London: A century-old message in a bottle, possibly the oldest ever found, has finally reached its destination.
Tossed into the North Sea sometime between 1904 and 1906, the bottle washed up on the beach in the German town of Amrum, and was found by a couple in April. Inside they found a postcard asking that it be sent to the Marine Biological Association of the UK — which they did.
The association said on Friday that the bottle was one of some 1,000 thrown into the North Sea as part of marine research more than 100 years ago. Inside each bottle was a postcard promising a shilling to anyone who returned it to the association, based in Plymouth.
Most of the messages were returned decades ago. The German couple got their shilling.
The bottle was thrown into the sea 108 years ago by British scientists, Telegraph.co.uk reported.
When Marianne Winkler found the message in April, she had no idea how old it would turn out to be.
“It is always a joy to find a message-in-a-bottle on the beach,” she told the Amrum News, a local website.
As they could not open the bottle they had to break the bottle.
The message, in English, German and Dutch, asked anyone who discovered the bottle to fill in some information on where and how they found it.
Designed specially to float just above the sea bed, so they would be carried by the currents deep below the surface, Bidder released the bottles as part of a project to find out about deep sea currents.
A bottle found after 99 years is believed to be the current record holder.
