It may have taken 132 years to get to a beach in Western Australia, but when the world’s oldest message in a bottle was discovered, it’s contents were slightly disappointing.

The note, enclosed in a gin bottle which dates back to 12 June 1886, is believed to have been thrown from the German sailing ship Paula as it crossed the Indian Ocean.

However, rather than a dramatic plea for help or a farewell to loved ones from doomed sailors, the message related to a worthy but not very exciting experiment to track ocean currents.

Predictably, Twitter users had fun with some alternative options.



"Please add me to your LinkedIn network" https://t.co/Rr37b3ZpJX — Dave Lee (@DaveLeeBBC) March 6, 2018

One user imagined the bottle contained the plea to “send nudes”, while a commenter on Facebook suggested - considering the era in which it was penned - that it might in fact have read: “please, dispatch scantily clad sketches of your figure”.

BREAKING! World’s oldest message in a bottle contained message ‘SEND NUDES’ pic.twitter.com/lIv2wmovY7 — NewsThump (@newsthump) March 6, 2018

I bet it said #WengerOUT — Martin Elis Parry (@MartinElisParry) March 6, 2018

And it read, “Don’t vote for Trump” — shane 🏳️‍🌈 (@shanecenters) March 6, 2018

Was it from Sting? — Indisputable DT (@dt_indisputable) March 6, 2018

But not everyone was poking fun. Australians, used to a slow internet and postal service, took the opportunity to praise the speed in which the bottle travelled.

132 years to send a message, still better than my NBN — A Barf Days Night (@drdragula) March 6, 2018

Still quicker than Aussie post — si (@si44202546) March 6, 2018

The bottle will be on display at the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Perth for the next two years.