Bottle of beer found in wreckage of ship at Point Lonsdale to be sent home after 150 years

A relic from a ship that sunk off Point Lonsdale 150 years ago will be sent back to Scotland, more than 40 years after it was uncovered by a Hamlyn Heights scuba diver.

The bottle of beer from a Glasgow brewery has been in the hands of Jim Anderson since he found it diving the 1970s.

The story, reported in the Geelong Advertiser, caught the attention of Ross and John this morning.

Ross: What an amazing story. They are lucky that in the last 50 years you have never once been thirsty!

“Mostly the ship itself has disappeared, the bulk of it had been pounded by the sea, there are a few relics scattered about the sea there,” Jim said.

The Light of the Age was making its journey from Liverpool to Melbourne in 1868, according to Heritage Victoria, when it ran into trouble at Port Phillip Heads.

The cause of the loss listed as “captain drunk, ran ashore at night”.

Embossed in the cap of the bottle are the words Wellpark Brewery.

Jim contacted the brewery, which is still in operation, to see if they wanted it.

“They were more than pleased to hear about it,” he said.

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