Woman discovers world’s oldest message in a bottle from 1876 while walking along Jersey shore – complete with fascinating handwritten message

A greeting card designer while walking along the Jersey shore came across what is believed to be the world’s oldest bottled message.

Amy Smyth Murphy, 49, was walking along the beach at Corson’s State Inlet in Ocean City when she noticed an odd-looking bottle at the water’s edge.

“I just thought, ‘This is so weird. What is this?'” Smyth Murphy told the Philadelphia Researcher.

After some research, she discovered that the message in the bottle likely dates back to 1876, making it the oldest artifact of its kind.

Most intriguing was a barely legible handwritten note found inside the bottle: “Yacht Neptune off Atlantic City, New Jersey. August 6 – 76.”

A greeting card designer while walking along the Jersey shore came across what is believed to be the world’s oldest message in a bottle

Based on her research, Smyth Murphy believes the ’76’ refers to the year 1876, the year the note was likely written.

“I think it took about 48 hours before we really understood what it said, but if you look at it long enough you start to see it,” Smyth Murphy explains.

She began her research by looking at the bottle itself, which bears the Barr & Brother Philadelphia brand.

According to valuation website Worthpoint, the company likely produced the glassware between 1870 and 1900.

The next task was to carefully remove the note from the bottle that had rolled up. Her niece did this with the help of a corkscrew and tweezers.

Inside, Smyth Murphy found a business card from a well-known Philadelphia musical instrument company called WG & J Klemm, which dated back to the 19th century.

The bottle was discovered on the water’s edge of a beach at Corson’s State Inlet in Ocean City

Amy Smyth Murphy, 49, who found the bottle, has done extensive research which shows the bottle dates back to 1876

On the back was a handwritten note referring to Yacht Neptune.

“I’d like to know who was on the ship, who was the captain, where was it going? Was it for pleasure? Was it business? All those kinds of questions,” Smyth Murphy said.

She discovered an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1874 that mentioned Captain Samuel Gale of Atlantic City. Gale had “just built a beautiful yacht, which he named ‘Neptune,’ after the Neptune Club of that city.”

According to Gale’s obituary, the Neptune was a popular pleasure cruiser that attracted many day trippers thanks to his charismatic personality.

“We are getting closer to answering the question of who wrote the letter and who threw the bottle in the ocean,” Smyth Murphy said on TikTok.

But for her the puzzle is not yet complete and Smyth Murphy has contacted the Guinness Book of World Records to verify her theory.

Smyth Murphy and her family managed to extract the note using a corkscrew and tweezers

According to the organization, the current record for the oldest message in a bottle dates back to June 12, 1886. The message was left by German captains aboard the Barque Paula and found in 2018 off Wedge Island in Australia.

“Looking at the reactions I’ve had so far, I think everyone likes the mysterious aspect of it,” Smyth Murphy said.

“Let’s see how much information we can get out of this one bottle, what its history is and how it relates to Philadelphia and South Jersey.”