Oldest message in a bottle found in WA

Oldest message in a bottle found in WA

The world's oldest known message in a bottle has been found half-buried at a West Australian beach nearly 132 years after it was tossed overboard into the Indian Ocean.

The dark green glass bottle, which measured less than nine inches long and three inches wide, was found by Tonya Illman near Wedge Island, 180 kilometres north of Perth, in January.

It had been flung from the German sailing barque Paula in 1886 as part of a 69-year official experiment to better understand global ocean currents and find faster, more efficient shipping routes.


The message in a bottle was discovered near Wedge Island.

The message in a bottle was discovered near Wedge Island.

Photo: Supplied

According to a museum press release on Tuesday, Ms Illman and a friend were walking along the dunes when she saw it near where her son's car had become bogged in soft sand.

"It just looked like a lovely old bottle so I picked it up thinking it might look good in my bookcase," she said.


After some research and excitement, the family - not knowing if what they found was "historically significant or a very inventive hoax" - took their discovery to the museum.

The bottle was tossed from the German sailing barque Paula in 1885.


Photo: Supplied

Experts there took detailed measurements of everything from the opening of the bottle to the twine wrapped around the yellowed paper inside of it.

There was no cork and researchers believe it may have dried out, shrunk and became dislodged at some point.

The bottle is now on display after being found by Tonya Illman and her partner (pictured).


Photo: Twitter / @stampymichael


On the paper were two significant details: the date June 12, 1886, and the name of the ship.


An entry in the Paula's meteorological journal written by the captain detailed the bottle being tossed overboard on the same date listed on the paper. The handwriting also matched his, down the extra curl in his Cs.

The museum's report lauds the discovery's scientific significance.

"Ocean current and drift patterns are still not completely understood," it reads.

"The need to understand long-term climate change patterns has also seen historic data, such as that recorded in Paula's meteorological journal and other 19th century ships' logbooks, added as datasets into global climate models."

The report links the bottle to German scientist George von Neumayer who implemented a drift-bottle experiment from 1864 to 1933 that involved thousands of bottles being thrown overboard with pre-printed message slips inside.

Ship captains were expected to write in details on one side of the paper - the date it was jettisoned, the co-ordinates, the name of the ship, its home port and travel route.


Only 662 message slips were returned and none of the bottles.

The Wedge Island find takes that total to 663 and is the only known example of the type of bottle used.

The last bottle and note to be found was in 1934 in Denmark.

The previous world record for the oldest message in a bottle was 108 years, four months and 18 days between jettison and discovery.

Ms Illman has lent the bottle to the museum to display for the next two years.

AAP, The Washington Post

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