Oldest message in a bottle handed over to sender's granddaughter after 101 years

A message in a bottle tossed in the sea in Germany 101 years ago, has finally been presented to the sender's granddaughter.

It is believed to be the world's oldest message in a bottle, News 24 reported.

A fisherman pulled the beer bottle with the scribbled message out of the Baltic off the northern city of Kiel last month, according to Holger von Neuhoff of the International Maritime Museum in the northern port city of Hamburg.

Researchers then set to work identifying the author and managed to track down his 62-year-old granddaughter Angela Erdmann, who lives in Berlin.

Inside was a message on a postcard requesting the finder to return it to his home address in Berlin.

Von Neuhoff said researchers were able to determine based on the address that it was 20-year-old baker's son Richard Platz who threw the bottle in the Baltic while on a hike with a nature appreciation group in 1913.

The Guinness World Records had previously identified the oldest message in a bottle as dating from 1914. It spent nearly 98 years at sea before being fished from the water.