漂了132年! 世界上最古老的漂流瓶終於上岸!

The world's oldest message in a bottle has been found on a beach in Western Australia by a couple who thought it might "look good on a bookshelf".

一對夫婦在澳大利亞西部的一片海灘上發現了世界上最古老的漂流瓶，覺得它可以“用來裝飾書架”。

Tonya Illman found the 132-year-old gin bottle in the dunes near Wedge Island in January.

今年1月份，譚雅·伊爾曼在楔形島附近的沙丘上發現了這個132年的杜松子酒瓶。

Her husband, Kym Illman, told Guardian Australia she initially thought it was rubbish but picked it up because it had distinct, raised lettering and would be at home on their bookshelf.

她的丈夫金·伊爾曼向《衛報》澳大利亞分部透露，她最初認爲這是垃圾，但因爲它有明顯的字體，還是把它撿了起來，覺得放在書架上不錯。

Inside, she found a roll of paper printed in German and dated to 12 June 1886, which was authenticated by the Western Australian Museum.

在瓶子裏面，她發現了一卷用德文印製的紙張，日期爲1886年6月12日，這得到了西澳大利亞博物館的認證。

"It was an absolute fluke. It won't get better than than this," said husband Kym Illman.

“這絕對是一種僥倖。沒有比這更好了，”丈夫金·伊爾曼說。

The bottle had been thrown overboard from the German sailing ship Paula in 1886 as it crossed the Indian Ocean, 950km from the Australian coast, according to Ross Anderson, the museum's assistant curator of maritime archaeology.

博物館海洋考古學助理館長羅斯·安德森表示，1886年，德國的一艘帆船Paula從澳大利亞海岸穿過印度洋，距離澳大利亞海岸950公里，而這些瓶子是從Paula德國帆船上拋出的。

At the time, German ships were conducting a 69-year experiment that involved throwing thousands of bottles into the sea to track ocean currents.

當時，德國的船隻正在進行爲期69年的試驗，將數千個瓶子投入海中以追蹤洋流。

Each message was marked with the ship's coordinates, the date, and the name of the ship, which Anderson used to verify the message.

每條消息都標有船舶的座標、日期和船名，安德森用其來驗證該消息。

His finding was confirmed by experts at the German Naval Observatory. The previous record for oldest message in a bottle was 108 years.

他的發現得到了德國海軍天文臺專家的證實。之前記錄的最古老的漂流瓶是108年。