A message in a bottle that was thrown overboard from a German ship 132 years ago has been discovered on a beach in Western Australia, setting a new world record as the oldest such message ever found.
Tonya Illman stumbled upon the gin bottle while walking in the dunes near Wedge Island in January. Initially thinking it was just rubbish, she picked it up because of its distinct, raised lettering, thinking it would look good on a bookshelf. Inside, she found a roll of paper printed in German, dated 12 June 1886. The find was later authenticated by the Western Australian Museum.
Ross Anderson, the museum’s assistant curator of maritime archaeology, confirmed that the bottle had been thrown from the German sailing ship Paula as it crossed the Indian Ocean, 950km from the Australian coast. The ship was participating in a 69-year German experiment that involved throwing thousands of bottles overboard to track ocean currents.
Each message included the ship’s coordinates, date, and name, which Anderson used to verify the find. He compared handwriting samples with entries in the captain’s meteorological journal, finding an entry for 12 June 1886 recording that a drift bottle had been thrown overboard. Experts at the German Naval Observatory confirmed the findings, beating the previous record of 108 years.
Kym Illman, Tonya's husband, said they dried the damp paper in the oven for five minutes. He added, 'I have a basic understanding of German and it said: could the finder please plot the coordinates where it was found, and the date it was found, and send it back.' Of the thousands of bottles jettisoned, 662 others from the same experiment have been found and returned, the most recent in 1934.
