World's 'oldest' message in a bottle washes up on shore after 150 years at sea with bizarre mystery inside

Finding something cool on the beach is always fun but most people wouldn't expect to come across an antique more than 100 years old.

One social media user believes they have discovered the oldest message in a bottle.

TikTok user @asmythco shared the find with her followers and remarked how she couldn’t believe her fortune.

She said: “I found a message in a bottle on the beach on July 3. The note inside said yacht Neptune off Atlantic city New Jersey, August 6-76.

“The outside of the bottle reads Barr and Brother Philadelphia.”

You might be thinking August 1976 makes it a pretty old bottle but surely it can’t be the oldest, right?

Well, you would be correct, that is why the TikTok user dug a little deeper.

Researching the bottle itself, she found just how old the bottle is and what era it was in circulation.

She continued: “The hunt for another Barr and Brother bottle ended today with the help of a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter.”

She then said look at the date, showing on screen that the bottle would likely predate 1900. Meaning that it was more likely a message from 1876 rather than 1976.

She closed the video by saying: “This makes this the oldest message in a bottle ever found.”

In another TikTok, the user broke down how she tracked down the boat and realized what year it was from.

Finding a digital copy of a Philadelphia inquirer newspaper from 1874, the user discovered an article announcing the construction of the ship.

The April 24, 1874, report said: “Captain Samuel Gale, of Atlantic City, New Jersey, has just had built a splendid yacht, which he has christened ‘Neptune’ after the Neptune Club of this city.”

People on social media simply couldn’t believe this find and commented on just how different things would have been back then.

One user wrote: "They were celebrating the 100th anniversary of the nation just a month before is this really the oldest message in a bottle EVER found? Lucky to have run across you this is truly awesome."

Another added: "As someone who collects/digs for antique bottles, those squat sodas are pretty iconic to the 1860s-80s period."

While a third penned: "On the centennial, incredible. Imagine celebrating the 4th in 1876. Drinking with friends on a boat…. Not even thinking that we’d be doing the same over 100 years later."

Guess you never know what you are going to find at the beach, eh?