132-year-old bottle containing secret messages discovered

An engineer has uncovered a message contained within a 132-year-old bottle while inspecting a 209-year-old lighthouse in Scotland.

According to details, Ross Russell, a mechanical engineer with the Northern Lighthouse Board, discovered the bottle while removing panels from a cupboard at Corsewall Lighthouse, situated at the northern tip of the Rhins of Galloway.

Upon finding the bottle concealed within the wall, Russell and his team employed a rope and a broom handle to extract it. They opened the bottle in the presence of the current lighthouse keeper, Barry Miller.

The cork was firmly lodged and required careful extraction using a drill, according to the team.

Miller humorously remarked to media, “We all swore ourselves to silence if it was a treasure map.”

The note, dated September 4, 1892, contained the names of three engineers who had installed the light at the top of the 100-foot lighthouse, along with the names of three lighthouse keepers.

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Miller expressed his excitement to media, stating, “It was so thrilling; it felt like meeting our colleagues from the past. It was as if they were present with us.” He added, “It was like connecting with them. Instead of just the four of us, we were all there sharing what they had written, as it was tangible, and the style of their handwriting was visible.”

He noted, “You could appreciate their efforts. They had hidden it in a location where it would remain undiscovered for a very long time.”

The note reads: “This lantern was erected by James Wells Engineer, John Westwood Millwright, James Brodie Engineer, David Scott Labourer, of the firm of James Milne & Son Engineers, Milton House Works, Edinburgh, during the months from May to September and relighted on Thursday night 15th Sept 1892.”

Russell mentioned that he and his team would return the bottle to its original hiding place, along with a message of their own.