A message from a century ago found in the Baltic Sea

Today we continue with the theme of the Baltic Sea and bottles. At the weekend we gave you some details about a Selters stoneware water bottle discovered by archaeologists, and today we are going to tell you about a leaf in a bottle that has been wandering in the Baltic Sea for over a hundred years!

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In the waters of the Bay of Kiel, local fisherman Konrad Fischer (a great name for a fisherman, by the way), had an unusual catch. In his hands fell a bottle with a letter that had been “sent” 101 years ago. This is where things start to get really interesting.

On 17 May 1913 a letter-postcard in a bottle was thrown into the sea by 20-year-old Richard Platz, son of a baker. It was a short request to the finder to send it back to the sender, to Berlin.

Due to the age and unusual nature of the find, Fischer tried to sell it on the auction site ebay and wanted to invest the money in his boat. At this point, however, something unexpected happened.

The researchers who investigated and monitored the whole case managed to reach and make contact with the great-granddaughter of the sender, Mrs Angele Erdmann. The woman was completely surprised, because not only did she not know anything about the bottle, but she had never met her ancestor either.

As soon as she was granted the rights to the find, the auction was stopped. You could say it was at the last minute, because there were only a few minutes left until the end of the auction and the price had already reached €3660!

In accordance with Mrs Erdmann’s wishes, a letter from her ancestor will end up in the collection of the Maritime Museum in Hamburg. It is a valuable exhibit, as it is believed to be the oldest letter in a bottle in history. The previous one was dated 1914 and was fished out 98 years after it was “sent”.

Source: theguardian.com