It transpired that the bottle was one of over 1,000 released into the North Sea from 1904 to 1906 in an effort to test the strength of currents.
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The association is now looking into having the Guinness Book of Records recognize the message in a bottle as the oldest ever found. The current record-holder, released in 1914 for a scientific experiment, was found 99 years later. The Marine Biological Association was, of course, shocked to get the card from Winkler – they hadn’t received one in many years – but they kept their promise: they bought an old shilling online and gave it to Winkler.
Reports say they were trawled up by fishermen at the rate of 55 per cent per annum.
She told local paper the Amrum News the clear glass bottle had a note inside bearing only the words: “Break the bottle”.
Bidder, who wrote the letter, was a former president of the Marine Biological Association.
Marianne Winkler, a retired post office worker, was strolling down a beach in April on the German North Sea island of Amrum when she came across the 108-year-old bottle.
The couple filled out all the details, and send the postcard back to Plymouth in an envelope, to avoid it getting damaged in the post. By retrieving many bottles, he proved that the deep sea current flowed from east to west in the North Sea.
Marianne’s husband, Horst, tried to remove the message carefully but they were unable so they were forced to break it to read the message.
The letter was sent about more than hundred years ago by scientist George Parker Bidder.
“It was quite a stir when we opened that envelope, as you can imagine”, Guy Baker, communications director at the Marine Biological Association, said in an interview.
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But Dibber’s message-in-a-bottle would beat both of them.
