Picking up “trash” on the beach, unexpectedly it is the oldest object in the world
When she saw the bottle, Tonya just thought it was an old item that could be used as decoration.
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| Message in a bottle found on Wedge Island on January 21. |
The world's oldest message in a bottle has just been found by two Australians, the New York Post reported.
Tonya Illman and her husband Kym Illman found the 132-year-old letter while walking on the beach at Wedge Island on January 21. At first, they thought it was simply an old wine bottle, which could be used as a decoration.
“It looked like a lovely old bottle, so I picked it up and thought maybe I could put it on a bookshelf,” Tonya told ABC.
After bringing it home, the Illman family discovered a piece of paper tied with string inside the bottle.
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| After bringing it home, the Illman family discovered a piece of paper tied with string inside the bottle. |
“Tonya tried to remove the string but the paper was quite fragile. So we put the letter in the microwave for five minutes to dry the paper,” Kym said.
The family then saw a message inside in German, written on June 12, 1886, asking the reader to contact the consulate if they found the note.
At first, the Illmans family did not believe what was on the paper was genuine. But it was eventually confirmed by the Western Australian Museum.
Ross Anderson, curator of marine archaeology at the museum, said the information in the letter matched the shipping records of a German ship called the Paula. The inscription also matched the handwriting in the ship's captain's log.
"Incredibly, there is a June 12, 1886 entry from the captain, stating that a bottle was thrown overboard," Anderson said.
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| Experts say the information in the letter matches the shipping records of a German ship called the Paula. |
From 1864 to 1933, German ships conducted an experiment in which they threw thousands of bottles with messages into the sea to track ocean currents.
Each message included the ship's coordinates, date, and name. Some 662 letters have been recovered, but no bottles have been found.
According to scientists, the sailors on the ship threw the bottle from the deck into the sea as they crossed the Indian Ocean, 950km from the Australian coast.
The record for the oldest message in a bottle was held by a 101-year-old bottle found in a German fisherman's net in 2014.
The message in a bottle found by the Illmans family will be on display at the museum for the next two years.
