Oldest known message in a bottle washes ashore in Germany

A retired postal worker in Germany stumbled upon what's believed to be the oldest known message in a bottle ever found, The Telegraph reports. The artifact, thrown into the North Sea roughly 108 years ago by Britain's Marine Biological Association, was discovered by Marianne Winkler in April when she was walking with her husband. Inside the bottle, an outward-facing paper instructed them to "break the bottle," and inside, a postcard asked to be filled out with information pertaining to where and how the bottle was discovered. In return, the postcard promised a shilling.

"We did as it asked, and the story took its course," Winkler said.

The Marine Biological Association was, of course, shocked to get the card from Winkler. The group had released bottles around 1906 in an attempt to chart deep sea currents. Almost all of the other bottles were recovered mere months after being set to sea.

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The record for the oldest message in a bottle was formerly held by a bottle picked up by a trawler in 2013; it was 99 years and 43 days old. In addition to being the new record holder, Winkler was also given her shilling.