The Oldest Message in a Bottle Ever Found Is 98 Years Old
A Scottish skipper has discovered the world’s oldest message in a bottle, beating the record previously held by a buddy of his
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Photo: funtik.cat
Andrew Leaper, a Scottish skipper, has discovered the world’s oldest message in a bottle. He found the bottle while on the same fishing vessel where another mate had set the previous record, for a bottle that had been floating in the ocean for 92 years and 229 days. Now, Leaper has broken his buddy’s Guinness World Record: his discovery turned out to be a 98-year old message in a bottle.
Leaper told the BBC, “It was an amazing coincidence. It’s like winning the lottery twice.”
Within the bottle, a postcard written in June 1914 by Captain CH Brown of the Glasgow School of Navigation promised the finder a reward of 6 pence. It had been part of a scientific experiment in which 1,890 such bottles were released, in a bid to chart currents around Scotland.
Leaper said his friend Mark Anderson, who set the previous record in 2006, was “very unhappy that I have topped his record.” Anderson “never stopped talking about it – and now I am the one who is immensely proud to be the finder of the world record message in a bottle.”
More from Smithsonian.com:
Message in a Bottle
The Wonders that Wash Ashore
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