An old, unusual brown glass bottle has been found on a beach on Wedge Island, an interesting location on the west coast of Western Australia, with the Indian Ocean lapping its shores. Wedge Island is approx. 180 kms north of Perth. This gives this find a local interest to me, but I think it is also of international interest. The bottle was thrown overboard from a German mercantile ship in 1886 in a deliberate attempt to see where the ocean currents would take it. That makes the bottle and the message inside, 132 years old. Alain here on the forum had shared with me a news article which was written in French, so I couldn't read it. However, I found this radio programme in English that explores the find and the import of it. The actual message inside the bottle is in German, and the finder of the bottle (if found back in the 1880's) was supposed to send it back to Germany for verification. They think the bottle washed up fairly early on in its journey and stayed partially buried on the beach for many years until someone picked it up.
Radio programme was RN Drive (Radio National - ABC Australia) presented by Patricia Karvelas.
(Even as a compressed file, the MP3 is too big to post here, so use the hyperlink ("Listen as maritime archaeology expert...") which will take you to the RN page, you can "Listen Now" or if you click "View Full Episode" you will need to scroll down the page slightly to see the corresponding link for the story.)
What’s in the oldest known message in a bottle?
You’re walking down the beach, and you see an old bottle sticking out of the sand. Would you leave it buried or stop to pick it up?
Tonya Illman chose the latter, and discovered the oldest known message in a bottle, half-buried at a beach in Western Australia.
The bottle was thrown overboard from the German sailing barque Paula in 1886, as part of an experiment to better understand ocean currents.
The message, written in German, asked the finder to write when and where the bottle had been found, and then return it.
Listen as maritime archaeology expert Ross Anderson tells RN Drive why the find is so extraordinary.
Here is the newspaper article Alain sent me:
Radio programme was RN Drive (Radio National - ABC Australia) presented by Patricia Karvelas.
(Even as a compressed file, the MP3 is too big to post here, so use the hyperlink ("Listen as maritime archaeology expert...") which will take you to the RN page, you can "Listen Now" or if you click "View Full Episode" you will need to scroll down the page slightly to see the corresponding link for the story.)
What’s in the oldest known message in a bottle?
You’re walking down the beach, and you see an old bottle sticking out of the sand. Would you leave it buried or stop to pick it up?
Tonya Illman chose the latter, and discovered the oldest known message in a bottle, half-buried at a beach in Western Australia.
The bottle was thrown overboard from the German sailing barque Paula in 1886, as part of an experiment to better understand ocean currents.
The message, written in German, asked the finder to write when and where the bottle had been found, and then return it.
Listen as maritime archaeology expert Ross Anderson tells RN Drive why the find is so extraordinary.
Here is the newspaper article Alain sent me:
