The message in a bottle of 108 years ago is listed in the Guinness Book of Records

The bottle was part of a scientific experiment of 1904-1906

On April 17, 2015, retired Marianne Winkler, traveling across the Frisian islands in the North Sea, found a glass bottle on the shore of the island of Amrum. Inside lay a mysterious postcard and a piece of paper with the visible inscription "SPLIT". The finder was asked to send a postcard to the address indicated in the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth (United Kingdom), for which he was promised a reward of 1 shilling.

After a thorough study of documents and historical facts, representatives of the Guinness Book of Records now officially confirmed that this is the oldest message in the bottle of all time. The corresponding entry is made in the Book of records.

A glass bottle (hard to say, from a beer or milk) spent 108 years and 138 days at sea. She was part of an experiment conducted by the famous British marine biologist George Parker Bidder III in the years 1904-1906.
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At the beginning of the 20th century, before the advent of satellites, GPS and waterproof electronic trackers, Bidder released 1020 bottles from the east coast of England into the sea to check where they were going.

Inside each bottle he put instructions with instructions to break the bottle and mini-questionnaire in three languages: English, German and Dutch, to indicate the name of the finder, the date and place of the find, if the ship found it - the name of the vessel, etc.





At one time, the experiment brought results. Each year, on average, 55% of the bottles returned. They were found mainly by sailors. Due to this, Bidder was the first to prove that in the North Sea there is an undercurrent in the western direction.

George Parker Bidder III is known for his research on hydraulics and the invention of the so-called “bottom bottles”, which moved along with the flow at a depth of about a meter above the seabed, specifically to get into the fishing nets.


George Parker Bidder III

Nowadays, such studies are carried out by installing electronic beacons on fish.

In 2015, retired Marianna Winkler did the same thing as the sailors in the years 1904-1906: filled out a questionnaire and sent it to the Marine Biological Association of Great Britain.

Interestingly, Mr. Bidder was the president of the association from 1939-1945, so the secretary was confused about who the letter should be delivered to, the public relations officer at a scientific organization says .

Although Marianna was slightly late to conduct the experiment, but now she is the owner of the world record in the Guinness Book of Records. The previous record for the oldest message in the bottle was 99 years and 43 days, that artifact was part of a similar experiment.