World’s oldest message in a bottle came from a Dutch jenever distillery

Photo: WA Museum

A couple from Perth in Australia have found the world’s oldest message in a bottle known so far – in a bottle which came from a Dutch jenever distillery.

The message and the bottle, dating from 1886, was found by the couple during a walk along the beach. It states that the bottle was thrown 950 kilometres of the west coast of Australia from the German sailing ship Paula, which was travelling from Cardiff to Makassar in Indonesia.

Between 1864 and 1933, German captains threw thousands of bottles overboard as part of research into currents and shipping routes, according to officials at the Western Australian Museum, which researched the find.

The bottle once contained jevener – Dutch gin – made by the Daniel Visser & Zonen company in Schiedam.

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