Australian Woman Finds the World’s Oldest Message In a Bottle From 1886 on a Wedge Island Beach

While walking on a Wedge Island beach during late January, photographer Tonya Illman found a pretty bottle that she thought would look nice on a shelf at her Lancelin, Western Australia home. Upon closer inspection Illman, along with friend Grace and son’s girlfriend Bree, discovered a note inside. When they returned home and dried out the document, they found very faint writing upon the page. Illman and her husband Kym decided to contact the Maritime Archeology division at the WA Museum to find out the specific details of this note. After a great deal of research, the Illmans eventually learned from where both the bottle and the note originated.

A note, placed in a bottle and thrown overboard on June 12, 1886 was found near Wedge Island, WA [Western Australia] on January 21, 2018. …The note stated the bottle was thrown from the German barque Paula while on a voyage from Cardiff, Wales to Macassar, Dutch East Indies which is now known as Indonesia. This was corroborated by Paula’s original meteorological journal (above left) held by the National Meteorological Service of the Federal Republic of Germany, which contained an entry recording the throwing of a bottle overboard by Captain O. Diekmann on 12 June 1886 at the exact co-ordinates on the note while on a voyage from Cardiff to Macassar.

via The Guardian