I found a message in a bottle in Hamburg. Never did figure out what it says though. If anyone on HN is up for the challenge, here's a photo of it: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TximCkxHoliDmnwy1
132 year old message in a bottle found on West Australian beach
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Re: 132 year old message in a bottle found on West Australian beach
#72Did they use these historical artifacts for a photo shoot in the sand?
Considering it has spent 132 years floating in the ocean and then god knows how long sitting around in the sand what’s the harm?
Re: 132 year old message in a bottle found on West Australian beach
#73What time is it. Where am I. What is my name. Where am I from. Who is my captain. Where have I come from. Where am I going to. This note in a bottle knows more about itself than I do.
Well, it knows where it wants to go to. Arrival is not guaranteed. This may still be more than you and I know about ourselves, though.
Do I have to want to go somewhere? What if I’m already where I wanted to go?
Re: 132 year old message in a bottle found on West Australian beach
#74I am really amazed that a ships log from 132 years ago was retained and is still available. Is this a common thing?
There are a lot of historical records that you'd never expect to have survived for so long in various archives. There are massive archives of historical brewing data from various breweries in the UK dating back to the 1800s, this guy has a blog all about old British beer: http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com There are also parish records for births, deaths, and marriages going back centuries in the UK as well as taxati…
I wonder if in 200 years, they going to have people's browsing and location data from now. If yes that would be an unprecedented amount of records for historians.
Re: 132 year old message in a bottle found on West Australian beach
#75I found a message in a bottle in Hamburg. Never did figure out what it says though. If anyone on HN is up for the challenge, here's a photo of it: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TximCkxHoliDmnwy1
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Re: 132 year old message in a bottle found on West Australian beach
#76They didn't return it to the German Naval Observatory! The instructions were quite clear. I would have instantly mailed it in.
These days it's easier to send a faithful copy. The Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie has been informed:
http://www.bsh.de/de/Das_BSH/Presse/Pressearchiv/Pressemitte...
Re: 132 year old message in a bottle found on West Australian beach
#77I am really amazed that a ships log from 132 years ago was retained and is still available. Is this a common thing?
I guess that once it's archived, it tends to stay that way.
Unless it doesn't.
"Over time, all data approaches deleted, or public." -- Quinn Norton.
Libraries have various traditions of burning. Alexandria (probably several times). The U.S. Library of Congress, in 1814, 1851, and 1825.
http://www.accessible-archives.com/2013/01/the-other-fire-at...
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/22/this-day-in-politi...
Re: 132 year old message in a bottle found on West Australian beach
#78I don't see how it could "damp", yet in such good condition after such a long time. Ah right; ingress of moisture began just days or weeks before discovery. Very likely! Hoax/fake, I think.
The full WA Museum report ( http://museum.wa.gov.au/maritime-archaeology-db/sites/defaul...) puts the longevity of the paper down to the bottle likely remaining buried in a layer of damp sand for most of the intervening time.
Note that the bottle was found open, but half-filled with sand.
Re: 132 year old message in a bottle found on West Australian beach
#79I found a message in a bottle in Hamburg. Never did figure out what it says though. If anyone on HN is up for the challenge, here's a photo of it: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TximCkxHoliDmnwy1
Rotating your image such that the text is readable would be a useful modification.
Re: 132 year old message in a bottle found on West Australian beach
#80Here's the authentication report: http://museum.wa.gov.au/maritime-archaeology-db/sites/defaul...
"Upon his return to Germany and having been appointed as Director of the Deutsche Seewarte, Neumayer conceived and implemented the drift bottle experiment that would last from 1864 to 1933, and include thousands of bottles. Of all these jettisoned bottles only an estimated 8-10% (662 message slips) found their way back to Hamburg"
10% is not bad really.
Also, it gives you a rough estimate of the chance of your 'rescue' message ever reaching anyone.