Message in a bottle, promising finder a shilling, bobs up after 108 years
When the distinguished marine biologist threw his message in a bottle into the sea, asking whoever found it to contact him, he wasn’t expecting a speedy response. Which is just as well, because it took just over 108 years – now officially confirmed by Guinness World Records as the oldest such message in the world.
The German woman who found it has been given the reward promised in 1908, by the scientific institution which has inherited the debt of honour: a shilling.
The bottle was among more than 1,000 thrown into the North Sea in batches by George Parker Bidder, as part of his research into the patterns of currents. This one was part of a batch from 30 November 1906, and was found 108 years, four months and 18 days later in 2015 by a retired German postal worker, Marianne Winkler, on holiday on Amrun, one of Germany’s North Frisian islands.
snip
The card promised what had been in 1908 the reasonably handsome reward of a shilling – most were gratefully claimed within the year by fishermen.
link:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/19/message-bottle-washed-ashore-108-years-worlds-oldest
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