Message in a bottle uncovered by lighthouse workers after 132 years — they were stunned by ‘strange coincidence’ in its contents

They couldn’t keep this bottled up.

Engineers refurbishing a historic lighthouse in Scotland were blown away after discovering a 132-year-old message in a bottle — and it had a surprising connection to their project.

“The note was just sensational, I was just in utter amazement,” engineer Ross Russell, 36, told the BBC of the illuminating find.

Russell and his team had been renovating the Corsewall Lighthouse in Kirkcolm when they uncovered the bottle in a wall cavity in the lighthouse, which was built back in 1817.

The building technicians showed the letter to lighthouse keeper Barry Miller, who subsequently read it aloud to the team assembled for the renovation project.

Initially joking that the parchment was a “treasure map,” the lighthouse boss was shocked after realizing that it was a missive penned in quill ink in 1892 by the engineers and lighthouse keepers at the time, per The New York Times.

They had reportedly been outfitting the top of the Corsewall outpost with a new Fresnel lens — the very same instrument that their present-day counterparts had been working on.

The note, dated from Sept. 1892, read: “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 letter also noted that the lens and machine were supplied by James Dove & Co. Engineers Greenside Edinburgh and installed by William Burness, John Harrower, James Dods, who were engineers with the aforementioned firm.

The crew had written said correspondence after finishing the daunting project, which reportedly took all summer to complete, the Smithsonian Magazine reported. They then stuffed the rolled-up directive in an old glass bottle with a cork and hit it in the wall cavity of the nautical navigation station, where it remained undiscovered until the latest reillumination efforts.

The seeming relevance was astonishing for the lighthouse maintenance team, who felt as if the letter had been intended for them.

“It was just a strange coincidence to find the note while working on the equipment described on the note,” exclaimed Russell.

Meanwhile, Miller dubbed it “a direct communication from them to us.” Think ships from different eras passing in the night.

Euan Murray, a descendant of one of the lighthouse keepers named Robert Murray, said he was stunned by the discovery.

“I do find it very interesting to see a bit of family history pop up out the blue like this,” the 32-year-old Royal Navy engineer told the BBC. “It’s amazing to think that the work they did back then is still completely relevant today, even in the age of satellite navigation.”

He added, “Ships are still using these lighthouses for safe navigation on a daily basis.”

Now, the Corsewall crew plans to pass the proverbial torch — or lighthouse lens, rather — by stashing another bottle message in the same hole in the wall.

“Sometime in the future, perhaps, we will be able to communicate to someone else,” declared Miller.