Message in a bottle over a century old!

Message-in-bottle — This bottle, discovered on a German, may contain the world record for a recovered message.

April 17th, retired postal worker, Marianne Winkler, was walking along the shore of the German island of Amrum on the North Sea coast when she found something very curious on the beach. It was a well-sealed bottle with a message inside. The Winklers tried to get the bottle opened, but were finally forced to follow the directions to extract the paper: BREAK THE BOTTLE.

It turned out to be a post-paid postcard from The Marine Biological Assocation of the UK with instructions to send the postcard back for a 1-shilling reward.

This is an image of a message that was found in a bottle from the The Marine Biological Association of the UK — Front of postcard found in the bottle.
Photo by Marine Biological Association of the UK

Back-of-postcard — Back of postcard found in the bottle.
Photo by Marine Biological Association of the UK

It’s likely that the price of postage has gone up since this bottle was dropped into the water sometime between 1904 and 1906. It was one of nearly 1,000 bottles released as part of an study on currents.

“We were very excited,” Guy Baker, a spokesman for the group, told AP, London. “We certainly weren’t expecting to receive any more of the postcards.”

Photo of front and back of 1906 Shilling coin — Example of a 1906 Shilling Coin

To reward the Winklers for their find, the Association sent them a shilling from the period which they found on E-Bay.

Information about this find is currently being reviewed by Guinness for a possible world record.