Romance of the Day: A German Couple Found the World's Oldest Message in a Bottle

While strolling along the beach in surely a very romantic setting, a German couple spied what is believed to be the oldest message in a bottle in the world.

As it says in The Telegraph:

Marianne Winkler, a retired post office worker, found the message from the past while on holiday with her husband on the North Sea island of Amrum.

Mrs Winkler found the bottle in April, but was shy of publicity and the full story has only now emerged.

"It's always a joy when some one finds a message-in-a-bottle on the beach," she told the Amrum News, a local website.

But the 108-year-old message was not the passionate last gasp of a tortured soul or even the cry for help from a long lost castaway. Rather all that was inside was a postcard written in English, German and Dutch promising a shilling to the person who returned it with information on where and how it was found.

Love wasn't the culprit here. It was science.

The return address pointed Winkler to the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, England.

It turned out the bottle was one of 1,020 released into the North Sea between 1904 and 1906 by George Parker Bidder, a former president of the association.

Bidder released the bottles as part of a project to find out about deep sea currents.

The bottles were specially designed to float just above the sea bed, so they would be carried by the currents deep below the surface.

The association was very happy to receive the bottle and even gave Winkler an antique shilling for her trouble.

While the Guinness World Records has yet to officially award the bottle the 'oldest in the world', it makes for a great story.

Look at this romantic couple: