Are you ready to embark on a tasty adventure? Phoenix and I kick things off by warming your palate with a hearty chat about Germany's culinary staple - the bratwurst. We navigate the varied terrain of this flavorful sausage, from the diverse ingredients used in different regions to the mouthwatering ways it's served. As we recount our own delicious encounters with bratwurst, we also serve up a side of cultural immersion, bringing you the vibrant energy of iconic German festivals. All the while, weaving in our everyday anecdotes about chores and life, making this a true feast for the senses.
Soon, we set sail on the intriguing sea of history, unearthing the romantic tradition of messages in bottles. Phoenix and I unfurl the stories of these bottled tokens, their journey through time, and their unsuspecting finders. From the oldest known messages to the impact they've had on the environment and culture, this captivating exploration is bound to leave you with a sense of wonder. So, join us as we dish out flavor-packed insights and historical gems in an episode that's sure to satiate your curiosity!
Episode Transcript
Welcome to.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Smarticast Tales.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
History.
Alright, enough with the Echoand Fanfare.
You're here for history, right,and not that boring crap you
learned in high school.
This stuff's actuallyinteresting, like things you've
never heard about the Civil War,cleopatra, automobiles,
monopoly, the Black Plague andmore Fascinating stories,
interesting topics and somedownright weird facts from the
(00:27):
past.
It's a new twist on somestories you may know and an
interesting look at some thingsyou may have never heard.
So grab a beer, kick back andenjoy.
Here's your host, smarticast.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of
Smarticast Tales History.
Are you guys ready to uncork abottle of history lesser known
to most?
Of course you are Prepare to betransported back in time, as
Phoenix and I travel throughdifferent instances in just
under three decades, allconsisting of three bottles with
messages.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
But before we get into the three unrelated
incidents of trash dumping, weshould talk about our food.
For this episode, this was ahard decision because it spans
two continents and threecountries.
Eventually, we had to settle onGerman food because, in one
form or another, each of thesebottles was touched by German
hands.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
And if there's one thing they are known for, it's
sausages, In particularbratwurst, which is what we're
having right now with mashedpotatoes.
The first documented evidenceof the bratwurst in Germany
dates to 1313 and can be foundin the Franconian city of
Nuremberg, which is stillinternationally renowned for the
production of grilling sausages.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
There are a lot of different kinds of bratwurst
because recipes vary from regionto region.
Some lists say there are over40 different kinds.
How the sausages are servedalso vary by region.
Most types are considered asnack and also considered a type
of fast food in mostGerman-speaking countries.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah, so my mashed potatoes, yet again, I hate to
say it, but are instant.
It took me a whole I don't knowthree, four minutes to make.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
For shame.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Well, all you got to do is boil all this one.
You didn't even add milk oranything.
All you had to do was add waterand throw the package in there.
Wow, four cups of water,boiling water, and that was it
what kind of sausage what kindof sausage.
I got the Johnsonville cheddarbratwurst.
I almost.
(02:28):
Oh, did you really?
That's hilarious, totallyunplanned we just went and got
our own different kind.
That's hilarious.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
And then so my mashed potatoes.
They are urban garlic and thenI added a bunch of butter to it,
so they're very buttery also,and I forgot what brand it was,
but yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
My mashed potatoes are real mashed potatoes.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
I just made them, hey .
So on the package it said itused real Idaho packages
potatoes, potatoes.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Mmm.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
So it's real in a fashion it used to be real.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
No, I'm kidding.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Used to be real potatoes.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Mine's garlic and cheese mashed potatoes.
Oh yeah, I knew I was going tobe hungry.
I've been waiting for this meal.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
I totally forgot to get.
I have sour cream.
I have cheese.
I was going to put it on thereand I totally forgot.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Oh well, oh man, I love bratwurst, though they're
so hearty.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You say everything's hearty.
I do.
A lot of the food that we havehere is pretty hearty, so far,
anyways, we need to do a dessertsometime, like a real dessert.
We did it.
We did a dessert.
We did banana pudding.
It's been so long.
That was the very first one, Ithink, was a banana pudding.
You're right, yeah.
Yeah, we should do anotherdessert next time, maybe next
(03:56):
time.
Well, yeah, because they havetheir Germany has, don't they
have like some kind of festivalor not October fest?
I mean like their sausages andstuff?
I think they do Probably, and Ican't you can't remember what
it's called.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I know that anytime you go to October fest or beer
fest, there's always sausage tooand sour cream.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
So I almost bought sauerkraut too.
When I picked up the sausagesthey're bratwurst.
I mean I was like man, like Ishould put these in a bun and do
like sauerkraut and stuff andlike mayonnaise and ketchup and
mustard.
But I didn't.
I'm just eating it by itself.
They're just that good.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
They are, they really , really are.
Yeah, I would love to go toGermany and actually try their
like real German from Germany.
Yeah, sausage and bratwurst andall that.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Yeah, I'm sure, and I'd like to try it fresh too,
like go out and sort of big andthen make your own sausage and
stuff.
I think they're cool.
Yeah, and I don't know whatthey use.
I don't know if they still useintestine to cover the.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
I think it depends Some people, some people use the
synthetic and some people usethe real stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Yeah, that's kind of what I thought.
So, anyways, yeah, that's whatwe did this week Bratwurst.
So it's pretty good.
As most of you I'm sure know,you all probably had bratwurst
before.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And if you haven't, you should.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Yeah, and we didn't do anything special.
I mean, I didn't do anythingspecial, I just, I just I
actually air fried mine.
Ooh nice, I air fried them forat 450, for 20 minutes I think,
and they're, they're perfect.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Pan seared mine.
Yeah, I almost burned thembecause I forgot I was doing
laundry.
Oh man, yeah, the fain of myexistence is laundry.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Oh yeah, I don't well , dishes is mine, but yeah,
let's get in here.
You guys don't want to hear ustalk about just a simple food
like bratwurst and or doingdishes and laundry.
Or doing dishes and laundry.
Yeah, there have been manymessages and bottles found in
many movies and books where thestory plot device has saved
(06:07):
lives, started friendships andeven romances.
The three bottles that we'regoing to talk about today,
however, do not have nearly somuch drama.
The Guinness World Record saysthat the oldest message in a
bottle found is 131 years and223 days old and was found on
Wedge Island, australia.
The second is 108 years, fourmonths and 18 days old, found on
Amram Island, one of Germany'sNorth Frisian Islands.
(06:29):
The third is 101 years old andwas found in the Baltic Sea.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
January 21st 2018, tonya Ilman from Perth,
australia, found an old ginbottle on the beach while taking
a walk with her family,thinking it would make a nice
decoration for her house.
Tonya brought it home Shortlyafter.
She showed it to her son'sgirlfriend, who tipped the sand
out, only to discover that therewas something inside that
looked like a cigarette.
Upon further inspection, itlooked more like a tightly
rolled piece of paper.
(06:53):
Human nature being what it is,they removed it from the bottle.
Unfortunately, the paper waswet, too fragile to open without
destroying.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
So they got clever.
They put it in the oven for afew minutes to dry it out.
What was revealed was a date 12June 1886.
Tanya's husband, kim, told BBC.
Then we unrolled it and saw aprinted writing.
They could see the handwrittenink at that point, but saw a
printed message that asked thereader to contact the German
consulate when they found thenote.
On the note there was the datecoordinates 32.49 South, 105.25
(07:26):
East.
She did captain details,departure and arrival port
written in ink.
It was written by the DutchCIVARTE in Hamburg and asked the
finder to send the note to themor the nearest German embassy,
noting the time and place of thefind.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Dr Ross Anderson, the assistant curator of maritime
archaeology at the WesternAustralian Museum, was asked to
look at the message and thebottle.
After consulting with expertsfrom Germany and the Netherlands
, he found the message to beauthentic.
After further research into theship and its captain, it was
discovered that the bottle wasjettisoned into the East Indian
Ocean as part of a researchproject into the ocean and
(07:59):
shipping routes by the GermanNaval Observatory.
This experiment spanned 69years, with only 662 messages
being found so far, but withoutbottles.
Interestingly enough, beforethis bottle was found, there was
the 109 year old bottle holdingthe record.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
So I'm curious Okay, 662 messages were found without
bottles, right.
How did they last?
How did they not get?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I don't know.
I couldn't find any informationon that, which was really
irritating.
The only thing I can think isthey had to have gotten washed
up on shore, the bottles had tohave broken and then gotten
moved around or something byanimals or by rushing and tied.
And then somebody found thepiece of paper, picked it up,
thinking it was trash, and waslike oh hey, this isn't trash,
(08:50):
this is old.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
That's got to be how it happened.
Yeah, it's got to be how,because there's no way that if
it broke on the water or in thewater that that piece of paper
it would have, it would havecame apart from the just, it
would have been torn to shredsjust from the tides and from the
waves.
So, yeah, so the bottle had tohave been washed ashore and then
(09:14):
maybe it slammed into rocks orsomething, right?
Or, like you said, maybe ananimal found it or something.
Yeah, that's the only way I canthink.
Yeah, I agree with thatconclusion.
That brings us to the bottlefound in 2016 on Amberm Island
(09:36):
by Marianne Winkler, a retiredpostal worker, which is rather
funny considering all things.
Through the side of the bottle,she could see that there was a
piece of paper inside that hadinstructions to break the glass.
However, marianne and herhusband hesitated to follow
through because they recognizedthat it was old.
When they finally decided to doit, they worked carefully to
keep the bottle intact.
(09:57):
What they found inside was apostcard already addressed to GP
Bitter at the Marine BiologicalAssociation in Plymouth,
england, with a promise of aone-shilling reward.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Amazingly enough, the Marine Biological Association
still exists, according to apress release.
After the arrival they weresurprised and thrilled to get a
postcard addressed to theirformer president, who died in
1954 at the age of 91.
According to Corey Feta at theChristian Science Monitor, the
staff searched around on eBay tofind a shelling a unit of
currency that went out ofcirculation in Great Britain in
(10:27):
the early 1970s to send it toWinkler as promised.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Interestingly, this was not the only bottle that
Bitter threw into the North Seabetween 1904 and 2006.
He threw thousands into thewater as a research project to
map currents.
These bottles were specialone's.
Bitter called bottom trailers,which were weighted so that they
would sink, with a piece ofstiff wire attached on the
outside that would keep them offthe seafloor.
The idea was that fishermentrolling the sea would find the
(10:54):
bottles and send them in,something the NBA says might be
one of the first citizen scienceprojects ever recorded.
According to Association, 55%of the bottles were returned.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Which is really impressive when you think about
that.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
It is, yeah, 55,.
So over half the bottles thathe threw out there did end up
coming back.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Last but certainly not least, is the one bottle
that wasn't sent out into a bodyof water as a marine science
experiment.
In 2014, a bottle was found inthe Baltic Sea by a fisherman,
mr Conrad Fisher.
He considered throwing it backin when and this is a quote he
gave the Kyler Nachristiannewspaper.
I had it in my hand, but then acolleague told me there was
(11:34):
something in it.
When I saw the date, I gotreally excited.
Fisher was clever, knowing thatif it was old, a museum would
want it.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
In fact he was right.
The International's Mary TynesMuseum in Hamburg was very
interesting.
Though the postcard wasillegible for the most part
thanks to water damage.
The researchers at the museumfound the signature of Richard
Plaatz Written.
Below was a faded thoughfriendly request for whoever
found the note to send aresponse to his home address.
Richard was even thoughtfulenough to add two stamps for the
return postage.
(12:01):
What a swell guy.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I know right, I love that about him.
I don't even know this dude andI'm like, oh, I bet you are
super sweet.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
After some research by a genealogist, richard's
granddaughter, angela Erdman,was found living in Berlin, the
same place her grandfather wasfrom.
Though Angela hadn't met hergrandfather, who died in 1946 at
the age of 54, just six yearsbefore she was born, with the
visit a spark was lit in Angelato learn more about the man she
had never met.
She went on the record saying Iknew very little about my
(12:32):
grandfather, but I found outthat he was a writer who was
very open-minded, believed infreedom and that everyone should
respect each other.
He did a lot for the young andlater traveled with his wife and
two daughters.
It was wonderful because Icould see where my roots came
from.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Even though Angela was touched by her grandfather's
attempts to reach out in theamazement that it took 101 years
to reach home, she hoped thatpeople wouldn't try to repeat
his actions.
There's a romantic nature tomessages and bottles, sure, but
as she put it, the day to see isfull of so many bottles and
rubbish that more shouldn't bethrown in there.
And really she's right.
All of these messages andbottles make for a great story,
(13:06):
as we said before, but reallyit's glorified littering.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
She's absolutely right.
Still, it is terriblyinteresting that at one time or
another, each of these bottleshas been in German hands.
They make great food, greatdrinks, have fun music and they
participate in three of thecoolest discoveries of a similar
nature.
That's pretty awesome.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
That is very cool, but unfortunately this brings
this episode to a close.
Thank you for listening to ourpodcast on three of the oldest
messages and bottles.
We've trusted that you foundpleasure in delving deeper into
these peculiar instances of acomparable kind.
Join us next time as we exploreanother fascinating topic from
around the world.
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