132 Year Old Note inside An Old Bottle, Discovered by LightHouse Officials in Southern Scotland
A note, dated 4 September 1892, was discovered in a Scotland lighthouse, while staff were involved in a routine inspection. The note listed the names of engineers/ lighthouse keepers who were involved in fixing a light inside the Corsewall Lighthouse.
It was an incredibly emotional moment when engineers discovered a hidden message inside an old bottle, concealed within the walls of Corsewall Lighthouse in Southern Scotland.
What makes the message so intriguing is that it is 132 years old, with the date marked as 4 September 1892.
It was Ross Russell, a mechanical engineer working for the Northern Lighthouse Board, who found the 8-inch bottle while removing some panels in the cupboard. The team used a makeshift tool- a rope attached to a broom handle- to retrieve it.
The letter is believed to be the first message in a bottle ever to be discovered inside a Scottish light-house.
The note has been written in quill and ink while the bottle is made of coarse glass. It contains the names of three engineers who fixed a new kind of light inside the 100-foot tower years ago, as well as the names of the three lighthouse keepers who were present at that time.
The old note was retrieved very carefully by current lighthouse keeper Barry Miller.
“It was so exciting, it was like meeting our colleagues from the past. It was actually like them being there," Miller told BBC News Scotland. "It was like touching them. Like them being part of our team instead of just four of us being there, we were all there sharing what they had written because it was tangible and you could see the style of their handwriting.”
“You knew what they had done. You knew they had hidden it in such a place it wouldn't be found for a long, long time,” he said.
The note reads: "This lantern was erected by James Wells Engineer, John Westwood Millwright, James Brodie Engineer, David Scott Labourer, of the firm of James Milne & Son Engineers, Milton House Works, Edinburgh, during the months from May to September and relighted on Thursday night 15th Sept 1892.
“The following being keepers at the station at this time, John Wilson Principal, John B Henderson 1st assistant, John Lockhart 2nd assistant.
“The lens and machine being supplied by James Dove & Co Engineers Greenside Edinburgh and erected by William Burness, John Harrower, James Dods. Engineers with the above firm.”
Russell said he and his team would put the bottle back into its original hiding place along with a fresh message written by them. Who knows, someone may again stumble upon the note, 132 years from now, thereby making this remarkable story more intriguing.