| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
98-Year-Old Message In Bottle Sets World Record
World record as message in bottle found after 98 years near Shetland
The bottle has been donated to a Shetland museumA Scottish skipper has set a new world record after finding a message in a bottle 98 years after it was released.
Andrew Leaper’s discovery beat the previous record for the longest time a bottle has been adrift at sea by more than five years.
And he found the bottle while skippering the same fishing boat which had set the previous record, the Shetland-based vessel Copious.
Mr Leaper said: “It was an amazing coincidence.”
The find has been confirmed as a new record by Guinness World Records.
The drift bottle – containing a postcard which promised a reward of six pence to the finder – was released in June 1914 by Captain CH Brown of the Glasgow School of Navigation.
It was in a batch of 1,890 scientific research bottles which were specially designed to sink to help map the currents of the seas around Scotland when they were returned. Only 315 of them have been found.
Mr Leaper, 43, who found the bottle east of Shetland, explained: “As we hauled in the nets I spotted the bottle neck sticking out and I quickly grabbed it before it fell back in the sea.
“It was very exciting to find the bottle and I couldn’t wait to open it.
“It’s like winning the lottery twice.”
