世界最古老漂流瓶132年后现身西澳海滩

The world’s oldest message in a bottle has been found on a beach in Western Australia by a couple who thought it might “look good on a bookshelf”.

一对夫妇在澳大利亚西部的一个海滩上发现了一个世界上最古老的漂流瓶，觉得它可以“用来装饰书架”。

Tonya Illman found the 132-year-old gin bottle in the dunes near Wedge Island in January. Her husband, Kym Illman, told Guardian Australia she initially thought it was rubbish but picked it up because it had distinct, raised lettering and would be at home on their bookshelf.

1月份，Tonya Illman在楔形岛附近的沙丘上发现了这个132年的杜松子酒瓶。她的丈夫Kym Illman告诉《卫报》澳大利亚分部，她最初认为这是垃圾，但因为它有明显的字体，还是把它捡了起来，觉得放在书架上不错。

Inside, she found a roll of paper printed in German and dated to 12 June 1886, which was authenticated by the Western Australian Museum.

在瓶子里面，她发现了一卷用德文印制的纸张，日期为1886年6月12日，这得到了西澳大利亚博物馆认证。

“It was an absolute fluke. It won’t get better than than this,” said husband Kym Illman.

“这绝对是一种侥幸。没有比这更好了，”丈夫Kym Illman说。

The bottle had been thrown overboard from the German sailing ship Paula in 1886 as it crossed the Indian Ocean, 950km from the Australian coast, according to Ross Anderson, the museum’s assistant curator of maritime archaeology.

博物馆海洋考古学助理馆长Ross Anderson说，1886年，德国的一艘帆船Paula从澳大利亚海岸穿过印度洋，距离澳大利亚海岸950公里，这些瓶子是从Paula德国帆船上抛出的。

At the time, German ships were conducting a 69-year experiment that involved throwing thousands of bottles into the sea to track ocean currents.

当时，德国的船只正在进行为期69年的试验，将数千个瓶子投入海中以追踪洋流。

Each message was marked with the ship’s coordinates, the date, and the name of the ship, which Anderson used to verify the message.

每条消息都标有船舶的坐标，日期和船名，Anderson用其来验证该消息。

Details from the Illmans’ message matched Paula’s maritime records, and Anderson also compared handwriting samples with captain’s entries in Paula’s meteorological journal. “Incredibly, there was an entry for June 12, 1886, made by the captain, recording a drift bottle having been thrown overboard,” Anderson said.

Illmans的信息细节与Paula的海事记录相匹配，Anderson还将笔迹样本与Paula的气象杂志上的队长作品进行了比较。 “令人难以置信的是，1886年6月12日，船长制作了一个录像带，录制了一个被抛出的瓶子，”Anderson说。

His finding was confirmed by experts at the German Naval Observatory. The previous record for oldest message in a bottle was 108 years.

他的发现得到了德国海军天文台专家的证实。之前记录的最古老的漂流瓶是108年。

Kym Illman said that after bringing it home the damp and ancient paper was put in the oven for five minutes to dry it out.

Kym Illman说，他们把它带回家后，将潮湿的古纸放入烤箱中五分钟将其烘干。

He added: “I have a basic understanding of German and it said could the finder please plot the coordinates it was found, and the date it was found, and send it back.”

他补充说：“我对德语有一个基本的了解，它说找到者请绘制找到的坐标和找到的日期，然后将其发回。”

Of the thousands jettisoned, 662 other messages from the same German experiment have been found and returned before the latest discovery. The most recent was found in 1934.

在被抛弃的数千个瓶子中，有662个来自同一德国实验的瓶子被找到并寄回。最后发现的一个瓶子是1934年。