Posted on 09/06/2012 1:48:48 PM PDT by Red Badger
A Scottish skipper has found the oldest message ever in a bottle at sea, Guinness World Records said.
According to the record-keeping organization, Andrew Leaper, skipper of the Shetland fishing boat "Copious," made the discovery on April 12 when hauling in his nets in the North Sea off the coast of Shetland.
He later learned that the message in bottle had been adrift for 97 years and 309 days. This surpasses the previous record by more than five years.
Amazingly, it was Leaper's friend Mark Anderson who set the previous record in 2006 by retrieving another Scottish bottle as he was skippering the same boat.
"I spotted the bottle neck sticking out and I quickly grabbed it before it fell back into the sea," Leaper said.
"It was an amazing coincidence that the same Shetland fishing boat that found the previous record-breaking bottle six years ago also found this one. It's like winning the lottery twice," Leaper said.
Labeled as drift bottle 646B, the record-breaking bottle contained a postcard asking the finder to write down the date and location of the discovery and return it to the "Director of the Fishery Board for Scotland." The postcard promised a reward of six pence.
The water-tight glass bottle was released on June 10, 1914 by Captain C H Brown of the Glasgow School of Navigation.
It was one of 1,890 scientific research bottles specially designed to sink downwards and float close to the seabed.
Each contained the same postcard asking the finder to record the date and location and return it for the six pence reward.
"Drift bottles gave oceanographers at the start of the last century important information that allowed them to create pictures of the patterns of water circulation in the seas around Scotland," Bill Turrell, head of Marine Ecosystems with Marine Scotland Science, said.
He added that the conclusions of those pioneering oceanographers were right in many respects.
NEWS: Plastic Bottle Boat to Complete Pacific Journey
"For example, they correctly deduced the clockwise flow of water around our coasts. However, it took the development of electronic instruments in the 1960s before the true patterns of current flows, and more importantly what causes them, were unlocked," Turrell said.
Of the batch released in 1914, 315 bottles have been found so far. Captain Brown's original log, now held by Marine Scotland Science in Aberdeen, is still updated each time a bottle is tracked down.
"It's amazing that nearly 98 years of bottles are still being returned to the Marine Laboratory -- and in such fantastic condition," Scottish environment secretary Richard Lochhead said.
"With many bottles still unreturned there is always the chance in the coming years that a Scottish drift bottle will once again break the record," Lochhead said. Photos: Sending out a message in a bottle. The record-breaking bottle was one of 1,890 scientific research bottles specially designed to sink downwards and float close to the seabed. It was released on June 10, 1914. Credit: Kohn33/Wikimedia Commons; -- The oldest message ever in a bottle at sea - adrift for 97 years and 309 days. Credit: Scottish Government.
I have a friend who was messing around an old house looking for old stuff found one of those old glass top wire snap on canning jars, he opened it up when he noticed a small scrap of paper in it, when the top came off he said whewwww what a smell pulled the paper out and read,,
I farted in this jug June 3 1864
Signed Johnny Reb
Wonder if Obama stashed his birth certificate in one of these to keep it away from prying eyes until next century.
Check your numbers! LOL!
“Sadly, anyone sending out a message in a bottle nowadays would probably be fined and imprisoned for 30 days.”
No, if you are a mile or so off shore, it’s perfectly legal to chunk stuff overboard.
I go deep sea fishing about 75 miles offshore 2-3 times a year, and my daughters have always had me throw message in a bottle over — with letter and “forever” stamp lately.
None have come back yet.
And here all this time I've been told it was in the toilet of the Starship Enterprise.
My son and I set one adrift off NC in 2003. No reply yet...
What can I say? Does the public school education defense apply?
I’ve been here in Charlotte all week. I brought along a couple of boxes of cheapo brass lamps. The ones that look like Aladin’s lamp. I’ve been dropping them all over the convention. Inside the lamps is a note that reads
“I am the genie of the lamp! Stick the spout of this lamp up your ass, and I will give you three wishes!”
Well, I put superglue on the spout. You ought to see the hospital emergency room.
“Wait! Don’t pull it out yet! I want to sleep with Bill Clinton!”
Or show it to Rick Harrison on Pawn Stars. I found something!
Heck no, he'd have to call in an expert to verify the age of the bottle and then offer you 27 cents for it.
Are you sending out an SOS?
Oh ... this should definitely be a glyph.
Ping
|
|
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
Thanks DogByte6RER. |
|
|
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.