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A CENTURY-OLD message in a bottle, possibly the oldest ever found, has finally reached its destination.
Tossed into the North Sea sometime between 1904 and 1906, the bottle washed up on the beach on the German island of Amrum, and was found by a couple in April. Inside they found a postcard asking that it be sent to the Marine Biological Association of the UK — which they did.
“We were very excited,” Guy Baker, a spokesman for the group, said. “We certainly weren’t expecting to receive any more of the postcards.”
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Baker said the bottle was one of some 1,000 released into the North Sea by researcher George Parker Bidder, who later became the association’s president. The bottles were weighed down to float just above the sea bed, and used as part of a study into the movement of sea currents.
Inside each bottle was a postcard promising a “one shilling reward” to anyone who returned it to the association, along with information about where and when they found the bottle. Most bottles were trawled up by fishermen and returned decades ago, Baker said.
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.
Meanwhile, an old shilling has been sent to the couple who found the bottle.
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“A MAN WAS arrested yesterday after being held by staff of a shop which he had robbed.
The incident occurred on the Old Swords Road in Santry earlier today.” The guards are getting good if they can predict the crime before it even happens!!
@Joe Conlon: see it happened yesterday but the guards didn’t show up til today. That’s where the timeline is getting mixed up. The staff and people organised shift changes to hold him for the 24 hours that it took for the guards to arrive.
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