More than a century after making its maiden voyage, the oldest message in a bottle was found in Germany.

According to a recent announcement by Guinness World Records, the glass bottle spent 108 years and 138 days at sea after being released in the North Sea by the Marine Biological Association (MBA) in the United Kingdom on Nov. 30, 1906. It was discovered by Marianne Winkler, a retiree, as she vacationed on Amrum Island in 2015.

Following the bright red instructions on the outside of the postcard, Winkler broke the bottle and read the message, which instructed the finder to send it back to the MBA to receive a reward.

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/oldest-message-in-a-bottle_tcm25-420599.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/oldest-message-in-a-bottle_tcm25-420599.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/oldest-message-in-a-bottle_tcm25-420599.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > The world's oldest message in a bottle, pictured above, was discovered on the shores of Amrum Island, Germany, more than a century after it was released into the North Sea. (Marine Biological Association ) (Marine Biological Association )

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/bb2_0.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/bb2_0.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/bb2_0.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > Guinness World Records deemed this postcard the world's oldest message in a bottle after it was discovered on the shores of Amrum Island, Germany, more than a century after it was released into the North Sea. (Marine Biological Association ) (Marine Biological Association )

“The postcard asked the finder to fill out information about where the bottle was found, if it was trawled up, what the boat name was, etc. and asked once the postcard was completed for it to be returned to a George Parker Bidder in Plymouth for a reward of one shilling,” MBA communications officer Guy Baker told Guinness World Records. “Mr. Bidder was president at the Marine Biological Association from 1939-1945, so our receptionist was somewhat confused!”

Winkler returned the card and received the promised shilling, which the MBA had to find on eBay, according to Guinness.

Today, one shilling is worth about 12 pennies in U.S. dollars or 5 pence in Euros, according to The Guardian.

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The MBA says the bottle arrived at its Plymouth Laboratory in April 2015.

According to Baker, Bidder released a total of 1,020 bottles between 1904 and 1906. He reported that 55 percent of the bottles were caught by fishermen each year. Some of the bottles never made it back and are assumed to be lost at sea.

One of the most significant findings from his experiments was that, in the southern North Sea, many of his bottom-trailers got cast on the English shore, while floating bottles would typically move across the North Sea towards the continent, according to the MBA. With this information, Bidder deduced that the river outflow causes a shoreward flow of water.

Today, the type of research carried out by Bidder is done by installing tiny electronic tags on fish that track where they have been, reports Guinness.

Before the discovery of this message, the oldest message in a bottle spent 99 years and 43 days at sea as part of a similar science experiment.

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