Message in bottle chucked in sea in 1961 washes up on coast
This bottle was one of five released that year, and even contained a reward.
A message in a bottle has washed up on a shoreline 63 years after being thrown into the sea.
It was launched in 1961, the same year Yuri Gagarin became the first human to journey into space and when the Berlin Wall was built, dividing East and West Germany.
The message was tossed in the sea off Machias Seal Island in the Bay of Fundy between the US state of Maine and Nova Scotia in Canada. But it turned up on the northern tip of Cape Cod, near Boston some sixty years later.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada said it was a drift bottle that was used to track surface currents.
A spokesperson said: "Starting in 1922, researchers tracked surface currents by releasing bottles into the ocean, relying on people to let them know when and where bottles were found.
"This ‘old-school’ technology only helped understand the recovery locations and dates.
"Information on ocean currents helps us understand how to minimise potential human impacts, like oil spills.
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"Satellites and supercomputers are now providing better estimates of currents.”
This bottle was one of five released from the western side of the island in 1961. It even contained a note offering a reward of $1 if the finder informed researchers of its location, as reported by What's The Jam.
It’s unclear if the reward is still valid today.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada said: “We’ve come just a little way since 1961, don’t you think?”
- Jam Press
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