132 yr. old message in a bottle

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World's oldest-known message in a bottle found on WA beach after 132 years

A Perth family has made an extraordinary historical discovery after becoming bogged on a West Australian beach.

Tonya Illman was walking across sand dunes just north of Wedge Island, 180 kilometres north of Perth, when she noticed something sticking out of the sand.

"It just looked like a lovely old bottle, so I picked it up thinking it might look good in my bookcase," she said.

But Mrs Illman realised she had likely uncovered something far more special when out fell a damp, rolled up piece of paper tied with string.



"My son's girlfriend was the one who discovered the note when she went to tip the sand out," she said.

"We took it home and dried it out, and when we opened it we saw it was a printed form, in German, with very faint German handwriting on it."

The message was dated June 12, 1886, and said it had been thrown overboard from the German sailing barque Paula, 950km from the WA coast.

After conducting some of their own research online, the Illman family were convinced they had either made an historically significant discovery or fallen victims to an elaborate hoax.




German experiment in Dutch gin bottle
Between 1864 until 1933, thousands of bottles were thrown overboard from German ships, each containing a form on which the captain would write the date, the ship's coordinates and details about its route.

It was part of an experiment by the German Naval Observatory to better understand global ocean currents.

More at site


 
Great story. Wish there has been an interesting message instead of just a Sea current expiroment at the time.
 
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Great story. Wish there has been an interesting message instead of just a Sea current expiroment at the time.
I like these kind of stories too. Who remembers the movie " Message in a bottle" ? The message is not hundreds of years, but it was a good movie.
 
I like these kind of stories too. Who remembers the movie " Message in a bottle" ? The message is not hundreds of years, but it was a good movie.
The one by Nicholas Sparks? That one was good but has a sad ending.