An engineer inspecting a 209-year-old Scottish lighthouse has discovered a message in a 132-year-old bottle.
Ross Russell, a mechanical engineer with the Northern Lighthouse Board, removes some panels from a cupboard at Carswall Lighthouse, which is located at the northern end of the Rhine in Galloway. UPI.
He also saw a bottle hidden inside the wall.
To get the bottle out of its hiding place, Russell and his team used some rope and a broom handle. They opened it with the current lighthouse keeper, Barry Miller.
The team said the cork was stuck in place and had to be carefully removed with a drill.
“We all swore ourselves to silence if it was a treasure map,” Miller joked to The New York Times.
Dated September 4, 1892, inside was a note listing the names of the three engineers who installed a light atop the 100-foot lighthouse, as well as the names of the three lighthouse keepers.
“It was exciting, it was like meeting old friends,” Miller said. BBC News Scotland. “It was like touching them. It was like they were part of our team instead of just four of us being there, we were all there to see what they wrote because it was solid and you could see the style of their handwriting. could see.”
He said: “You knew what they did. You knew they hid it in a place that wouldn’t be found for long.”
The note reads: “This lantern was erected by the firm of James Wells Engineer, John Westwood Millwright, James Brodie Engineer, David Scott Laborer, James Millen & Son Engineers, Milton House Works, Edinburgh, during the months of May to September. Illuminated on Thursday night, September 15, 1892.
Along with his own message, Russell said he and his team would return the bottle to its hiding place.