Mechanical Technicians Neil Armstrong, Ross Russell and Mechanical Engineering Apprentice Morgan Dennison discovered a message in a bottle while working at Corsewall Lighthouse.
Ross spotted the bottle after removing old wooden panels in a cupboard. It was well out of arm’s reach but the team made a contraption from a rope and a broom handle to retrieve the bottle.
Retained Lightkeeper Barry Miller managed to extract the letter out of the bottle and was amazed to see it was dated 4 September 1892.
The letter was written using quill and ink, and contains the names of three engineers who had installed a new type of light in the tower. It also lists the names of the lighthouse’s three keepers.
Ross Russell said:
The note was just sensational, I was just in utter amazement. Being the first person to touch the bottle after 132 years was just mind blowing.
It’s a once in a lifetime find.
Mike Bullock, Chief Executive of the Northern Lighthouse Board commented:
Maintaining the lighthouses that keep mariners safe around Scotland’s rugged coast is an extraordinary job, but the news of this amazing discovery has taken what we do to a new level. The team of Technicians who found the bottle are the direct equivalent of the 19th Century engineers who left it there.
I am sure James Wells and his colleagues who are named on the document would be delighted to know that their work continues and that Corsewall lighthouse is still on duty 132 years later in the care of professionals with the same passion and dedication.
The letter
Corsewall Light & Fog Signal Station, Sept 4th 1892.
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.
The following being keepers at the station at this time, John Wilson Principal, John B Henderson 1st assistant, John Lockhart 2nd assistant.
The lens and machine being supplied by James Dove &Co Engineers Greenside Edinburgh and erected by William Burness, John Harrower, James Dods. Engineers with the above firm.
See BBC News Article Corsewall Lighthouse: Secret 132 year old message in a bottle found wall – BBC News
