Message from another century! A Canadian man has set a new record after he found the world’s oldest message in a bottle, dating back to 1904, while taking a stroll on the beach.
Steve Thurber, from Courtenay, found the bottle still sealed on the shore of the secluded Schooner’s Cove in Tofino, Canada, earlier this week.
The area has been recently excavated as part of an invasive species restoration project.
Mr. Thurber did not want to open or break the bottle for fear of damaging the letter inside.
However, he was able to make out through the glass that the note was dated September 29, 1906 and was signed by Earl Willard, who was sailing from San Francisco to Bellingham aboard the Steamer Rainier when he threw the bottle into the ocean, 76 hours into the voyage.
It even lists Willard’s address in Bellingham in US, which is now a Railway museum, >globalnews.ca reported.
“Maybe there was only one [bottle] that the guy sent out and I found it. It is like one in a billion chances,” said Mr. Thurber.
The previous record for the oldest message in a bottle is one from 1914.
It was discovered, last year, by a fisherman in his nets while sailing east of the Shetland Islands, which lie off Scotland’s northern coast.
