ABC. By Gina McKeon
What is believed to be the world's oldest discovered message in a bottle has been presented to the sender's granddaughter, 101 years after it was first tossed into the sea in Germany.
People have been putting messages in bottles for much longer than a century: In 310 BC, Greek philosopher Theophrastus put sealed bottles into the sea as part of an experiment to prove the Mediterranean Sea was formed by the inflowing Atlantic Ocean.
Oceanography is a common reason drift bottles are thrown overboard, but there are also some romantic and surprising stories of sending messages across the sea throughout history.
Here are 10 of the most famous floating note discoveries:
FOUND BY: Konrad Fischer in the Baltic Sea, 2014
SENT FROM: Richard Platz in the Baltic Sea, 1913
TIME AT SEA: 101 years
A message in a bottle tossed in the sea in Germany 101 years ago, believed to be the world's oldest, was presented to the sender's granddaughter, a Hamburg museum has said.
A fisherman pulled the beer bottle with the scribbled message out of the Baltic Sea off the northern city of Kiel in March, Holger von Neuhoff of the International Maritime Museum in the northern port city of Hamburg said.
Mr Von Neuhoff said researchers were able to determine, based on the address, that it was 20-year-old baker's son Richard Platz who threw the bottle in the Baltic while on a hike with a nature appreciation group in 1913.
To read the other nine, click here to go to the ABC page.
