An 1886 message in a bottle found on Australian beach

Before there were computers and GPS beacons to track the ocean’s whims, there were slips of paper and bottles. Or more specifically, slips of paper in bottles.

The world’s oldest message in a bottle was recently discovered on a beach in Australia 132 years after it was tossed into the Indian Ocean as part of an experiment on ocean drift patterns, according to experts who call it “an exceedingly rare find.”

A report released by the Western Australia Museum details how the bottle was found and what its message reveals about science and history. The bottle, which measured less than nine inches long and three inches wide, was found in January north of Perth by Tonya Illman, according to a museum news release this month. She and a friend were walking along the dunes when she saw it near where her son’s car had become bogged in sand.

Not knowing if what they found was “historically significant or a very inventive hoax,” the family brought the bottle to the museum. Experts there took detailed measurements of everything from the opening of the bottle to the twine wrapped around the yellowed paper inside of it. There was no cork and researchers believe it may have dried out, shrunk and became dislodged at some point. Because the paper was so well preserved, they also believe the bottle probably washed onto shore within a year of being thrown and lay buried for more than a century in damp sand.

Experts found two significant details on the paper: the date June 12, 1886, and the name of a ship, “Paula.” The museum’s report links the bottle to German scientist George von Neumayer who implemented a drift bottle experiment from 1864 to 1933 that involved thousands of bottles being thrown overboard with pre-printed message slips inside.

Ship captains were expected to write in details on one side of the paper and those who found the bottles were asked to fill out the back and return the notes to to the German Naval Observatory in Hamburg or the nearest German Consulate.

Only 662 message slips were returned. Before the latest discovery, the last one was found in January 1934.