An otherwise normal stroll along the beach before Independence Day may have led one New Jersey resident to uncover a brand-new world record for the oldest message in a bottle ever found. The discovery was made on July 3 by Amy Smyth Murphy, who noticed something sticking out of the sand while walking along the shore at Corson’s Inlet State Park.
“I noticed it because the bottle was like a really nice aqua,” the greetings card designer told ABC7 New York.
But there may be more to this bottle than a pretty color. The bottle itself says “Barr & Brother Philadelphia”, with bottles from the same company posted to a valuation site dating back to before the turn of the 20th century.
Uncorking the bottle – a process which Smyth Murphy documented on TikTok, where she has also posted updates on her research into the bottle’s origins – uncovered papers that suggest a more precise date for the message inside the bottle, and one that could make it a record-breaker.
The handwritten note inside, accompanied by what appears to be a business card for a furnishing goods company run by a W.G. & J. Klemm, reads: “Yacht Neptune off Atlantic City NJ Aug 6-76”.
With these details in hand, delving into the archives of The Philadelphia Inquirer revealed that a company run by W.G. & J. Klemm, two brothers, had in fact existed during the late 1800s. Smyth Murphy’s investigations also found references made in the paper to a yacht named “Neptune” built in 1874 by a Captain Samuel Gale of the nearby Atlantic City.
All of these clues have led Smyth Murphy to conclude that the “Aug 6-76” in the note suggests it was written on August 6, 1876.
This would make it the oldest message in a bottle ever found, beating the current record-holder, discovered in Australia, by a solid 10 years.
Before we get too excited, however, this is the kind of thing that usually needs to be verified by other people, normally Guinness World Records. According to NJ.com, Smyth Murphy has applied for the verification process to take place, but that can take months – so it’ll be a while before we know for sure.
As for who wrote the message, that perhaps remains the most difficult of the mysteries to solve.
According to Smyth Murphy’s research into Captain Gale, his boat Neptune was a popular pleasure yacht that regularly took passengers out onto the Atlantic City Inlet. Any one of those passengers, or the captain himself, could’ve lobbed the bottle overboard.
Even if it’s quite the puzzle to solve, Smyth Murphy seems up for the challenge, telling nj.com: “I really like the mystery. I love the research.”
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