World ‘oldest’ message in bottle discovered on German island

A message in a bottle that washed up on a beach in Germany more than 108 years after it was thrown into the sea is believed to be the world’s oldest. Marianne’s husband, Horst, tried to remove the message carefully but they were unable so they were forced to break it to read the message.

According to the association’s communications director, Guy Baker, most of the bottles were found within months after they were released. Inside was a postcard with instructions printed in three languages, English, German and Dutch.

The couple has stated that they broke the bottle as soon as they saw that there was a message inside it. The postal card was signed by George Parker Bidder, who promised a shilling to the finder of the bottle who returned the message to the UK Marine Biological Association (MBA) where it belonged.

In addition, they had the wonderful opportunity to get their hands on one of the messages that were sent by MBA’s president George Parker Bidder as part of his marine research program. Marianne Winkler’s feelings were much more powerful when she first spotted the bottle on the German beach of Amrum.

Back then, however, the bottles helped Bidder prove that deep sea currents flowed following an east-to-west direction in the North Sea.

Once at the association, staff recognised the bottle was one of 1,020 released into the North Sea between 1904 and 1906 as part of a project to test the strength of currents.

Inside each of the bottles, was a postcard that promised a reward of one shilling to anyone finding the bottle and returning it to the association, together with information about when and where it was found.

The association has looked into whether the record could be recognized as the oldest ever message in a bottle. Some weeks ago, some other researchers have found a site similar to Stonehenge, revealing secrets about the ways our ancestors used to live.

This is an image of a message that was found in a bottle from the The Marine Biological Association of the UK made available on Friday August. 21 2015. The current record is held by a message that was sent 99 years and 43 days ago.

Baker says they are not sure if the bottle has been tossing around in the ocean the entire time, or if it has spent numerous years buried under the sand.