It may have taken 132 years to get to a beach in Western Australia, but when the world’s oldest message in a bottle was discovered, it’s contents were slightly disappointing.

The note, enclosed in a gin bottle which dates back to 12 June 1886, is believed to have been thrown from the German sailing ship Paula as it crossed the Indian Ocean.

However, rather than a dramatic plea for help or a farewell to loved ones from doomed sailors, the message related to a worthy but not very exciting experiment to track ocean currents.

Predictably, Twitter users had fun with some alternative options.

One user imagined the bottle contained the plea to “send nudes”, while a commenter on Facebook suggested - considering the era in which it was penned - that it might in fact have read: “please, dispatch scantily clad sketches of your figure”.

But not everyone was poking fun. Australians, used to a slow internet and postal service, took the opportunity to praise the speed in which the bottle travelled.

The bottle will be on display at the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Perth for the next two years.