“I was so excited.” A painter from Tasmania, in Australia, was surprised to discover a glass bottle sealed and hidden in a wall cavity of one of the oldest headlights in the region, that of Cap Bruny, on the island of the same name located to the south of South Tasmania, reports the local press, taken by the Guardian.
The man carried out restoration work in the building, when he discovered, in a cavity, of a glass bottle.
“While working inside the flashlight room, which is the room at the top of the lighthouse where the lens and the lighting mechanism are located, to deal with oxide and corrosion, it entered the cavity of the wall,” said the British periodic Annita Waghorn, head of the historical heritage of the Tasmania parks and the wildlife service.
“Mystery”
It is in this place where a “brilliant” object caught its attention. “I was so excited that it called me and told me that I had found a message in a bottle,” recalls Annita Waghorn.
And to add: “It was incredibly exciting … it was a mystery when it was for the first time to know what the message was talking about and how it was found in this inaccessible place inside the tower.” After a delicate extraction work, carried out by the conservatives of the Museum and the Art Gallery of Tasmania, the mysterious message could be deciphered.
“You could feel the emotion in the room when the letter was thrown in one piece,” said Annita Waghorn.
In the bottle, two envelopes were locked, containing two pages written by hand and detailed work done in El Faro in 1903: its construction dates back to 1838. The letters were signed by JR Meech, inspector of the headlights of Tasmania, which had supervised the construction and maintenance of several of these famous buildings in the region.
According to the museum manager, “this information enriches the rich history of Bruny Island and the Cape Bruny lighthouse.” The letter must be exposed to the public in the coming weeks.
Source: BFM TV
