Card designer Amy Smyth Murphy found an unusual bottle on a beach while walking along the water's edge in New Jersey. She was surprised when she saw there was paper inside. Murphy took the bottle home and opened it. It took her 48 hours to decipher the difficult handwriting on the note. The note said: "Yacht Neptune, off the coast of Atlantic City, New Jersey. August 6 - 76." Despite being in the ocean for 148 years, the bottle was found only 15 miles from where it was released. Smyth Murphy did some research and learned that the bottle could be from the 1870s. The paper inside also contained a business card from a Philadelphia instrument company from the 1800s. An article from 1874 stated that Captain Samuel Gale from Atlantic City was the owner of the Neptune. Thanks to Gale's charismatic personality, Neptune was a popular excursion ship. Smyth Murphy said, "Everyone loves the mystery of this. Let's see how much information we can gather from this bottle and how it connects to Philadelphia and South Jersey."
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