Message In Bottle Found After 98 Years Near Shetland

An anonymous reader writes "A drift bottle released in June 1914 by Captain CH Brown of the Glasgow School of Navigation has been found. Part of a project to help map currents, 1,890 scientific research bottles were released around Scotland. Only 315 of them were ever recovered. From the article: 'Mr Leaper, 43, who found the bottle east of Shetland, explained: "As we hauled in the nets I spotted the bottle neck sticking out and I quickly grabbed it before it fell back in the sea. It was very exciting to find the bottle and I couldn't wait to open it."'"

Comments

Sixpence None The Richer?

[Cyrano de Maniac]

Yes, but was he awarded the promised six pence?

Re:Sixpence None The Richer?

[girlintraining]

Yes, but was he awarded the promised six pence?

When the original bottle and items inside are auctioned off, he'll make far more. Assuming he doesn't succumb to a case of stupidity and opens the bottle like the article suggests, in which case he deserves being whipped repeatedly by angry historians -- and the whip's price shall be six pence.

Re:Sixpence None The Richer?

[Chris Mattern]

Kiss Me!

Re:Sixpence None The Richer?

[Charliemopps]

"The bottle has been donated to a Shetland museum"

Well, at least he didn't open it.

Re:Sixpence None The Richer?

[girlintraining]

"The bottle has been donated to a Shetland museum"

I think there might be a typo here.

Re:Sixpence None The Richer?

[AchilleTalon]

Great deception. I expected the message being something like: That whisky was fucking good!

Neat

[Formalin]

Bottle looks to be in pretty good shape - I can't tell what the seal is, just cork?

I wonder if he'll get to collect the 6 pence finders fee. What's that in decimal... with interest?

Re:Neat

[gman003]

According to this, sixpence translates to 2.5p, or 0.025L (not even going to try using the right character, /. will eat it). And according to this PDF, the Pound was worth roughly 76 times more in 2005 (the year it was written) than it was in 1914. So it comes out to be about 2L, or about US$3.

Re:Neat

[thelexx]

"the Pound was worth roughly 76 times more in 2005 (the year it was written) than it was in 1914."

Less. The pound was worth ~76 times less in 2005 than in 1914. See the graphs on pages 18 and 19.

Re:Neat

[thelexx]

"But 1 L(1914) would buy you far more than 1 L(2005), so in that sense it is worth more."

Think about that for a minute.

1 in 1914 = 76 loaves of bread (just a number for example)
1 in 2005 = 1 loaf of bread

In absolutely no sense is it worth more now. It is very simple. If it were truly worth more now, in any way shape or form, you would be getting more than 76 loaves of bread for it.

Re:Neat

[rossdee]

Depends on what you are going to buy with it. Inflation isn't totally uniform. - How much did radios and other consumer electronics cost back then?

Re:Neat

[Inda]

One night, eight years ago, down on the Cornish coast, we drank this sickly drink called Dooleys. In a moment of madness we placed a scrap of paper in the bottle with my email address and the words "Just for fun". Our small boat was pushed into the English Channel and we sailed out a mile before I lobbed the bottle overboard. Stupidity knows no bounds.

A month later I recieved an email.

The bottle had travelled all of two miles down the coast in that time, through one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

A crappy little rubber seal protected the data inside. Maybe it's not so hard to believe a cork could do a better job. :)

So...

[msauve]

how do they know it was near Shetland for 98 years?

Re:So...

[icebike]

how do they know it was near Shetland for 98 years?

They obviously don't. In fact, unless there are some incredibly regular local current loops this bottle could have traveled a very long way.
These were designed to sink to some depth, (but obviously not to the bottom) and flow with the currents, and be below the depth where they
would likely be dashed on the rocks by waves.

Looking at a map of the Atlantic Currents its quite possible these bottles may have covered would be up to the arctic, back down along Greenland, Labrador, delivered to the North Atlantic Drift and back to Shetland. Probably many round such trips over the years.

Re:So...

[Kryptonian Jor-El]

It wouldn't be very useful. The air in the bottle would be representative of only that particular day, in that particular place. For example, if it were bottled by a wood fire stove, it would have much higher concentrations of CO2 than the average mass of air

On the back was written

[Jailbrekr]

BSD Is Dying

ping

[djl4570]

$ping 192.168.28.1

Pinging 192.168.28.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.28.1: bytes=32 time=3,092,644,800,000ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.28.1:
Packets: Sent = 1, Received = 1, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 3,092,644,800,000ms, Maximum = 3,092,644,800,000ms, Average = 3,092,644,800,000ms
$

Re:ping

[p0p0]

Shouldn't it be closer to:
$ping shetland.gov

Pinging shetland.gov with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from shetland.gov: bytes=32 time=3,092,644,800,000ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for shetland.gov:
Packets: Sent = 1,890, Received = 315, Lost = 1575 (83% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 3,092,644,800,000ms, Maximum = 3,092,644,800,000ms, Average = 3,092,644,800,000ms
$

Re:ping

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the average ping time is shorter (from the 314 recovered bottles), just the max value being 3Ts.

Re:ping

[drkim]

Still, better than my ISP...

Obvious joke here

[dkleinsc]

Unfortunately, The Police could not be reached for comment.

Re:Obvious joke here

[Chris Mattern]

However, there *were* reports of an SOS...

Re:Obvious joke here

[c0lo]

However, there *were* reports of an SOS...

Yes... actually a hundred billion of them... stingy luck to have found only one of them.

Re:Obvious joke here

[gman003]

One explanation, coming right up..

Re:Obvious joke here

[Trogre]

Man, you would have to have been living in a box or walking on the moon not to get that one.

Re:Obvious joke here

[Anonymous Coward]

Jeez, where have you been? Living at the bottom of some dark Scottish lake, or something I presume?

Re:Obvious joke here

[Kreigaffe]

I worked briefly with a 19 year old girl who had never heard of: David Bowie, Neil Young, Sid Vicious, James Brown, Pearl Jam, Janis Joplin, or Run DMC.

I very nearly wept.

Re:Obvious joke here

[Dripdry]

That's "have to be a man in a suitcase or...."
As a resident Police fanatic I can say unequivocally that they have no song called "living in a box." Wow, I can't believe I'm the snooty, uptight dork who feels So Lonely on this issue...
My apologies, but the Voices Inside My Head felt a deep-seated need to make things "right"

What can I say? Truth Hits Everybody.

Re:Obvious joke here

[raddan]

I work with a former Microsoft intern about whom I have a similar story. Microsoft plans a "special event" every summer for its interns, and they're often things like cruises or concerts. So I asked him-- what was your special event? He said, "Oh, it was just some wedding band or something. Totally boring." I later found out that it was Dave Matthews Band. Gah.

Re:Obvious joke here

[karbonforms]

Sid Viscous is long dead you nobber. Johnny Rotten (John Lydon) punts butter.

Re:Obvious joke here

[mug funky]

tricky thing to get the stats on really. it's sort of between two.

it's easy to rock the casbah if you live by a river.

Re:Obvious joke here

[guyniraxn]

Ha! That's the best description of Dave Matthews Band I've heard. I never did "get" them.

Long Term Storage

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember the story on this site about creating a time capsule to be opened in the future? And everyone was going on about various seals, gas interactions, acid free paper, etc.

Seems like a piece of paper stuck inside a bottle can last a hundred years.

Re:The context read .....

[Anonymous Coward]

Be sure to drink your Ovaltine...

The note said:

[geekoid]

First post!