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message-in-bottle-lighthouse-scotland.html

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Engineers Discover a 132-Year-Old Message in a Bottle in a Scottish
Lighthouse

Mechanical engineers inspecting a lighthouse found a surprising
message: a handwritten missive from workers of another age.

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A Century-Old Message in a Bottle Found at a Scottish Lighthouse

Mechanical engineers found an old glass bottle with a message in a
cavity in a wall at Corsewall Lighthouse in southwest Scotland.

    "Oh, oh, oh. Yeah, it's got proper [unclear], handwriting as
    well. Look at that." "Let's see." "No way." "Aye." "No way." "The
    following being the keepers at the station at this time. I can't
    -- my hands are shaking. My hands are shaking. I know they're the
    keepers -- because I've got their journals. John Wilson,
    principal; John B. Henderson, assistant; and John Lockhart,
    second assistant."

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Mechanical engineers found an old glass bottle with a message in a
cavity in a wall at Corsewall Lighthouse in southwest Scotland.Credit
Credit...Northern Lighthouse Board
Isabella Kwai

By Isabella Kwai

Reporting from London.

Published Nov. 15, 2024Updated Nov. 16, 2024

After two centuries of faithfully guiding sailors around a blustery
headland in southwest Scotland, the lighthouse needed some attention.

Ross Russell, a mechanical engineer, was helping refurbish the
Corsewall Lighthouse in the village of Kirkcolm when he peeked into
the cavity in a wall of the old structure. That's when he saw it: an
old glass bottle with something curled up inside.

He and his colleagues fished the bottle out of its hiding place,
called the lighthouse keeper and congregated at the bottom of the
structure to inspect their discovery. Inside the bottle, which was
stoppered with rusted wire wrapped around an old cork, was a note
handwritten in cursive.

How old, exactly, became clear when they drilled away the cork and
pulled the note through the bottleneck using two cables. The date on
the header: Sept. 4, 1892.

"We were shaking, especially me," said Barry Miller, the lighthouse
keeper for Corsewall Lighthouse who raced over last month when the
workers told him what they had found. "I couldn't keep my hands
still, and I read the note out to the other guys."

Was it a love letter, a disgruntled complaint or someone's final
goodbye? "We all swore ourselves to silence if it was a treasure
map," he joked.

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