132-year-old message in a bottle uncovered at Scottish lighthouse
An engineer conducting an inspection at a 209-year-old Scottish lighthouse discovered a message in a bottle dating back 132 years.
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Corsewall Lighthouse is a lighthouse at Corsewall Point, in the region of Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland. First lit in 1817, it overlooks the North Channel of the Irish Sea. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Nov. 25 (UPI) -- An engineer conducting an inspection at a 209-year-old Scottish lighthouse discovered a message in a bottle dating back 132 years.
Ross Russell, a Northern Lighthouse Board mechanical engineer, removed some panels in a cupboard at Corsewall Lighthouse, located at the northern tip of the Rhins of Galloway, and spotted a bottle hidden inside the wall.
Russell and his team used some rope and a broom handle to fish the bottle out of its hiding place and opened it with the current lighthouse keeper, Barry Miller.
The team said the cork was stuck in place and had to be carefully removed using a drill.
"We all swore ourselves to silence if it was a treasure map," Miller joked to The New York Times.
Inside was a note dated Sept. 4, 1892, bearing the names of three engineers who had installed a light at the top of the 100-foot lighthouse as well as the names of three lighthouse keepers.
"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 hiding place along with a message of their own.
"It was just a strange coincidence to find the note while working on the equipment described on the note," he said.
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