Bottle Set Adrift In 1959 Washes Up On Martha’s Vineyard, Message Still Inside

A bottle set adrift in 1959 washed up in Martha’s Vineyard, with a pink note inside. Scientists who examined the bottle have determined that it was placed into the ocean by the United States government to track ocean current.

Keith Moreis found bottle on Martha’s Vineyard with a pink not that simply read, “Break This Bottle” inside. Moreis discovered the bottle while taking a walk along Long Point Reservation in West Tisbury, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – NOAA.

The pink postcard inside the 1959 bottle had USCGS Hydrographer stamped on the left corner and the date handwritten on the right. Also printed on the bottle were instructions for the finder to return the postcard and share details about how and where it was found.

The USCGS acronym references the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey that was established in 1807. During that time period the Survey of the Coast was expanding westward to create surveys of the interior areas of the nation. In 1878, the USCGS was renamed and is now a division of NOAA. The so-called “drift” bottles were reportedly used frequently to track ocean currents since 1846. The last bottles were released in 1966, according to a NOAA report shared on Fox News.

Moreis took the bottle to be reviewed by an oceanographer at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center at the Woods Hole Laboratory. The pink postcard inside the bottle was compared against drift bottle records through 1958. The researchers did not find any records related to this bottle that had been published by the Fish and Wildlife Service, but a photo of an identical bottle was found in Nelson Lagoon in southwest Alaska three years ago.

A caption beneath the image of the Alaskan drift bottle read:

“Perhaps the last drift bottle that will ever be found. All drift bottle records have been closed for years so the exact location and even ship that launched Drift Bottle 17465 is unknown. It is probable that it was launched from either the EXPLORER or PATHFINDER in the 1950’s or 1960’s. It is remarkable that the bottle survived for close to fifty years.”

Researchers now believe that Martha’s Vineyard drift bottle could really be the last one still floating intact along American waterways. Keith Moreis said, “Finding the bottle was exciting. Learning more about it and its history has been a rewarding experience, to say the least. I never expected to find something like this, but then again, you never know what you will find on the beach.”

Finding a 1959 drift bottle was surely quite a surprise, what is the most unusual thing you have ever found on the beach?

[Image Via: Shelley Dawicki/NEFSC/NOAA]