced SD cards corrupting for no apparent reason, so it’s an incredible thing to think that Mr Lisheng's memory card was still able to be read after being submerged in salt water for so long.
Mr. Lisheng and Mr. Fitzgerald have vouched to remain friends following this miraculous encounter and Mr. Fitzgerald hopes to visit Mr. Lisheng in Singapore one day.
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