108 Year Old Message in a Bottle Found
The bottle was found on the shores of Germany and is now considered the oldest message-in-a-bottle to be found surpassing the one that was 99 years old.
When Mrs. Winkler, the woman who found the bottle, brought it to her husband, he unsuccessfully tried to open it. When he failed, he decided to do what the note on the inside said to do: "Break the bottle".
And there folks, was one of the dumbest things to have done.
The value of that bottle, unbroken, if sold at an auction, probably would have went into the tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Technology even exists that can read the rolled up message without even opening the bottle and still potentially determine its date. And if the bottle had to be damaged to retrieve the message, there are glass cutters that can slice off the top without completely destroying it.
After reading the message inside, it said "Return to Sender". Well almost. While no date was included on the message, it did have a return address: Marine Biological Association in Plymouth (UK). And it promised a reward of a shilling for returning the message. The Winklers returned the message and as it turned out, it was part of a research project between 1904 and 1906 to determine ocean currents.
The Marine Biological Association found a shilling coin on eBay and as promised sent it to the Winklers.
So in return for something worth potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars, they got a cheap coin. The only worse mistake now would be to throw the coin into Mickey Mouse's wishing well and hope for some dream to come true:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6gw5LnKeGU
(It's hilarious. Watch it)
And thus ends the story of an opportunity...lost...not at sea but in a kitchen.
The bottle was found on the shores of Germany and is now considered the oldest message-in-a-bottle to be found surpassing the one that was 99 years old.
When Mrs. Winkler, the woman who found the bottle, brought it to her husband, he unsuccessfully tried to open it. When he failed, he decided to do what the note on the inside said to do: "Break the bottle".
And there folks, was one of the dumbest things to have done.
The value of that bottle, unbroken, if sold at an auction, probably would have went into the tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Technology even exists that can read the rolled up message without even opening the bottle and still potentially determine its date. And if the bottle had to be damaged to retrieve the message, there are glass cutters that can slice off the top without completely destroying it.
After reading the message inside, it said "Return to Sender". Well almost. While no date was included on the message, it did have a return address: Marine Biological Association in Plymouth (UK). And it promised a reward of a shilling for returning the message. The Winklers returned the message and as it turned out, it was part of a research project between 1904 and 1906 to determine ocean currents.
The Marine Biological Association found a shilling coin on eBay and as promised sent it to the Winklers.
So in return for something worth potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars, they got a cheap coin. The only worse mistake now would be to throw the coin into Mickey Mouse's wishing well and hope for some dream to come true:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6gw5LnKeGU
(It's hilarious. Watch it)
And thus ends the story of an opportunity...lost...not at sea but in a kitchen.
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