View source for Message in a bottle

{{Short description|Form of communication}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:20160728MessageInBottleComposite.png | thumb | upright=1.5 | This bottle and its contents (sample postcard and insert shown above) were launched in 1959 by the [[United States Coast and Geodetic Survey]] and were found in 2013.<ref name=NEFSC20140314/>]]
A '''message in a bottle''' (abbrev. '''MIB'''<ref name=NYTimes_20150327/>) is a form of communication in which a message is sealed in a container (typically a bottle) and released into a conveyance medium (typically a body of water).

Messages in bottles have been used to send distress messages, in [[crowdsourcing|crowdsourced]] scientific studies of ocean currents, as memorial tributes, to send deceased loved ones' ashes on a final journey, to convey expedition reports, and to carry letters or reports from those believing themselves to be doomed. Invitations to prospective [[pen pal]]s and letters to actual or imagined love interests have also been sent as messages in bottles.

The [[wikt:lore|lore]] surrounding messages in bottles has often been of a romantic or poetic nature.

Use of the term "message in a bottle" has expanded to include metaphorical uses or uses beyond its traditional meaning as bottled messages released into oceans. The term has been applied to plaques on [[spacecraft|craft]] launched into [[outer space]], [[List of interstellar radio messages|interstellar radio messages]], stationary [[time capsule]]s, [[balloon mail]], and containers storing medical information for use by emergency medical personnel.

With a growing awareness that bottles constitute waste that can harm the environment and marine life, environmentalists tend to favor biodegradable drift cards<ref name=AmSurveyor200703/> and wooden blocks.<ref name=DW20161013/>

==History and uses==
Bottled messages may date to about 310 B.C., in water current studies reputed{{sfn |Ebbesmeyer |Scigliano |2009 |p=229 }} to have been carried out by Greek philosopher [[Theophrastus]].<ref name=NatGeo20120920/> The Japanese medieval epic ''[[The Tale of the Heike]]'' records the story of an exiled poet who, in about 1177 A.D., launched wooden planks on which he had inscribed poems describing his plight.{{sfn |Ebbesmeyer |Scigliano |2009 |pp=54-55 }} In the sixteenth century, [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]] reputedly created an official position of "Uncorker of Ocean Bottles", and—thinking some bottles might contain secrets from British spies or fleets—decreed that anyone else opening the bottles could face the [[Capital punishment|death penalty]].<ref name=NatGeo20120920>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/09/120918-oldest-message-in-a-bottle-science-history-messages/ |title=Oldest Message in Bottle: Behind History's Famous Floating Notes |first=Jeremy |last=Berlin |work=[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]] |date=20 September 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506022656/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/09/120918-oldest-message-in-a-bottle-science-history-messages/ |archive-date= May 6, 2016 | url-status=dead}}</ref>{{sfn |Kraske |1977 |pp=53–56 }} (However, it has been argued that this is a myth<ref name=MessageInABottleHunterQEI>{{cite web |url=https://messageinabottlehunter.com/message-in-a-bottle-myths/queen-elizabeth-official-uncorker-of-ocean-bottles|title=Queen Elizabeth's "Official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles" |first=Clint |last=Buffington}}</ref>.) In the nineteenth century, literary works such as [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s 1833 "[[MS. Found in a Bottle]]" and [[Charles Dickens]]' 1860 "[[A Message from the Sea]]" inspired an enduring popular passion for sending bottled messages.{{sfn |Ebbesmeyer |Scigliano |2009 |pp=55-56 |ps=, attributing to Becher, Alexander (1843, 1852). ''Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle.''}}

{{multiple image
| align=right | direction=horizontal | total_width = 350
| image1=189804 Drift Cask CROPPED George Melville.jpg | width1=  | caption1=Floating wood-and-metal "drift casks" launched from northern Alaska in 1899-1901 reached Siberia, Iceland and Norway, becoming the first human-made objects to transit the [[Northwest Passage]].{{sfn |Ebbesmeyer |Scigliano |2009 |pp=56-57 |ps=, describing drift casks designed by [[George W. Melville]].}}
| image2    = 1960sSeabedDrifterWithStem.png | width2= | caption2 =This 1960s-era [[seabed]] drifter includes a descending ballast stem to allow a more buoyant disk to remain just above the seabed to be carried by bottom currents. An imprinted message offers a small reward for reporting the time and place the drifter was found.<ref name=NEFSCfisheries20140314/>
}}
Scientific experiments involving drift objects—more generally called determinate drifters{{sfn |Ebbesmeyer |Scigliano |2009 |p=50 }}—provide information about currents and help researchers develop ocean circulation maps.<ref name=NEFSCfisheries20140314/> For example, experiments conducted in the mid-1700s by [[Benjamin Franklin]] and others indicated the existence and approximate location of the [[Gulf Stream]], with scientific confirmation following in the mid-1800s.<ref name=AmSurveyor200703>{{cite magazine |last1=Penry |first1=Jerry, LS |title=Message in a Bottle |url=http://www.theamericansurveyor.com/PDF/TheAmericanSurveyor_Penry-MessageInABottle_March2007.pdf |magazine=The American Surveyor |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140923001927/http://www.theamericansurveyor.com/PDF/TheAmericanSurveyor_Penry-MessageInABottle_March2007.pdf |archive-date=September 23, 2014 |date=March 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref> Using a network of [[Beachcombing|beachcomber]] informants, rear admiral Alexander Becher is believed to be the first (from 1808&ndash;1852) to study travel of so-called "bottle papers" around an [[ocean gyre]] (a large circulating current system).{{sfn |Ebbesmeyer |Scigliano |2009 |pp=55-56 |ps=, attributing to Becher, Alexander (1843, 1852). ''Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle.''}} In the late 1800s, [[Albert I, Prince of Monaco]] determined that the Gulf Stream branched into the [[North Atlantic Current|North Atlantic Drift]] and the [[Azores Current]].{{sfn |Moody |2010 |loc=II. Adrift at Sea }} In the 1890s, Scottish scientist T. Wemyss Fulton released floating bottles and wooden slips to chart [[North Sea]] surface currents for the first time.<ref name=ScotGovt20120830>{{cite web|title=Message in a bottle |url=http://www.gov.scot/News/Releases/2012/08/messagebottle30082012 |publisher=Scottish Government |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170405071448/http://www.gov.scot/News/Releases/2012/08/messagebottle30082012 |archive-date=April 5, 2017 |location=News Releases |date=August 30, 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> Releasing bottles designed to remain a short distance above the sea bed, British marine biologist [[George Parker Bidder III]] first proved in the early twentieth century that deep sea currents flowed from east to west in the [[North Sea]]<ref name=Telegraph20150820/> and that [[bottom feeder]]s prefer to move against the current.<ref name=NationalPost20160425>{{cite news |last1=Boxall |first1=Simon |title=Why ocean scientists hope someone gets your message in a bottle |url=http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/why-ocean-scientists-hope-someone-gets-your-message-in-a-bottle?http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/why-ocean-scientists-hope-someone-gets-your-message-in-a-bottle |publisher=The National Post (reprinting from The Conversation) |date=April 25, 2016 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20160507180637/http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/why-ocean-scientists-hope-someone-gets-your-message-in-a-bottle |archive-date=May 7, 2016 |url-status=live |access-date=April 1, 2020 }}</ref>

The [[United States Coast and Geodetic Survey]] (USC&GS) used drift bottles from 1846 to 1966.<ref name=NEFSC20140314>{{cite web |last1=Dawicki |first1=Shelley |title=Drift Bottle Found on Martha's Vineyard Has Quite a Story to Tell |url=http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/news/features/mv_bottle/ |publisher=NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210235757/http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/news/features/mv_bottle |archive-date=February 10, 2015 |date=March 14, 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> More recently, technologies involving satellite tags, fixed current profilers and satellite communication have permitted more efficient analysis of ocean currents: at any given time, thousands of modern "[[Drifter (floating device)|drifters]]" transmit current position, temperature, velocity, etc., to satellites, thus avoiding conventional drift bottles' dependence on serendipitous finds and cooperation by conscientious citizens.<ref name=NWFSCalaska2013>{{cite web |title=NWFSC's Own Message in a Bottle: Ocean Drifters and Tiny Tags Have Been Telling Stories for Decades |url=https://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/news/features/bottle/bottle.cfm |publisher=NOAA's NWFSC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160724220756/https://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/news/features/bottle/bottle.cfm |archive-date=July 24, 2016 |date=2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Drift bottle studies have provided a simple way to learn about non-tidal movement of waters containing eggs and larvae of commercially important fishes, for sharing among fisheries scientists and oceanographers.<ref name=NEFSCfisheries20140314>{{cite web |last1=Dawicki |first1=Shelley |title=Message in a Bottle: The Story Behind the Story -- Drift Bottles Helped Determine Distribution of Fish Eggs and Larvae |url=http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/news/features/drift_bottles/ |publisher=NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160725003703/http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/news/features/drift_bottles/ |archive-date=July 25, 2016 |date=March 14, 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> Such experiments simulate the travel of pollutants<ref name=NationalPost20160425/> such as oil spills,<ref name=AmSurveyor200703/> study formation of [[ocean gyre]] "[[Great Pacific garbage patch|garbage patches]]",<ref name=NationalPost20160425/> and suggest travel paths of [[invasive species]].<ref name=AmSurveyor200703/> Persistent currents are detected to allow ships to ride favorable currents and avoid opposing currents.<ref name=PanamaCanalRvw1971/> Projected travel paths of navigation hazards, such as [[naval mine]]s, advise safer shipping routes.<ref name=PanamaCanalRvw1971>{{cite web |last1=Lederer |first1=Muriel |title=Letters from the Sea |url=http://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/09/73/66/00002/UF00097366_00002.pdf |publisher=The Panama Canal Review |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160904202128/http://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/09/73/66/00002/UF00097366_00002.pdf |archive-date=September 4, 2016 |location=University of Florida Digital Collections |date=Fall 1971 |url-status=live}}</ref> Even in inland waterways, [[Drifter (floating device)|drifters]] wirelessly deliver real-time data on water quality, GPS location, and water velocity, for early warning against flash floods, measuring pollution run-off, and monitoring algal blooms.<ref name=NewAtlas20180723>{{cite news |last1=Kennedy |first1=Matt |title=QUT deploys high-tech "message in a bottle" to fight floods and pollution in river systems |url=https://newatlas.com/qut-flood-pollution-detector/55572/ |work=New Atlas |date=July 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180724120414/https://newatlas.com/qut-flood-pollution-detector/55572/ |archive-date=July 24, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Outside science, people have launched bottled messages to find [[pen pal]]s,{{sfn |Ebbesmeyer |Scigliano |2009 |pp=57-58 }} "bottle preachers"{{sfn |Kraske |1977 |pp=50–52 }} have sent "sermon bottles",{{sfn |Ebbesmeyer |Scigliano |2009 |pp=62-67 }} [[propaganda]]-bearing bottles have been directed at foreign shores,<ref name="Krajick2001" />{{sfn |Ebbesmeyer |Scigliano |2009 |pp=57-58 }}<ref name="IslandNet19990317" /><ref name=WashPort20180424>{{cite news |last1=Fifield |first1=Ann |title=With food and facts carried in bottles, activists try to penetrate isolated North Korea |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/with-food-and-facts-carried-in-bottles-activists-try-to-penetrate-isolated-north-korea/2018/04/23/abbe2582-438e-11e8-baaf-8b3c5a3da888_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180424124805/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/with-food-and-facts-carried-in-bottles-activists-try-to-penetrate-isolated-north-korea/2018/04/23/abbe2582-438e-11e8-baaf-8b3c5a3da888_story.html |archive-date=April 24, 2018 |date=April 24, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> and survivors have sent poetic loving tributes to departed loved ones<ref name=WPBF_PoemFromItaly_20190322>{{cite news |last1=Wright |first1=Shayne |title=Hobe Sound woman finds mysterious message in bottle on beach |url=https://www.wpbf.com/article/hobe-sound-woman-finds-mysterious-message-in-bottle-on-beach/26889773 |publisher=WPFB 25 |location=West Palm Beach, Florida |date=March 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190322134514/https://www.wpbf.com/article/hobe-sound-woman-finds-mysterious-message-in-bottle-on-beach/26889773 |archive-date=March 22, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> or sent their [[cremation|cremated remains (ashes)]] on a final journey.<ref name="InsideEdn20171108">{{cite web |title=Woman Finds Ashes and Message in a Bottle, 4 Years After It Was Sent Out to Sea |url=http://www.insideedition.com/woman-finds-ashes-and-message-bottle-4-years-after-it-was-sent-out-sea-37911 |work=Inside Edition |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108213846/http://www.insideedition.com/woman-finds-ashes-and-message-bottle-4-years-after-it-was-sent-out-sea-37911 |archive-date=November 8, 2017 |date=November 8, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=WKRN_20190524>{{cite news |title=Cremated remains of Tenn. woman found inside 'message in a bottle' |url=https://www.wkrn.com/news/cremated-remains-of-tenn-woman-found-inside-message-in-a-bottle-/2023886949 |publisher=WKRN |date=May 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190610125751/https://www.wkrn.com/news/cremated-remains-of-tenn-woman-found-inside-message-in-a-bottle-/2023886949 |archive-date=June 10, 2019 |location=Nashville, Tennessee |url-status=live }}</ref>

It was estimated in 2009 that since the mid-1900s, six million bottled messages had been released, including 500,000 from oceanographers.{{sfn |Ebbesmeyer |Scigliano |2009 |p=67 }}

==Bottle design and recovery rates==
Some bottles are ballasted with dry sand so that they float vertically at or near the ocean surface, and are less influenced by winds and breaking waves than other bottles that are purposely not ballasted.<ref name=NEFSCfisheries20140314/> Wooden blocks float higher in the water and thus are ''more'' influenced by wind—a design specially suited for simulating travel paths of [[Plastic pollution|plastic waste]] that is less dense than glass containers.<ref name=DW20161013>{{cite news |last1=Melanie |first1=Hall |title=Tackling plastic waste in oceans with 'wooden message in a bottle' |url=http://www.dw.com/en/tackling-plastic-waste-in-oceans-with-wooden-message-in-a-bottle/a-36031567 |publisher=Deutsche Welle |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018043919/http://www.dw.com/en/tackling-plastic-waste-in-oceans-with-wooden-message-in-a-bottle/a-36031567 |archive-date=October 18, 2016 |date=October 13, 2016 |url-status=live }} A research program from the University of Oldenburg (Germany) involves 100,000 wooden blocks of various thicknesses.</ref>

An early-20th-century "bottom" (or [[seabed]]) drift bottle design by [[George Parker Bidder III]] involved weighting a bottle with a long copper wire that causes it to sink until the wire trails upon the sea bottom, at which time the bottle tends to remain a few inches above the bottom to be moved by the bottom current.<ref name=Atlantic20120905/> A mushroom-shaped seabed drifter design <!--by P.M.J. Woodhead of the Fisheries Laboratory in Lowestoft, England,--> has also been used.<ref name=NEFSCfisheries20140314/> Seabed drifters are designed to be scooped up by a [[Fishing trawler|trawler]] or wash up on shore.<ref name=NatGeo20120920/>

Water pressure pressing on the cork or other closure was thought to keep a bottle better sealed;<ref name=NatGeo20120920/> some designs included a wooden stick to stop the cork from imploding.<ref name=NEFSCfisheries20140314/> Vessels of less scientific designs have survived for extended periods, including a [[baby food]] bottle<ref name=FoxNews20110527and0601>{{cite news |last1=Peterson |first1=Eric |title='Message in a bottle' found in bay apparently dates to Vietnam War era |url=http://fox11online.com/news/local/lakeshore/message-found-in-bottle-dates-back-to-vietnam-war |publisher=Fox 11 News (Green Bay, WI, U.S.) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160528154639/http://fox11online.com/news/local/lakeshore/message-found-in-bottle-dates-back-to-vietnam-war |archive-date=May 28, 2016 |date=May 27, 2016 |url-status=live }} • {{cite news |last1=Peterson |first1=Eric |title=Message in bottle mystery may be getting clearer |url=http://fox11online.com/news/local/lakeshore/message-in-bottle-mystery-may-be-getting-clearer |publisher=Fox 11 News (Green Bay, WI, U.S.) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602105100/http://fox11online.com/news/local/lakeshore/message-in-bottle-mystery-may-be-getting-clearer |archive-date=June 2, 2016 |date=June 1, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> a [[ginger beer]] bottle,<ref name=BBC19990518/> and a [[7-Up]] bottle.<ref name=WashTimes20160611/>

A low percentage of bottles—thought by some to be less than 3 percent—are actually recovered, so they are released in large numbers, sometimes in the thousands.<ref name=AmSurveyor200703/> Reported recovery rates for large-scale scientific studies vary based on the ocean of release, and range from 11 percent ([[Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution|Woods Hole]], 156,276 bottles from 1948 to 1962, Atlantic), to 10 percent (Woods Hole, 165,566 bottles from 1960 to 1970, Atlantic), to 3.4 percent ([[Scripps Institution of Oceanography|Scripps Institution]], 148,384 bottles from 1954 to 1971, Pacific).{{sfn |Kraske |1977 |pp=88–89 }} Oceanographic drift card recovery rates have ranged from 50 percent if released in densely populated areas ([[North Sea]], [[Puget Sound]]) to 1 percent in uninhabited areas ([[Antarctica]]).{{sfn |Ebbesmeyer |Scigliano |2009 |p=67 }} Recovery rates decrease as bottles are released further from shore, with oceanographer [[Curtis Ebbesmeyer]] developing a rule of thumb that bottles released more than 100 miles from shore have recovery rates below 10 percent, and "only a few percent" of those released more than 1,000 miles from shore are recovered.<ref name=IslandNet19990317>{{cite web|last1=Heidorn |first1=Keith C. |title=Of Shoes And Ships And Rubber Ducks And A Message In A Bottle |url=http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/elements/shoes.htm |website=IslandNet.com |location="The Weather Doctor" section |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513190816/http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/elements/shoes.htm |archive-date=May 13, 2016 |date=March 17, 1999 |url-status=live }} Article updated October 2010.</ref> About 90 percent of marine debris washes up on less than 10 percent of the world's coastlines, favoring beaches perpendicular to the dominant ocean current.<ref name=NYTimes_20150327/> Objects with similar buoyancy characteristics tend to collect together.<ref name=NYTimes_20150327>{{cite news |last1=Wollan |first1=Malia |title=How to Find a Message in a Bottle |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/magazine/how-to-find-a-message-in-a-bottle.html |work=The New York Times |date=March 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150329043445/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/magazine/how-to-find-a-message-in-a-bottle.html |archive-date=March 29, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>

A Scripps scientist said that marine organisms grow on the bottles, causing them to sink within eight to ten months unless washed ashore earlier.{{sfn |Kraske |1977 |p=89 }} An unknown number are found but not reported.{{sfn |Kraske |1977 |p=89 }}

==Time and distance==
Some drift bottles were not found for more than a century after being launched.<ref name=NatGeo20120920/><ref name=Telegraph20150820/><ref name=TheLocal20140408/><ref name=BBC20180306/><ref name=Smithsonian20180307/>

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 |quote = {{font|font=Times New Roman |size=14pt |{{nbsp|5}}''Drift bottles and seabed drifters<br />provide only a birth notice and an obituary – with no biography.''}} 
 |source = 1973, Dean F. Bumpus, Senior Scientist<br />Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst.<ref name=BumpusProgressOceanography1973>● {{cite journal |last1=Bumpus |first1=Dean F. |title=A description of the circulation on the continental shelf of the east coast of the United States |journal=Progress in Oceanography |date=1973 |volume=6 |page=150 |doi=10.1016/0079-6611(73)90006-2 |bibcode=1973PrOce...6..111B }} ● Quotation is freely accessible online from full-text secondary source: {{cite journal|last1=Fischer|first1=Hugo B.|title=Mixing processes on the Atlantic continental shelf, Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras|journal=Limnol. Oceanogr.|date=January 1980|volume=25|issue=1|page=115|doi=10.4319/lo.1980.25.1.0114|url=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.4319/lo.1980.25.1.0114/asset/lno19802510114.pdf?v=1&t=ist2ig0s&s=dae6d5e91e0eb3999643bad2f30c33c16ad6499c|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160907154618/http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.4319/lo.1980.25.1.0114/asset/lno19802510114.pdf?v=1&t=ist2ig0s&s=dae6d5e91e0eb3999643bad2f30c33c16ad6499c |archive-date= September 7, 2016 |url-status=live |bibcode=1980LimOc..25..114F|citeseerx=10.1.1.509.1774}}</ref>
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Floating objects may ride [[Ocean gyre|gyres]] (large circulating current systems) that are present in each ocean, and may be transferred from one ocean's gyre to another's.<ref name=Krajick2001/> Further, objects may be sidetracked by wind, storms, countercurrents, and ocean current variation.<ref name=Krajick2001>{{cite web|last1=Krajick |first1=Kevin |title=Message in a Bottle |url=http://courses.washington.edu/ocean200/Readings/Ebbesmeyer.pdf |publisher=University of Washington |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160918214856/http://courses.washington.edu/ocean200/Readings/Ebbesmeyer.pdf |archive-date=September 18, 2016 |date=2001 |url-status=live}} From ''Smithsonian,'' July 2001, pp. 36-42.</ref> Accordingly, drift bottles have traveled large distances,<ref name=NationalPost20160425/> with drifts of 4,000 to 6,000 miles and more—sometimes traveling 100 miles per day—not uncommon.<ref name=PanamaCanalRvw1971/> Bottles have traveled from the Beaufort Sea above northern Alaska and northwestern Canada to northern Europe; from Antarctica to Tasmania; from Mexico to the Philippines; from Canada's Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay to Irish, French, Scottish, and Norwegian beaches;<ref name=NatGeo20120920/> from the Galapagos Islands to Australia;<ref name=BrisbaneTimes20160227>{{cite news |last1=White |first1=Jorgia |title=Queensland police officer finds message in a bottle |url=http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/queensland-police-officer-finds-message-in-a-bottle-20160227-gn5g63.html |work=Brisbane Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160322183330/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/queensland-police-officer-finds-message-in-a-bottle-20160227-gn5g63.html |archive-date=March 22, 2016 |date=February 27, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> and  from New Zealand to Spain (practically [[antipodes]]).<ref name=NZHerald20180314>{{cite news |last1=Carter |first1=Charlotte |title=Message in the bottle from Whangarei to Spain may be a record breaker |url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12012437 |work=New Zealand Herald |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314121812/http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12012437 |archive-date=March 14, 2018 |date=March 14, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> Based on empirical data collected since 1901, a computer program called OSCURS (Ocean Surface Current Simulator) digitally simulates motion and timing of floating objects in and between ocean gyres.<ref name=AFSCNOAA199704>{{cite web|last1=Ingraham Jr. |first1=W. James |title=Getting to Know OSCURS, REFM's Ocean Surface Current Simulator |url=http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/REFM/docs/oscurs/get_to_know.htm |publisher=Alaska Fisheries Science Center (NOAA) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161128233913/http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/REFM/docs/oscurs/get_to_know.htm |archive-date=November 28, 2016 |url-status=live }} Originally published in the Alaska Fisheries Science Center ''Quarterly Report,'' April–May–June, 1997. Program limited  North Pacific from 10° N latitude to the Bering Strait.</ref>

Despite being launched substantial ''time periods'' before being found, some bottles have been found physically close to their original launch points, such as a message launched by two girls in 1915 and found in 2012 near [[Harsens Island]], Michigan, U.S.,<ref name=ABC20130620/> and a ten-year-old girl's message launched into the Indian River Bay in Delaware, U.S. in 1971 and found in adjacent Delaware Seashore State Park in 2016.<ref name=WashTimes20160611/>

==Historical examples==
''Historical examples are listed in chronological order, based on year of recovery (when applicable):''

[[File:1786-Benjamin-Franklin-Gulf-Stream-cropped.jpg | thumb | This late-1700s ocean circulation map was based on the work of [[Benjamin Franklin]] and James Poupard after conducting drift bottle experiments, apparently still unaware of the [[Gulf Stream]]'s origin in the [[Gulf of Mexico]].<ref name=AmSurveyor200703/>]]
[[File:'The Children of Captain Grant' by Édouard Riou 004.jpg | thumb| right | This romanticized [[Édouard Riou]] drawing of a message in a bottle was included in [[Jules Verne]]'s 1860s book ''[[In Search of the Castaways]]''.<ref name=GutenbergSearchCastaways20160327>{{cite book |last1=Verne |first1=Jules |title=In Search of the Castaways |date=1874 |publisher=J.B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia (original publisher) |edition=Project Gutenberg eBook released August 16, 2014 |chapter-url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/46597/46597-h/46597-h.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160327004414/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/46597/46597-h/46597-h.htm |archive-date=March 27, 2016 |chapter=Chapter 1. The Shark |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
[[File:St Kilda mailboat.jpg |thumb |A man launches a "[[St Kilda, Scotland|St Kilda]] mailboat" from the isolated island about {{convert|110|mi|km}} northwest of the Scottish mainland, ''ca.'' 1898.<ref name=ProjectKilda_20230304/> Usually formed of sheepskin bladders providing flotation for boat-shaped enclosures for letters, the "mailboats" reached Scotland with some degree of reliability, and also to Scandinavia.<ref name=ProjectKilda_20230304>{{cite web |title=At the edge of the world (St Kilda Mailboat) |url=https://kildaprojet.com/2016/03/04/at-the-edge-of-the-world-st-kilda-mailboat/ |website=KildaProjet.com |publisher=Le Project Kilda (The Kilda Project) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230610214028/https://kildaprojet.com/2016/03/04/at-the-edge-of-the-world-st-kilda-mailboat/ |archive-date=10 June 2023 |date=4 March 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>]]

=== Early examples ===
* It is reputed{{sfn |Ebbesmeyer |Scigliano |2009 |p=229 }} that about 310 BC, Aristotle's protégé Greek philosopher [[Theophrastus]] used bottled messages to determine if the [[Mediterranean Sea]] was formed by the [[Inflow (hydrology)|inflow]]ing [[Atlantic Ocean]].<ref name=NatGeo20120920/>
* When [[Christopher Columbus]] encountered a severe storm while returning from America, he is said to have written on parchment what he had found in the New World and requested it be forwarded to King [[Ferdinand II of Aragon|Ferdinand]] and Queen [[Isabella I of Castile|Isabella]], enclosed the parchment in a waxed cloth and placed it into a large wooden barrel to be cast into the sea.<ref name=Bergreen4voyages20120925/> The communication was never found.<ref name=Bergreen4voyages20120925>{{cite book |last1=Bergreen |first1=Laurence |title=Columbus: The Four Voyages, 1492-1504 |date=September 25, 2012 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0143122104 |edition=Reprint |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Dyhtkk4VQcC&q=columbus+%22message+in+a+bottle%22+isabella+-ohio&pg=PT117 }} "Part One: Discovery" (exact page does not show in Google Books preview).</ref>
* In 1784 [[Castaway#Chunosuke Matsuyama|Chunosuke Matsuyama]] sent a message detailing his and 43 shipmates' shipwrecking in a bottle that washed ashore and was found in 1935 by a Japanese seaweed collector in the village of Hiraturemura, Matsuyama's birthplace.<ref name=NatGeo20120920/>{{sfn |Kraske |1977 |pp=40–41 }}
* On April 15, 1841, the ''Wellington'', W.C. Kendrick, Commander, bound "from Madras and Cape bound to London", launched a bottled message in the mid-Atlantic (at 13°&nbsp;N) "for the purpose of throwing some light on the ocean currents".<ref name=Times-Picayune_1841>''The Times-Picayune''. October 26, 1841. Page 2. No author listed.  Republished information that appears to have originated in Guayama, Puerto Rico. Quote: "Ship Wellington of London, W.C. Kendrick, Commander, From Madras and Cape bound to London. Lat. 13 degrees 58' North, Long. 35 degrees 30' West. This bottle is dispatched for the purpose of throwing some light on the ocean currents, and it is earnestly requested that the time and place of finding it may be publicly made known. At Sea, April 15th, 1841."</ref>
* In 1847, from the brig ''Eagle'' laden with corn for the starving Irish in Waterford, Ireland, master Gregg dropped a bottled message with his location (42.40N, 54.10W) on March 27, requesting the find be sent to the ''Nautical Magazine'' (London) for publication to provide information on Atlantic currents. The bottle was retrieved on July 20 by Capt. Robert Oke on the revenue cutter ''Caledonia''<ref name=tocque1878>{{cite book |last=Tocque |first=Philip |date=1878 |title= Newfoundland: As it was and as it is in 1877 |url= http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/cns/id/127344 |location= Toronto, Ont.  |publisher= J.B. Magurn }}</ref> off the coast of Newfoundland (46.36N, 55.30W).<ref name=MorningCourier18470814>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=14 Aug 1847 |title=Memoranda |url=http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/compoundobject/collection/morncourier/id/930/rec/1 |work= Morning Courier |location=St. John's, Newfoundland |page=3 |access-date= 7 March 2017}} |via=Memorial University of Newfoundland Digital Archives Initiative</ref>
* In February 1862, the ''Bashford Hall'' "sent afloat a message in a bottle describing her perilous state." However, she arrived safely at Falmouth, England on March 6, 1862.<ref name=BelfastNewsLetter_1862>''Belfast News-Letter.'' May 12, 1862. Page 5. Belfast, North Ireland.</ref>
* After the January 11, 1866 sinking of the [[SS London (1864)|SS London]] in the [[Bay of Biscay]], bottled messages—reported as "farewell messages from passengers... to friends and relatives in England"—were reportedly found in months following.<ref name=HamiltonSpectator_18660512>''The Hamilton Spectator.'' Page 3. May 12, 1866. No author listed. Quotes: "The ''Argus'' contains an account of certain bottles found on the French coast of the terrible Bay of Biscay." A retelling of this account reveals that the bottles contained "farewell messages from passengers by the London to friends and relatives in England." According to one D.W. Lemmon, presumed drowned: "The ship is sinking," he wrote, "no hope of being saved." Mr. H.F.D. Denis wrote "Adieu, father, brothers and sisters, and my dear Edith. Steamer London, Bay of Biscay. Ship too heavily laden for its size, and too crank. Windows stove in. Water coming in everywhere. God bless my poor orphans. Storm not too violent for a ship in good condition."</ref>
* In 1875, ship's steward Van Hoydek and cabin boy Henry Trusillo of the British sailing ship ''Lennie'' released 24 bottled messages into the [[Bay of Biscay]], telling of the murder by mutineers of their captain and officers.<ref name=WesternStar18760513/> French authorities soon received the message, rescued Hoydek and Trusillo, and brought the mutineers to justice.<ref name=WesternStar18760513>{{cite news |title=Mutiny and Murder on the High Seas |url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/97420881 |work=The Western Star |location=National Library of Australia (NLA) Trove digitized newspapers |date=May 13, 1876 }}</ref>{{sfn |Kraske |1977 |pp=57–59 }}
* In 1876, on the remote Scottish island of [[St Kilda, Scotland#Way of life|St Kilda]], freelance journalist John Sands and marooned Austrian sailors deployed two messages requesting the Austrian Consul rescue them with provisions.<ref name=ShetlandTimes20160327/> The messages, each enclosed in a cocoa tin attached to a sheep's bladder for flotation in an arrangement later called a "St. Kilda [[mail boat]]",<ref name=StornowayGazette20151028>{{cite news |title=St Kilda Mail Boat reaches Norway |url=http://www.stornowaygazette.co.uk/what-s-on/leisure-time/st-kilda-mail-boat-reaches-norway-1-3930408 |work=Stornoway Gazette |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151029103524/http://www.stornowaygazette.co.uk/what-s-on/leisure-time/st-kilda-mail-boat-reaches-norway-1-3930408 |archive-date=October 29, 2015 |date=October 28, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref> were discovered in [[Orkney]] within nine days and in [[Ross, Scotland|Ross-Shire]] after 22 days.<ref name=ShetlandTimes20160327/> Since that time, sending "St. Kilda mail" has become a recreational ritual for island visitors, the containers often riding the [[Gulf Stream]] to the British mainland, [[Shetland]], [[Orkney]] and [[Scandinavia]].<ref name=ShetlandTimes20160327>{{cite news |last1=Murray |first1=Keegan |title=Sandwick bairns find 'St Kilda Mailboat' |url=http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2016/03/27/sandwick-bairns-find-st-kilda-mailboat |work=The Shetland Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416095930/http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2016/03/27/sandwick-bairns-find-st-kilda-mailboat |archive-date=April 16, 2016 |date=March 27, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== 20th century ===
* Message-bearing bottles from [[RMS Titanic|''Titanic'']] (1912)<ref name=IrishCentral20160402/> and [[RMS Lusitania|''Lusitania'']] (1915)<ref name=NatGeo20120920/> have been widely recounted as fact, but even before these bottles were found ''The Irish News'' stated in April 1912 that "very many" such stories turn out to be "cruel hoaxes".<ref name=IrishCentral20160402>{{cite news |last1=Moloney |first1=Senan |title=Faces of the Titanic: Jeremiah Burke sent a message in a bottle before his death |url=http://www.irishcentral.com/news/faces-of-the-titanic-jeremiah-burke-lost-his-life-at-19-put-a-message-in-a-bottle-before-he-died-146337625-237439851.html |work=IrishCentral.com |date=April 2, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415182346/http://www.irishcentral.com/news/faces-of-the-titanic-jeremiah-burke-lost-his-life-at-19-put-a-message-in-a-bottle-before-he-died-146337625-237439851.html |archive-date=April 15, 2016 |url-status=live}} Moloney quotes passages from other newspapers, including ''The Irish News.''</ref>
* In February 1916, when German [[Zeppelin LZ 54|Zeppelin L 19]] experienced unfavorable weather, battle damage and multiple engine failure after attacking the British [[The Midlands|Midlands]], its commander's last message to superiors and the crew's final letters to relatives were released into the North Sea to be found on a Swedish coast six months later.<ref name=ZeppelinMuseumTondern>{{cite web |url=http://www.zeppelin-museum.dk/D/german/historie/l-19/l-19.html |title=Das Tragödie von L19 (The tragedy of L19) |publisher=Zeppelin-Museums Tondern (Denmark) |language=de |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020702171704/http://www.zeppelin-museum.dk/D/german/historie/l-19/l-19.html |archive-date=July 2, 2002 |url-status=dead |access-date=June 10, 2010 }}</ref><ref name=FlightGlobal19160817>{{cite news |title=Last Messages from "L 19" |url=http://flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1916/1916%20-%200709.html |work=[[Flightglobal]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141104104317/http://flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1916/1916%20-%200709.html |archive-date=November 4, 2014 |page=707 |date=August 17, 1916 |url-status=live}}</ref> The written descriptions of how a British fishing trawler had refused to rescue the downed Zeppelin's crew—the trawler captain claiming he feared the German airmen would overpower his own unarmed crew—contributed to an enduring international controversy.<ref name=BBC20050215>''See'' {{cite news |title=Inside Out investigates why air raid on Midlands led to British fisherman being accused of war crimes |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/02_february/15/io_airraids.shtml |publisher=BBC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050306230522/http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/02_february/15/io_airraids.shtml |archive-date=March 6, 2005 |date=February 15, 2005 |url-status=live }}</ref>
*On December 23, 1927, [[Frances Wilson Grayson]], niece of U.S. President [[Woodrow Wilson]], was to attempt to be the first woman to make a transatlantic flight (non-solo). However, her Sikorsky amphibian plane disappeared en route from New York's [[Long Island]] to [[Harbour Grace]], Newfoundland, and was never found. A bottled message was found in [[Salem Harbor]], Massachusetts, in January 1929, the unauthenticated message reading, "1928, we are freezing. Gas leaked out. We are drifting off Grand Banks. Grayson."<ref name=DailyObserver_20101209>{{cite news |last1=Chase |first1=Sean |title=Vanished at sea -the doomed obsession of Frances Wilson Grayson |url=http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/2010/12/09/vanished-at-sea-the-doomed-obsession-of-frances-wilson-grayson |work=The Daily Observer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170424174024/http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/2010/12/09/vanished-at-sea-the-doomed-obsession-of-frances-wilson-grayson |archive-date=April 24, 2017 |date=December 9, 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In December 1928, a trapper working at the mouth of the [[Agawa River]], Ontario, found a bottled note from Alice Bettridge, an assistant stewardess in her early twenties who initially survived the December 1927 sinking in a blizzard of the freighter ''[[SS Kamloops|Kamloops]]'' and, before she herself perished, wrote "I am the last one left alive, freezing and starving to death on [[Isle Royale]] in Lake Superior. I just want mom and dad to know my fate."<ref name=SooToday_20190526>{{cite news |title=A shipwreck, a young woman and a message in a bottle |url=https://www.sootoday.com/columns/remember-this/a-shipwreck-a-young-woman-and-a-message-in-a-bottle-1473946 |work=SooToday.com |date=May 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190612185556/https://www.sootoday.com/columns/remember-this/a-shipwreck-a-young-woman-and-a-message-in-a-bottle-1473946 |archive-date=June 12, 2019 |quote=From the archives of the [[Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario|Sault Ste. Marie]] Public Library. |url-status=live }} Handwriting confirmed by parents.</ref>
* In 1929, a bottle that came to be known as the Flying Dutchman was released by a German marine science expedition with instructions for any finders to report the find but return the bottle to the sea.{{sfn |Moody |2010 |loc=II. Adrift at Sea }} Found at several locations in succession, the Flying Dutchman traveled 16,000 miles from its release point in the southern [[Indian Ocean]], to [[Cape Horn]] in South America, and back through the Indian Ocean to its last reported find in 1935 on the west coast of Australia.{{sfn |Moody |2010 |loc=II. Adrift at Sea }}
* On the night of March 28, 1941 in the last moments of the [[Battle of Cape Matapan]], aboard the sinking cruiser [[Italian cruiser Fiume|Fiume]] Italian sailor Francesco Chirico wrote a farewell message and threw it overboard in a bottle. Chirico's message, including a note, "Please give news to my dear mother that I die for the homeland...", was found in 1952 near [[Villasimius]], [[Sardinia]].<ref name="aCittaDiSalerno_20181002">{{cite news |last1=Sansone |first1=Vito |title=Il messaggio in bottiglia del marinai |trans-title=The sailor's message in the bottle |url=https://www.lacittadisalerno.it/cultura-e-spettacoli/il-messaggio-in-bottiglia-del-marinaio-1.2036523 |work=La Città di Salerno |date=October 2, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200312172618/https://www.lacittadisalerno.it/cultura-e-spettacoli/il-messaggio-in-bottiglia-del-marinaio-1.2036523 |archive-date=March 12, 2020 |language=it |url-status=live }}</ref>
* On January 7, 1943, a [[Schweppes]] lemonade bottle was found near [[Woolnorth]] in northwestern [[Tasmania]], containing a penciled message thrown overboard on April 17, 1916, by Australian soldier John Oppy as his troop ship passed between [[Encounter Bay]] and [[Kangaroo Island]], South Australia.<ref name=Condobolin_19430201/> Oppy himself survived to see the message returned.<ref name=Condobolin_19430201>{{cite news |title=After Twentyseven Years in Ocean / Bottle Found With Soldier's Note in It / Now Back in Hands of the Writer, Jack Oppy, of Condobolin. |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/214439959 |work=Lachlander and Condobolin and Western Districts Recorder |date=February 1, 1943 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924195231/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/214439959 |archive-date=September 24, 2019 |location=Condobolin, NSW, Australia |url-status=live }}</ref>
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* On Christmas Day 1945, 21-year-old medical corpsman [[Frank Hayostek]] threw a message-laden aspirin bottle from his [[Liberty ship]] as it approached New York, the bottle being found eight months later near [[Dingle]], [[County Kerry]], by Irish milkmaid Breda O'Sullivan.<ref name=IrishIndep20120805/> Her mailed reply began a correspondence that inspired Hayostek to save money for airfare to visit O'Sullivan in 1952.<ref name=IrishIndep20120805/> Intense media attention for the "impossibly romantic story",<ref name=RTEradioOne20120828/> including [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] stories, overshadowed their two-week visit, the two parting but corresponding until they married other people in 1958 and 1959.<ref name=IrishIndep20120805/> Media attention endured through the sixtieth anniversary of their meeting,<ref name=RTEradioOne20120828>''See'' {{cite news |title=Message in a Bottle |url=https://www.rte.ie/radio/doconone/647286-documentary-podcast-message-in-a-bottle-frank-hayostek-breda-osullivan |publisher=[[RTÉ Radio One]] |work=[[Documentary on One]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227215821/https://www.rte.ie/radio/doconone/647286-documentary-podcast-message-in-a-bottle-frank-hayostek-breda-osullivan |archive-date=December 27, 2021 |date=August 4, 2012 |url-status=live }} Site includes downloadable mp3 podcast.</ref> 2–3 years after their deaths.<ref name=RTE_20140325>{{cite news |title=Message in a Bottle |url=https://www.rte.ie/radio/doconone/2012/1228/647286-documentary-podcast-message-in-a-bottle-frank-hayostek-breda-osullivan/ |work=RTE |date=March 25, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227215607/https://www.rte.ie/radio/doconone/2012/1228/647286-documentary-podcast-message-in-a-bottle-frank-hayostek-breda-osullivan/ |archive-date=December 27, 2021 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=IrishIndep20120805>{{cite news|last1=Quinlan |first1=Ailin |title=The GI and the Irish colleen |url=http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/the-gi-and-the-irish-colleen-26883730.html |work=Irish Independent |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816132128/http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/the-gi-and-the-irish-colleen-26883730.html |archive-date=August 16, 2016 |date=August 5, 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In 1955, a bottle from a 1903 German [[Antarctica|Antarctic]] expedition was found in [[New Zealand]], about 3400 miles from its launch point between the [[Kerguelen Islands]] and [[Tasmania]]; however, [[Hydrography|hydrographers]] surmise it had drifted around the world many times.<ref name=CanberraTimes19910807>{{cite news |title=Bottles washed up on beaches with various corked messages |url=https://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-10450/australian-newspapers?itemId=9216673&action=showRecord |work=The Canberra Times |date=August 7, 1991 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160906142008/https://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-10450/australian-newspapers?itemId=9216673&action=showRecord |archive-date=September 6, 2016 |location=National Library of Australia (NLA) |via=MyHeritage.com |page=23 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In 1956, Swedish sailor Ake Viking sent a bottled message "To Someone Beautiful and Far Away" that reached a 17-year-old Sicilian girl named Paolina, sparking a correspondence that culminated in their marriage in 1958.<ref name=MNN20130816>{{cite web |last1=Breyer |first1=Melissa |title=Message in a bottle: 8 striking stories of letters sent to sea |url=http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/message-in-a-bottle-8-striking-stories-of-letters-sent-to-sea |publisher=Mother Nature Network<!--considered a Google News source--> |date=August 11, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130816004008/http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/message-in-a-bottle-8-striking-stories-of-letters-sent-to-sea |archive-date=August 16, 2013 |url-status=live }} • Confirmed accurate, with a 1959 quotation from ''[[The American Weekly]],'' at [http://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/man_meets_wife_via_message_in_a_bottle "Man Meets Wife Via Message-in-a-Bottle"], hoaxes.org, August 18, 2007 ([https://web.archive.org/web/20151209162643*/http://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/man_meets_wife_via_message_in_a_bottle archive]).</ref> The affair attracted so much attention that 4,000 people celebrated their wedding.<ref name=Randazzo2008>{{cite web |last1=Randazzo |first1=Antonio |title=Sposi in bottiglia Siracusa (Spouse in a Bottle -- Syracuse) |url=http://www.antoniorandazzo.it/ricordando/sposi-in-bottiglia-siracusa.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160815215240/http://www.antoniorandazzo.it/ricordando/sposi-in-bottiglia-siracusa.html |archive-date=August 15, 2016 |date=2008 |url-status=live }} Images also [https://web.archive.org/web/20160815215641/http://anteassrcenacolopoetico.blogspot.com/2008/03/matrimonio-in-bottiglia.html here].</ref>
* In 1959 [[Guinness Brewery]] launched 150,000 bottles into the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea in a promotional campaign.<ref name=Krajick2001/> It was reported that [[Inuit]] hunters on [[Coats Island]], in Canada's [[Hudson Bay]], found 80 of the bottles.<ref name=Krajick2001/>
* In 1969, a Canadian scientific expedition dropped a message bottle through a hole in the drift ice at the approximate North Pole. The bottle was found in 1972 in northeast Iceland.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Fred |last=Roots |title=Why the North Pole matters: An important history of challenges and global fascination |date=14 March 2017 |magazine=[[Canadian Geographic]] |url=https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/why-the-north-pole-matters-an-important-history-of-challenges-and-global-fascination/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230606164310/https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/why-the-north-pole-matters-an-important-history-of-challenges-and-global-fascination/  |archive-date=6 June 2023 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In May 1976, ''[[National Geographic World]]'' magazine released 1,000 bottles—250 per week—from the cruise ship [[MS Formosa Queen|Song of Norway]], with instructions in five languages to fill out and return cards, in order to help map ocean currents.<ref name=Wilson19760726>{{cite news |title=Fishing for Bottles |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/wilson-daily-times-jul-26-1976-p-3/ |work=Wilson Daily Times |agency=Associated Press |date=July 26, 1976 |page=3 }}</ref>
* In 1978, a Russian researcher discovered a bottled message in the [[Franz Josef Land]], north of mainland Russia, that was deposited by [[Karl Weyprecht]], leader of the 1872–1874 [[Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition]] which sought a [[Northeast Passage]].<ref name=AWI2006/><ref name=Karl-weyprecht.org>{{cite web |title=Polarforschung Gestern / Historischer Teil über Carl Weyprecht und die Expedition von 1872-1874 (Polar research yesterday Historical part about Carl Weyprecht and the expedition from 1872-1874) |url=http://www.carl-weyprecht.org/ausstellung.html |website=Carl-Weyprecht.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150811231525/http://www.carl-weyprecht.org/ausstellung.html |archive-date=August 11, 2015 |language=German |date=2013 |url-status=dead }} (publication date estimated based on earliest Archive.org archive)</ref>
* A message that an American couple released from a cruise ship approaching [[Hawaii]] in 1979 was found off [[Songkhla Province|Songkhla Beach, Thailand]] by a former South Vietnamese soldier and his family as they fled that country's communist regime by boat.<ref name=LATimes19850426/> A correspondence relationship began in 1983, and the couple worked with [[Immigration and Naturalization Service|U.S. Immigration]] to help the Vietnamese family obtain [[Refugee#Refugee status|refugee status]] in 1985 and move to the U.S.<ref name=LATimes19850426>{{cite news |last1=Becklund |first1=Laurie |title=Bobbing Message at Sea Alters Viet Refugees' Lives : Note in Bottle--a Ticket to Freedom |url=http://articles.latimes.com/1985-04-26/news/mn-20828_1_refugee-camp |work=Los Angeles Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120328055639/http://articles.latimes.com/1985-04-26/news/mn-20828_1_refugee-camp |archive-date=March 28, 2012 |date=April 26, 1985 |url-status=live}}</ref>
* In 1991 a bottled message found on [[Vancouver Island]], Canada, urged the release of Chinese dissident [[Wei Jingsheng]].<ref name=Krajick2001/><ref name=IslandNet19990317/> Believed to have been released in 1980 near [[Quemoy]] Island, China, it is thought to be among [[Taiwan]] propaganda bottles launched toward mainland [[China]].<ref name=Krajick2001/><ref name=IslandNet19990317/>
* In what was described as "perhaps the most famous message in a bottle love story",<ref name=Newsweek20160307/> in March 1999 a green ginger beer bottle was dredged up by a fisherman off the [[Essex]] coast, the bottle containing an 84 year old letter tossed into the [[English channel]] on September 9, 1914, by British soldier Private Thomas Hughes <!--two??? (disputed)-->days before he was killed in fighting in France.<ref name=BBC19990518/> Hughes' letter, written for delivery to his wife who had died in 1979, was delivered instead to his then 86-year-old daughter in [[New Zealand]] by the fisherman himself, who with his own wife was flown to New Zealand at the expense of [[New Zealand Post]].<ref name=BBC19990518>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/346879.stm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091030075740/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/346879.stm |archive-date=October 30, 2009 |date=May 18, 1999 |work=BBC News |title=Sweet message in a bottle |url-status=live }} • Some references ([https://web.archive.org/web/20160320165737/http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/879168/HUGHES%2C%20THOMAS example: Commonwealth War Graves Commission]) state that Hughes died twelve days later, not two days later as most popularly reported.</ref>
[[File:1906MarineBiolAssnPostcard.png | thumb|upright=1.5 |This postcard, inserted into a bottle launched by the Marine Biological Association of the U.K. ''circa'' 1906, was found in 2015.<ref name=Telegraph20150820/>]]

=== 21st century ===
* A teardrop-shaped bottle was found in March 2002 on a beach in [[Kent]], England, containing an unsigned letter from a French woman expressing her enduring grief over the death of her son at age 13.<ref name=Guardian20100813/><ref name=Telegraph20100627/> British author [[Karen Liebreich]] spent years of research, unsuccessfully trying to find the mother and eventually publishing a book called ''The Letter in the Bottle'' (2006).<ref name=Telegraph20100627/> The book was published in French in 2009, sparking huge media coverage<ref name=Guardian20100813/> that alerted the mother for the first time that her letter had actually been discovered.<ref name=Telegraph20100627/> Saying she initially felt violated by publication of her personal suffering, on condition of continued anonymity, she agreed to tell Liebreich the details of her son's 1981 death in a bicycle accident, her decades of suffering afterwards, and the story surrounding release of her letter from an [[English Channel]] ferry.<ref name=Guardian20100813>{{cite news |last1=Daoust |first1=Phil |title=I found a message in a bottle |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/14/karen-liebreich-letter-in-a-bottle |work=[[The Guardian]]|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20160909181857/https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/14/karen-liebreich-letter-in-a-bottle |archive-date=September 9, 2016 |date=August 13, 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Telegraph20100627>{{cite news |last1=Liebreich |first1=Karen |title=The mystery of the message in the bottle |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/7836150/The-mystery-of-the-message-in-the-bottle.html |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100630085244/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/7836150/The-mystery-of-the-message-in-the-bottle.html |archive-date=June 30, 2010 |date=June 27, 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In May 2005, three days after eighty-eight migrants were abandoned by [[People smuggling|human smugglers]] on a disabled boat, the migrants tied an SOS-bearing bottle to a long line of a passing fishing vessel, whose captain alerted authorities to rescue the migrants.<ref name=CNNguardian20050531>• {{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/05/31/message.in.bottle/ |title=Message in bottle saves drifting migrants |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050729082439/http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/05/31/message.in.bottle/ |archive-date=July 29, 2005 |date=May 31, 2005 |publisher=CNN |url-status=dead }} • {{cite news |last1=Jimenez |first1=Marianela |title=Message in bottle saves stranded migrants |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jun/01/1 |work=The Guardian |agency=Associated Press |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130829055738/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jun/01/1 |archive-date=August 29, 2013 |date=May 31, 2005 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* On December 10, 2006, a bottom drift bottle, released on April 25, 1914, northeast of the [[Shetland]] Islands by the Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen, U.K., was recovered by a Shetland fisherman, after the bottle had spent over 92 years at sea.<ref name=Guinness20120202>{{cite web |title=Oldest message in a bottle |url=http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-1/oldest-message-in-a-bottle/ |work=Guinness World Records |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120202015451/http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-1/oldest-message-in-a-bottle/ |archive-date=February 2, 2012 |date=February 2, 2012 |url-status=dead }} Guinness web page was subsequently superseded; refer instead to archive link.</ref>
* In October 2011 in waters off [[Somalia]], the crew of the [[Piracy off the coast of Somalia|pirated]] cargo ship ''Montecristo'' used a bottle with a flashing beacon to alert [[NATO]] ships that they had retreated to an armored room, permitting a military rescue operation to proceed with knowledge that the crew was not being held hostage.<ref name=Wired20111014>{{cite magazine |last1=Rawnsley |first1=Adam |title=Message in a Bottle: Old-School S.O.S. Helps Rescue Hijacked Ship |magazine=Wired |url=https://www.wired.com/2011/10/old-school-sos/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817060212/https://www.wired.com/2011/10/old-school-sos/ |archive-date=August 17, 2016 |date=October 14, 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In April 2012 a fisherman recovered a bottom drift bottle that had been released 98 years earlier, on June 10, 1914,<ref name=NatGeo20120920/><ref name=Atlantic20120905>{{cite magazine |last1=Madrigal |first1=Alexis C. |title=Found: World's Oldest Message in a Bottle, Part of 1914 Citizen-Science Experiment |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/found-worlds-oldest-message-in-a-bottle-part-of-1914-citizen-science-experiment/261981/ |magazine=The Atlantic |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304101117/http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/found-worlds-oldest-message-in-a-bottle-part-of-1914-citizen-science-experiment/261981/ |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |date=September 5, 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> one of 1,890 released by the Glasgow School of Navigation to test undercurrents in the seas around Scotland.<ref name=YahooNews20120830>{{cite news |last1=Pfeiffer |first1=Eric |title=98-year-old message in bottle sets world record |url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/blogs/sideshow/98-old-message-bottle-sets-world-record-005350603.html |work=Yahoo News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160730203016/https://www.yahoo.com/news/blogs/sideshow/98-old-message-bottle-sets-world-record-005350603.html |archive-date=July 30, 2016 |date=August 30, 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> The 2012 find occurred east of [[Shetland]] by the ''Copious,'' the same fishing vessel involved in the 2006 find.<ref name=BBC20120830>{{cite news |title=World record as message in bottle found after 98 years near Shetland |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-19422354 |publisher=[[BBC News]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151229064308/http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-19422354 |archive-date=December 29, 2015 |date=August 30, 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In a 2013 promotional campaign, Norwegian soft drink company [[Solo (Norwegian soft drink)|Solo]] released a 26-foot, 2.7-ton [[wiktionary:replica|replica]] soda bottle outfitted with a customized camera, navigation lights, an [[automatic identification system]], a radar reflector, and GPS tracking technology, all powered by solar panels.<ref name=Gizmag20130418>{{cite web |last1=Fincher |first1=Jonathan |title=Norwegian soda company sets world's largest message in a bottle adrift |url=http://www.gizmag.com/worlds-largest-message-in-a-bottle/27137/ |work=Gizmag|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140827100654/http://www.gizmag.com/worlds-largest-message-in-a-bottle/27137/ |archive-date=August 27, 2014 |date=April 18, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> The craft drifted from [[Tenerife]], [[Canary Islands]], while broadcasting its location, but its electronics were stolen by pirates before its five-month trip terminated at [[Los Roques archipelago]] near Venezuela.<ref name=CanarianWeekly20130906>{{cite web |title=Pirates empty big yellow bottle |url=http://www.canarianweekly.com/pirates-empty-big-yellow-bottle/ |publisher=Canarian Weekly |location=Canary Islands |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160730024207/http://www.canarianweekly.com/pirates-empty-big-yellow-bottle/ |archive-date=July 30, 2016 |date=September 6, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In April 2013, a kite-surfer near the mouth of Croatia's [[Neretva]] River recovered a bottle containing a message purporting to have been sent in 1985 from [[Nova Scotia]] to fulfill a promise by a "Jonathon" to write to one "Mary".<ref name=AustBroadCorp20130418>{{cite news |title=Message in a bottle washes up after 28 years |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-18/message-in-a-bottle-washes-up-after-28-years/4636320 |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC Online); Reuters |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140409072810/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-18/message-in-a-bottle-washes-up-after-28-years/4636320 |archive-date=April 9, 2014 |date=April 18, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> The message received international media attention.<ref name=DubrovakVjesnik20130417>{{cite web|last1=Šunjić |first1=Ante |title=Matea pronašla bocu s porukom o kojoj pišu svi svjetski mediji (Matea found a bottle with a message world media would write about) |url=http://dubrovacki.hr/clanak/50789/matea-medak-rezic-cistila-plazu-i-dozivjela-iznenadenje |publisher=Dubrovack Vjesnik |location=Croatia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130420031001/http://dubrovacki.hr/clanak/50789/matea-medak-rezic-cistila-plazu-i-dozivjela-iznenadenje |archive-date=April 20, 2013 |date=April 17, 2013 |url-status=dead |language=hr }}</ref>
* In March 2014, a fisherman on the [[Baltic Sea]] near [[Kiel]] recovered a drift bottle containing a Danish postcard dated May 17, 1913, and signed by a then-20-year-old baker's son named Richard Platz, who asked for it to be delivered to his [[Berlin]] address.<ref name=TheLocal20140408/> Researchers located Platz's granddaughter, by then 62, and delivered the 101-year-old message to her, Platz himself having died in 1946.<ref name=TheLocal20140408>{{cite news |title='World's oldest' message in a bottle arrives home |url=http://www.thelocal.de/20140408/granddaughter-gets-100-year-old-message-in-bottle-reaches-granddaughter |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150114032756/http://www.thelocal.de/20140408/granddaughter-gets-100-year-old-message-in-bottle-reaches-granddaughter |archive-date=January 14, 2015 |work=The Local |location=Germany |date=8 April 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:18860612 Paula message in bottle.jpg | thumb|upright=1.5 |right | This bottled message, released June 12, 1886, from a German sailing vessel in the Indian Ocean as part of a drift bottle study, was found on a beach in Western Australia in 2018.<ref name=ABCau20180306/>]]
* An April 2015 find on the North Sea island of [[Amrum]], Germany, of a 108-year-old bottle sent by the [[Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom]] in Plymouth, was one of 1,020 released into the North Sea between 1904 and 1906 by former association president [[George Parker Bidder III]].<ref name=Telegraph20150820>{{cite news |last1=Huggler |first1=Justin |title=World's oldest message in a bottle washes up in Germany after 108 years at sea |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/11815044/Worlds-oldest-message-in-a-bottle-washes-up-in-Germany-after-108-years-at-sea.html |work=The Telegraph |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160130091409/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/11815044/Worlds-oldest-message-in-a-bottle-washes-up-in-Germany-after-108-years-at-sea.html |archive-date=January 30, 2016 |date=August 20, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>
* In 2016, Cuban migrants who had fled Cuba in a homemade boat, launched a bottled [[SOS]] message complaining of their treatment while being detained for 42 days aboard a [[United States Coast Guard Cutter]].<ref name=CNN20160721>{{cite news |last1=Oppmann |first1=Patrick |title=Cubans who climbed lighthouse allege inhumane treatment in U.S. custody |url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/21/americas/cuba-lighthouse-migrants/ |publisher=CNN |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160722125921/http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/21/americas/cuba-lighthouse-migrants/ |archive-date=July 22, 2016 |date=July 21, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In late 2016, a [[barnacle]]-encrusted, [[kelp]]-tangled [[GoPro]] video camera was recovered, the camera's [[memory card]] preserving footage showing the prelude to the camera's being swept overboard four years earlier, and also recording its first two hours underwater off [[Fingal Bay]], Australia.<ref name=SydneyMornHer20161103>{{cite news |last1=Connell |first1=Tim |title=GoPro lost at sea is reunited with its owner after four years |url=http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/gopro-lost-at-sea-is-reunited-with-its-owner-after-four-years-20161103-gsh2c6.html |work=[[Sydney Morning Herald]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112052703/http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/gopro-lost-at-sea-is-reunited-with-its-owner-after-four-years-20161103-gsh2c6.html |archive-date=November 12, 2016 |date=November 3, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>
* In 2017, a small unmanned boat made by high school students and having solar panels, sensors and camera, drifted on an unexpected path from near [[Maine]], to approach Spain and Portugal, then drift westward back into the Atlantic and northward to be discovered in [[Benbecula]] in the western isles of Scotland.<ref name=PortlandPressHerald20170627/> The boat had a waterproof pod containing a chip that collected sensor data.<ref name=PortlandPressHerald20170627>{{cite news |last1=Graham |first1=Gillian |title=Little boat built by students in Kennebunk completes Atlantic crossing |url=http://www.pressherald.com/2017/06/27/kennebunk-student-made-boat-completes-long-overseas-journey/ |work=[[Portland Press Herald]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170627093653/http://www.pressherald.com/2017/06/27/kennebunk-student-made-boat-completes-long-overseas-journey/ |archive-date=June 27, 2017 |date=June 27, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>
* In July 2017, a Scottish [[widow]]er seeking female companionship set 2,000 bottled messages adrift at various locations around the U.K., and though claiming he received responses from 50 women, ceased the practice in response to public complaints and an investigation by the [[Scottish Environment Protection Agency]].<ref name=BBC20170727>{{cite news |title=Bottle man lands 50 potential dates |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-40738484 |publisher=BBC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171113022838/http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-40738484 |archive-date=November 13, 2017 |date=July 27, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In January 2018, a couple walking on a beach in [[Western Australia]] discovered a bottled message that had been launched on June 12, 1886, from the German [[barque]] {{ship||Paula|1876 barque|2}} conducting drift bottle experiments for the German Naval Observatory.<ref name=BBC20180306/><ref name=Smithsonian20180307/> The message's authenticity was corroborated through the ship captain's original Meteorological Journal, and, at 131 years' duration, eclipsed the previous corroborated record duration of 108 years.<ref name=BBC20180306>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-43299283 |title=Oldest message in a bottle found on beach |date=March 6, 2018 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180307062450/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-43299283 |archive-date=March 7, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Smithsonian20180307>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/131-year-old-message-bottle-found-australian-beach-180968381/ |title=131-Year-Old Message in a Bottle Found on Australian Beach |date=March 7, 2018 |last=Katz |first=Brigit |magazine=Smithsonian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180308042633/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/131-year-old-message-bottle-found-australian-beach-180968381/ |archive-date=March 8, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> The bottle's thick glass and its opening's narrow bore are thought to have protected the paper from the elements.<ref name=BBC20180306/>
* In the summer of 2018, a bottled typewritten message dated March 26, 1930, was discovered in the roof of the twelfth-century [[Goslar Cathedral]] in [[Goslar|Goslar, Germany]], signed by four roofers who bemoaned the economic state of that country.<ref name=WashPost20180919/> The bottle was discovered by a roofer who was the grandson of one of the signatories, who had been an 18-year-old roofing apprentice in 1930.<ref name=WashPost20180919/> Goslar's mayor replaced the bottle with a copy of the 1930 message, adding his own confidential message.<ref name=WashPost20180919>{{cite news |last1=Beck |first1=Luisa |title=A German roofer working on a cathedral found a message in bottle, written by his grandfather |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/a-german-roofer-working-on-a-cathedral-found-a-message-in-a-bottle-written-by-his-grandfather/2018/09/19/01ddcf8c-b69c-11e8-a2c5-3187f427e253_story.html |newspaper=[[Washington Post]]|date=September 19, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180920113802/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/a-german-roofer-working-on-a-cathedral-found-a-message-in-a-bottle-written-by-his-grandfather/2018/09/19/01ddcf8c-b69c-11e8-a2c5-3187f427e253_story.html |archive-date=September 20, 2018 |url-status=live }} ("Difficult times of war lie behind us. ... We hope for better times soon to come.")</ref>
* In May 2019, a [[Gatorade]] bottle with a four-page letter, written in Spanish, was found in Brown Bay, near [[Mount Gambier, South Australia]]. The letter had been sent from [[Caleta Córdoba]], near [[Comodoro Rivadavia]], Argentina by a mother and two children as a loving tribute to their husband and father who had died of a stroke a year earlier.<ref name=SydneyMornHerald_20191123>{{cite news |last1=Cowie |first1=Tom |last2=Fowler |first2=Michael |title=Message in a bottle crosses two oceans to land on an Australian beach |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/message-in-a-bottle-crosses-two-oceans-to-land-on-an-australian-beach-20191122-p53d9a.html |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=November 23, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127181732/https://www.smh.com.au/national/message-in-a-bottle-crosses-two-oceans-to-land-on-an-australian-beach-20191122-p53d9a.html |archive-date=November 27, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In June 2019, three hikers trapped above a waterfall on [[California]]'s [[Arroyo Seco (Salinas River tributary)|Arroyo Seco tributary]] released a [[Nalgene]] bottled SOS message that was quickly discovered a quarter mile (0.4&nbsp;km) downstream, allowing them to be rescued by helicopter the following morning.<ref name=CBS_20190911>{{cite news |title=Message in a bottle leads to rescue of California family stranded on 40-foot waterfall |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-family-stranded-on-top-of-waterfall-saved-by-message-in-a-bottle/ |publisher=CBS News |date=September 11, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190911180058/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-family-stranded-on-top-of-waterfall-saved-by-message-in-a-bottle/ |archive-date=September 11, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=WashPost_20190909>{{cite news |last1=Free |first1=Cathy |title=Trapped at a waterfall, this man sent out an SOS message in a bottle. Someone actually found it downstream. |url=https://beta.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/09/09/trapped-waterfall-this-man-sent-out-an-sos-message-bottle-someone-actually-found-it-downstream/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=September 9, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190911032229/https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/09/09/trapped-waterfall-this-man-sent-out-an-sos-message-bottle-someone-actually-found-it-downstream/?arc404=true&noredirect=on |archive-date=September 11, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In late 2019, a bottled message launched on August 1, 1994, by 12-year-old Ryan Mead was found near the mouth of the [[Taramakau River]], [[New Zealand]], the find occurring mere months after Mead died at age 37 in a freak accident inhaling fumes while laying carpet.<ref name=Stuff_NZ_20191122>{{cite news |last1=Carroll |first1=Joanne |title=Message in bottle washes up from man who died in 'freak accident' in March |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/117647025/message-in-bottle-washes-up-from-man-who-died-in-freak-accident-in-march |work=Stuff |date=November 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191123172817/https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/117647025/message-in-bottle-washes-up-from-man-who-died-in-freak-accident-in-march |archive-date=November 23, 2019 |location=New Zealand}}</ref>

== Long-duration events ==
Table listing long-duration (>25-year) events involving messages in bottles:

{{collapse top |bg=#dfd |title=Click at right to show/hide Table }}

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"
|+ <small>(Still-living individuals are not identified by name unless they are independently notable.)</small>

! scope="col" style="width:8em;"| Sender
! scope="col" style="width:3em;"|Date launched
! scope="col" style="width:10em;"|Place launched
! scope="col" style="width:3em;"|Date found
! scope="col" style="width:10em;"|Place found
! scope="col" style="width:3em;"|Duration (years)
! scope="col" style="width:2em;"|Ref.
|-
| Chunosuke Matsuyama, seaman || 1784 || Island in Pacific || 1935 || Hiraturemura, [[Japan]] || 151 || <ref name=NatGeo20120920/>{{sfn |Kraske |1977 |pp=40-41 }}
|-
| James Ritchie and John Grieve || 1887-10-06 || [[Edinburgh]], [[Scotland]] <sup>s</sup> || 2022-11-13 || Under floorboards of house || 135 || <ref>{{Cite news |first1=Angie |last1=Brown |title=135-year-old message in a bottle found under floorboards |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-63678138.amp |publisher=BBC News |date=2022-11-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229110452/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-63678138.amp |archive-date=29 December 2022 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| German sailing [[barque]] {{ship||Paula|1876 barque|2}} || 1886-06-12 || Indian Ocean, 950&nbsp;km off [[Western Australia]] || 2018-01 || Near [[Wedge Island (Western Australia)|Wedge Island]],<br /> Western Australia || 131.6 || <ref name=BBC20180306/><ref name=Smithsonian20180307/><ref name=ABCau20180306>{{cite news |last1=Hamlyn |first1=Charlotte |title=Oldest-known message in a bottle found on WA beach 132 years after being tossed overboard |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-06/oldest-known-message-in-a-bottle-found-on-wa-beach/9518632 |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180306143212/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-06/oldest-known-message-in-a-bottle-found-on-wa-beach/9518632 |archive-date=March 6, 2018 |date=March 6, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=ORFat20180306>{{cite news |title=Flaschenpost nach 132 Jahren in Australien gefunden (Bottle mail found in Australia after 132 years) |url=http://orf.at//stories/2429124/ |work=Österreichischer Rundfunk (Radio Austria) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180306164142/http://orf.at//stories/2429124/ |archive-date=March 6, 2018 |date=March 6, 2018 |url-status=live}} Includes English-language video.</ref>
|-
| [[George Parker Bidder III|George Parker Bidder]], [[Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom|Marine Biological Association of the U.K.]] || 1906-11-30 || [[North Sea]] || 2015-04-17|| [[Amrum]], Germany || 108 || <ref name=Telegraph20150820/><ref name=BBC20150821>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34020734 |title='Oldest' message in a bottle found more than 108 years on |date=August 21, 2015 |publisher=BBC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160622133641/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34020734 |archive-date=June 22, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=NDRundfunk>{{cite news|title=Älteste Flaschenpost der Welt auf Amrum gefunden |trans-title=World's oldest message in a bottle found at Amrum |language=de |url=http://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/schleswig-holstein/Aelteste-Flaschenpost-auf-Amrum-gefunden,aeltesteflaschenpost100.html |work=[[Norddeutscher Rundfunk]] |date=August 19, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160204033359/http://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/schleswig-holstein/Aelteste-Flaschenpost-auf-Amrum-gefunden%2Caeltesteflaschenpost100.html |archive-date=February 4, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Guinness20160314>{{cite web|first=Rachel |last=Swatman |url=http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2016/3/mysterious-postcard-found-on-german-shore-is-confirmed-as-oldest-message-in-a-bot-420594 |title=Mysterious postcard found on German shore is confirmed as oldest message in a bottle ever |date=March 16, 2016 |work=Guinness World Records |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624200934/http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2016/3/mysterious-postcard-found-on-german-shore-is-confirmed-as-oldest-message-in-a-bot-420594 |archive-date=June 24, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| Bricklayers Wm Hanley, James Lennon || 1907-07-03 || [[Montclair State University]], [[New Jersey|N.J.]]<sup>s</sup> || <!--Summer--> 2019 || Wall in College Hall || 112 || <ref name=NJcom_20191127>{{cite news |last1=Carter |first1=Barry |title=Message in a bottle found 112 years later at N.J. college |url=https://www.nj.com/essex/2019/11/message-in-a-bottle-found-112-years-later-at-nj-college.html |agency=NJ Advance Media |work=NJ.com |date=November 27, 2019 }} [https://web.archive.org/web/20191130214838/https://nypost.com/2019/11/30/century-old-message-in-a-bottle-found-hidden-at-montclair-state-university/ Archive] of related ''New York Post'' article.</ref>
|-
| [[Karl Weyprecht]], co-leader, [[Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition]] || 1874 || Lamont, [[Franz Josef Land]], Russia <sup>s</sup> || 1978-08 || Lamont, [[Franz Josef Land]], Russia || 104 || <ref name=AWI2006>{{cite web |url=https://epic.awi.de/28564/1/Polarforsch2005_1_7.pdf| title=Weyprecht-Gedenkveranstaltung in Michelstadt (Odenwald) am 29. März 2006, dem 125. Todestag Karl Wepyrechts (Weyprecht commemorative event in Michelstadt (Odenwald) on 29 March 2006, the 125th anniversary of Karl Weyprecht's death) |publisher=Polarforschung 75 |location=Germany |language=de |page=4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160722002109/http://epic.awi.de/28564/1/Polarforsch2005_1_7.pdf |archive-date=July 22, 2016 |url-status=live }} "brief report ... deposited by Weyprecht under a heap of stones on Lamont Island, well packaged in a hollowed out piece of wood, which in turn was put into a stoneware vessel" (translated).</ref>
|-
| Richard Platz || 1913-05-17 || [[Baltic Sea]] || 2014-03 || Baltic Sea near [[Kiel]] || 101 || <ref name=TheLocal20140408/>
|-
| Glasgow School of Navigation || 1914-06-10 || Near [[Scotland]] || 2012-04 || East of [[Shetland]] || 98 || <ref name=Atlantic20120905/><ref name=YahooNews20120830/><ref name=BBC20120830/>
|-
| Selina Pramstaller, Tillie Esper || 1915 || [[Harsens Island]], Michigan, U.S. || 2012 || [[Harsens Island]], Michigan, U.S. || 96<!--source says "almost 97 years" from 2015--> || <ref name=ABC20130620>{{cite news |last1=Ng |first1=Christina |title=Michigan Message in a Bottle Mystery Solved |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/michigan-message-bottle-mystery-solved/story?id=19438661 |publisher=ABC News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620072311/https://abcnews.go.com/US/michigan-message-bottle-mystery-solved/story?id=19438661 |archive-date=June 20, 2017 |date=June 20, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| George Morrow || 1926-11 || [[Cheboygan, Michigan|Cheboygan, MI, U.S.]] (presumed) || 2021-06 || [[Cheboygan River]] || 94.6 || <ref name=DetroitFreePress_20210623>{{cite news |last1=Davidson |first1=Kyle |title=95-year-old message in a bottle found in the Cheboygan River |url=https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/06/23/cheboygan-message-in-a-bottle/5318912001/ |work=Detroit Free Press |date=June 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625175407/https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/06/23/cheboygan-message-in-a-bottle/5318912001/ |archive-date=June 25, 2021 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen || 1914-04-25 || Near [[Scotland]] || 2006-12-10 || Near [[Shetland]] || 92 || <ref name=Guinness20120202/>
|-
| Erich Sanitter, [[Wałbrzych|Waldenburg]] || 1929-07-08 || [[Bay of Danzig]] || 2019-10 || [[Vistula Lagoon]] || 90 || <ref name=Chudzynski2020>{{cite news|last1=Chudzynski |first1=Tomasz |title=Rybak wyłowił butelkę z listem z wód Zalewu Wiślanego. Pływała w Bałtyku przez 90 lat (A fisherman fished a bottle with a letter out of the waters of the Vistula Lagoon. It had sailed the Baltic Sea for 90 years) |url=https://gp24.pl/rybak-wylowil-butelke-z-listem-z-wod-zalewu-wislanego-plywala-w-baltyku-przez-90-lat/ar/c1-14721270 |work=Głos Pomorza |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200117165820/https://gp24.pl/rybak-wylowil-butelke-z-listem-z-wod-zalewu-wislanego-plywala-w-baltyku-przez-90-lat/ar/c1-14721270 <!-- some problem with archiving this page --> |archive-date=January 17, 2020 |date=January 17, 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| Willi Brandt, roofer, age 18 || 1930-03-26 || [[Goslar|Goslar, Germany]] <sup>s</sup> || 2018 || [[Goslar Cathedral]] roof || 88 || <ref name=WashPost20180919/>
|-
| Carl Ott (business owner) || 1930-05-20 || Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. <sup>s</sup> || 2017-02 || Construction site || 86 || <ref name=IndyChannel20170224>{{cite news |last1=McKinney |first1=Matt |title=Message in a bottle found in Indianapolis 85 years later leads to life discoveries |url=http://www.theindychannel.com/news/local-news/letter-in-a-bottle-found-in-indianapolis-85-years-later-leads-to-life-discoveries |publisher=WRTV 6 (The Indy Channel) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225043703/http://www.theindychannel.com/news/local-news/letter-in-a-bottle-found-in-indianapolis-85-years-later-leads-to-life-discoveries |archive-date=February 25, 2017 |date=February 24, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| Thomas Hughes, WWI soldier || 1914-09-09 || [[English Channel]] || 1999-03 || Essex, [[River Thames]] || 84 || <ref name=BBC19990518/>
|-
| "Flying Squad" [[Woodworking joints|joinery]] team || 1934-07-16 || Viewforth, [[Edinburgh]] <sup>s</sup> || 2016-11 || Wall of building || 82 || <ref name=EdinburghEvenNews20170520>{{cite news |last1=Pringle |first1=Fiona |title=A joiner's note hidden in an Edinburgh shop 80 years ago is reunited with son |url=http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/a-joiner-s-note-hidden-in-an-edinburgh-shop-80-years-ago-is-reunited-with-son-1-4451479 |work=Edinburgh Evening News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170520133314/http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/a-joiner-s-note-hidden-in-an-edinburgh-shop-80-years-ago-is-reunited-with-son-1-4451479 |archive-date=May 20, 2017 |date=May 20, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| John Stapleton Jr. age 14 || 1938-09-05 || [[Jersey]], [[Channel Islands]] (deduced) || 2020-02-18 || [[Jersey]], [[Channel Islands]] || 81.4 || <ref name=BBC_20200224>{{cite news |title=Jersey message in bottle from 1938 goes to sender's family |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-jersey-51616888 |agency=BBC |date=February 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200422163023/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-jersey-51616888 |archive-date=April 22, 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| Navy of Czarist Russia || 1913-07 || [[Sea of Okhotsk]], Russia || 1995 || Near [[Cordova, Alaska]] || 81 || {{sfn |Ebbesmeyer |Scigliano |2009 |pp=61-62 }}
|-
| (undetermined) || 1935 || [[Southampton Guildhall]], U.K. <sup>s</sup> || 2016 || [[Southampton Guildhall]], U.K. || 81 || <ref name=ITV20160209/>
|-
| Herbert E. Hillbrick || 1936 || [[P&O (company)|P&O cruise ship]] || 2012 || [[Ninety Mile Beach, New Zealand|Ninety Mile Beach, NZ]] || 76 || <ref name=NZherald20121115>{{cite news |last1=Tapaleao |first1=Vaimoana |title=Beachcomber finds note at sea for 76 years |url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10847495 |work=The New Zealand Herald |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160918182242/http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10847495 |archive-date=September 18, 2016 |date=November 15, 2012 |url-status=live }} [https://web.archive.org/web/20151105023516/http://metro.co.uk/2013/01/21/message-in-a-bottle-returned-to-owners-family-after-76-years-3360443/ ''Metro'' UK archive at the Wayback Machine].</ref>
|-
| Victor Elliott, age 13 || 1944-04-25 || [[Ralston, Oklahoma]] || 2017-11-11 || [[Fort Smith, Arkansas]] || 73 || <ref name=TempleDT20171224>{{cite news |last1=Williams |first1=Matt |title=1944 message in a bottle leads to Temple |url=http://www.tdtnews.com/news/article_d3dde088-e8ef-11e7-af9a-2fcc3ca9ad0e.html |work=Temple Daily Telegram |location=Texas |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171225005218/http://www.tdtnews.com/news/article_d3dde088-e8ef-11e7-af9a-2fcc3ca9ad0e.html |archive-date=December 25, 2017 |date=December 24, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| Lt. Col. Eugene J. McNamara || 1948 || Grand Hotel, [[Yokohama]] <sup>s</sup> || 2016 || New Grand Hotel || 68 || <ref name=StarsStripes20170615>{{Cite news |url=https://www.stripes.com/news/card-in-a-bottle-sparks-70-year-old-army-mystery-in-japan-1.473590 |title=Card in a bottle sparks 70-year-old Army mystery in Japan |work=Stars and Stripes |access-date=2017-12-28 |date=June 16, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170925052204/https://www.stripes.com/news/card-in-a-bottle-sparks-70-year-old-army-mystery-in-japan-1.473590 |archive-date=September 25, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] prisoners, age 18–20 || 1944-09-09 || Near [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] camp <sup>s</sup> || 2009-04 || Wall of bomb shelter || 64 || <ref name=BBCNews20090427Novýčas20090430/>
|-
| [[Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution|WHOI]] || 1956-04-26 || South of [[Nova Scotia]] || 2014-01-20 || [[Sable Island]] || 57 || <ref name=WHOI20140206>{{cite web |last1=Lippsett |first1=Lonny |title=Message Bottled in an Email -- A long-lost legacy of ocean research resurfaces |url=http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/bumpus |publisher=Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151025063201/https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/bumpus |archive-date=October 25, 2015 |date=February 6, 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| [[National Marine Fisheries Service|U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries]] || 1962-05 || Gulf of Mexico || 2019-01 || [[Padre Island National Seashore|Padre Is. Nat. Seashore]], Texas || 56.5 || <ref name=AtlasObscura20190218>{{cite news |last1=Hester |first1=Jessica Leigh |title=Found: A 50-Year-Old Scientific Message, Stuffed in a Bottle |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/message-in-a-bottle-science-experiment |work=Atlas Obscura |date=February 18, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190218215718/https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/message-in-a-bottle-science-experiment |archive-date=February 18, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=HoustonChron20190221>{{cite news |last1=de Luna |first1=Marcy |title=57-year-old message in bottle washes up on Texas shore |url=https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/57-year-old-message-in-bottle-found-by-texas-coupl-13628535.php |work=Houston Chronicle |date=February 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190221120015/https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/57-year-old-message-in-bottle-found-by-texas-coupl-13628535.php |archive-date=February 21, 2019 |url-status=live }} May 1962 launch date is estimated; known to be 1962–1963.</ref>
|-
| [[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration|NOAA]]'s NEFSC || 1959-09-19 || Atlantic, off [[Massachusetts]] || 2013-12-22 || [[Martha's Vineyard]], Mass. || 54 || <ref name=NEFSC20140314/>
|-
| Paul Walker, geologist || 1959-07-10 || [[Ward Hunt Island]], N. Canada <sup>s</sup> || 2013 || [[Ward Hunt Island]], N. Canada || 54 ||<ref name=LATimes20131220/>
|-
| German Antarctic Expedition || 1903 || Btw. [[Kerguelen Islands|Kerguelen Is.]], [[Tasmania]] || 1955 || [[New Zealand]] || 52 || <ref name=CanberraTimes19910807/>
|-
| Paul Tsiatsios, motel owner || 1960+ || [[New Hampshire]], U.S. || 2011 || [[Turks and Caicos Islands|Turks and Caicos]] || 51 || <ref name=BBC20161026>{{cite news |title=Message in a bottle returns to New Hampshire family 50 years later |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37778511 |publisher=BBC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161027113445/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37778511 |archive-date=October 27, 2016 |date=October 26, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Fox25Boston_20161026>{{Cite news|url=http://www.fox25boston.com/news/message-in-a-bottle-returned-to-hampton-beach-after-55-years-and-1400-miles/460659320|title=Message in a bottle returned to Hampton Beach after 55 years and 1,400 miles|last=EndPlay|date=2016-10-26|publisher=WFXT|access-date=2017-12-29|language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
| Soviet fishing vessel ''Sulak'' || 1969-06-20 || Pacific Ocean || 2019-08-05 || [[Shishmaref, Alaska]] || 50 || <ref name=KTUU_20190813>{{cite news |last1=Treinen |first1=Lex |title=Russian TV tracks down the captain that sent a message in a bottle found in Shishmaref |url=https://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Russian-TV-tracks-down-the-captain-that-sent-a-message-in-a-bottle-found-in-Shishmaref-540923361.html |publisher=KTUU-2 |date=August 13, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190814045214/https://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Russian-TV-tracks-down-the-captain-that-sent-a-message-in-a-bottle-found-in-Shishmaref-540923361.html |archive-date=August 14, 2019 |location=Anchorage, Alaska |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| 13-year-old ship passenger || 1969-11-17 || 100&nbsp;mi. E. of [[Fremantle]], W. Aus. || 2019-07 || [[Eyre Peninsula]], S. Aus. || 49 || <ref name=Newsweek_20190723>{{cite news |last1=Keeley |first1=Matt |title=9-Year-Old Finds 50-Year-Old Message in a Bottle, Turns to Facebook to Locate Sender |url=https://www.newsweek.com/9-year-old-finds-50-year-old-message-bottle-turns-facebook-locate-sender-1450801 |work=Newsweek |date=July 23, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190813225944/https://www.newsweek.com/9-year-old-finds-50-year-old-message-bottle-turns-facebook-locate-sender-1450801 |archive-date=August 13, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Brinkwire_20190812>{{cite news |title=Message in a Bottle on Australian Beach |url=https://en.brinkwire.com/news/message-in-a-bottle-on-australian-beach/ |work=Brinkwire |date=August 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190815021352/https://en.brinkwire.com/news/message-in-a-bottle-on-australian-beach/ |archive-date=August 15, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| Construction workers || 1967-05-19 || [[Toowoomba]], [[Queensland|QLD]], Australia <sup>s</sup> || 2016-09-08 || Embedded in concrete || 49 || <ref name=Chronicle20160913>{{cite news |last1=Harris |first1=Meghan |title=50-year-old message in bottle dug up in Queens Park |url=https://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/toowoomba-man-digs-up-49-year-old-message-in-bottl/3088627/ |work=The Chronicle |location=Australia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118021449/https://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/toowoomba-man-digs-up-49-year-old-message-in-bottl/3088627/ |archive-date=November 18, 2016 |date=September 13, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
| [[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration|NOAA]] Fisheries || 1966 || [[Bristol Bay]], Alaska, U.S. || 2013 || [[Cold Bay, Alaska]], U.S. || 47 || <ref name=NWFSCalaska2013/>
|-
| High school science class || 1972-12-01 || [[Fire Island]], N.Y., U.S. || 2019-08 || [[Brookhaven, New York|Brookhaven, L.I., N.Y., U.S.]] || 46.7 || <ref name=ABC7Chicago_20190805>{{cite news |title=Long Island high school's message in a bottle science experiment found 47 years later |url=https://abc7chicago.com/science/message-in-a-bottle-found-47-years-later-on-long-island/5444215/ |work=ABC 7 News |date=August 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190806151351/https://abc7chicago.com/science/message-in-a-bottle-found-47-years-later-on-long-island/5444215/ |archive-date=August 6, 2019 |location=Chicago |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| "Donkeyman" James Robertson || 1970-09-16 || North Sea (assumed) || 2017-01 || [[Norderney]], Germany || 46.2 || <ref name=Scotsman_20170305>{{cite news |last1=Ross |first1=Shan |title=50-year-old 'message in a bottle' traced to Edinburgh sailor |url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/odd/50-year-old-message-in-a-bottle-traced-to-edinburgh-sailor-1-4383814 |work=The Scotsman |date=March 5, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170306014639/http://www.scotsman.com/news/odd/50-year-old-message-in-a-bottle-traced-to-edinburgh-sailor-1-4383814 |archive-date=March 6, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| Girl, age 6 || 1971-09-06 || [[Indian River Bay]], Delaware, U.S. || 2016-04-22 || [[Delaware Seashore State Park|Del. Seashore State Park]] || 44 || <ref name=WashTimes20160611>{{cite news |last1=Carroll |first1=Hannah |title=45-year-old message in a bottle found, brings nostalgia |url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jun/11/45-year-old-message-in-a-bottle-found-brings-nosta/ |work=The Washington Times |agency=Associated Press |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160612125840/http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jun/11/45-year-old-message-in-a-bottle-found-brings-nosta/ |archive-date=June 12, 2016 |date=June 11, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| Boy, age 14 || 1971-01-15 || [[Cove Bay]], Aberdeen, U.K. || 2015 || [[Rattray Head]], Aberdeenshire || 44 || <ref name=Scotsman20150617>{{cite news |last1=Leatham |first1=Xantha |title=44-year-old message in a bottle found in Aberdeen |url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/odd/44-year-old-message-in-a-bottle-found-in-aberdeen-1-3804646 |work=The Scotsman |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160123141926/http://www.scotsman.com/news/odd/44-year-old-message-in-a-bottle-found-in-aberdeen-1-3804646 |archive-date=January 23, 2016 |date=June 17, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
| Girl, age 11 || 1974-08-29 || [[Peninsula Township, Michigan|Old Mission Peninsula, Michigan]] || 2015 || [[Peninsula Township, Michigan|Old Mission Peninsula, Michigan]] || 41 ||<ref name=DetroitFreePress_20190524>{{cite news |title=Man finds Canton woman's message in a bottle 41 years later |url=https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/05/24/message-in-bottle-grand-traverse-bay/1226624001/ |work=Detroit Free Press |date=May 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190608212354/https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/05/24/message-in-bottle-grand-traverse-bay/1226624001/ |archive-date=June 8, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| Two junior high school girls || 1975 || [[Washington (state)|Washington]] state, U.S. || 2015-04-04 || [[Gulf of Alaska]], U.S. || 40 || <ref name=WeatherChannel20150507>{{cite web |last1=Breslin |first1=Sean |title=Message in a Bottle Found in Gulf of Alaska 40 Years Later |url=https://weather.com/news/news/message-in-a-bottle-found-alaska |publisher=The Weather Channel |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160830110444/https://weather.com/news/news/message-in-a-bottle-found-alaska |archive-date=August 30, 2016 |date=May 7, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| Print shop worker, age 31 || 1983 || [[Omaha, Nebraska]] || 2020-03 || [[Rock Port, Missouri]] || 37 || <ref name=RiverCountry_20200329>{{cite news |last1=Steinmeyer |first1=Trevor |title=Update: Message In A Bottle Traveled From Omaha To Missouri, Sender And Finder Connect |url=https://rivercountry.newschannelnebraska.com/story/41949680/update-message-in-a-bottle-traveled-from-omaha-to-missouri-sender-and-finder-connect |work=River Country |agency=News Channel Nebraska |date=March 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200331034218/https://rivercountry.newschannelnebraska.com/story/41949680/update-message-in-a-bottle-traveled-from-omaha-to-missouri-sender-and-finder-connect |archive-date=March 31, 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| High School Nat. Sci. Club || 1984-07 || [[Chōshi]], Japan || 2021 || [[Hawaiian Paradise Park, Hawaii|Hawaiian Paradise Park]] || 37 || <ref name=HiTribHerald-20210714>{{cite news |last1=Burnett |first1=John |title=From Japan to HPP: Puna keiki finds 37-year-old message in a bottle |url=https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2021/07/14/hawaii-news/from-japan-to-hpp-puna-keiki-finds-37-year-old-message-in-a-bottle/ |work=Hawaii Tribune-Herald |date=July 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715140831/https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2021/07/14/hawaii-news/from-japan-to-hpp-puna-keiki-finds-37-year-old-message-in-a-bottle/ |archive-date=July 15, 2021 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| Boy, age 16 || 1980-05-13 || [[Albany, Western Australia|Albany, W. Australia]] || 2016-06 || [[Eucla, Western Australia|Eucla, W. Australia]] || 36 || <ref name=YahooAU20160609>{{cite news |last1=Morrison |first1=Lisa |title=Bottle message found decades later |url=https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/regional/great-southern/a/31797512/message-in-bottle-turns-up-decades-later/ |work=The West Australian |via=Yahoo News Australia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160724191053/https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/regional/great-southern/a/31797512/message-in-bottle-turns-up-decades-later/ |archive-date=July 24, 2016 |date=June 9, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
| Vacationer || 1981-06-10 || [[Fernandina Beach, Florida]] || 2017-06-17 || [[Little St. Simons Island]], Georgia || 36 || <ref name=ABC20170621>{{cite news |last1=Murphy |first1=Eliza |title=Message in a bottle from 1981 found on Georgia beach: 'Holy cow. It just brings back memories' |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/message-bottle-1981-found-georgia-beach-holy-cow/story?id=48154080 |publisher=ABC News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171110092724/https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/message-bottle-1981-found-georgia-beach-holy-cow/story?id=48154080 |archive-date=November 10, 2017 |date=June 21, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| School; [[Forfar]], Scotland || 1987 (est) || [[North Sea]] || 2017-09-29 || [[Key Largo]], Fla. U.S. || 30 || <ref name=FoxNews20180127>{{cite news |last1=Norman |first1=Greg |title=Message in a bottle from Scotland found its way to Florida more than 30 years later |url=http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/01/27/message-in-bottle-from-scotland-found-its-way-to-florida-more-than-30-years-later.html |publisher=Fox News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180127192804/http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/01/27/message-in-bottle-from-scotland-found-its-way-to-florida-more-than-30-years-later.html |archive-date=January 27, 2018 |date=January 27, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| Girl, age 8 || 1988-09-26 || [[Edisto Beach, South Carolina]] || 2017-10 || [[Sapelo Island]], Georgia || 29 || <ref name=CBS20171017>{{cite news |last1=Earl |first1=Jennifer |title=Message in a bottle received 29 years after girl tossed it off S.C. shore |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/message-in-a-bottle-received-29-years-after-girl-threw-it-off-south-carolina-shore/ |publisher=CBS News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171104195735/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/message-in-a-bottle-received-29-years-after-girl-threw-it-off-south-carolina-shore/ |archive-date=November 4, 2017 |date=October 17, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> 
|-
| Boy, age 12 || 1989-07 || [[Detroit River]] || 2017-07-12 || [[Amherstburg]], Ontario || 28 || <ref name=DetFreePress20170806>{{cite news |last1=Gross |first1=Allie |title=Message in a bottle washes up in Canada, nearly 30 years after being tossed into Detroit River |url=http://www.freep.com/story/life/2017/08/06/message-bottle-detroit-river/496515001/ |work=Free Press |location=Detroit, Michigan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819105230/http://www.freep.com/story/life/2017/08/06/message-bottle-detroit-river/496515001/ |archive-date=August 19, 2017 |date=August 6, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| "Jonathon" || 1985 || [[Nova Scotia]] (purported) || 2013-04-17 || [[Croatia]] || 28 || <ref name=AustBroadCorp20130418/><ref name=DubrovakVjesnik20130417/>
|-
| Father, daughter, age 4 || 1992 || Near [[La Cloche Silhouette Trail#Baie Fine|Baie Fine]], [[Ontario]] || 2020-03 || Hiawatha Isl<sup>(near [[Manitoulin Island|Manitoulin Isl]], [[Ontario|Ont]])</sup> || 28 || <ref name=Manitoulin_20200401>{{cite news |last1=Schlote |first1=Warren |title=Message in a bottle finally finds a reader after 28 years adrift |url=https://www.manitoulin.ca/message-in-a-bottle-finally-finds-a-reader-after-28-years-adrift/ |work=Manitoulin Expositor |publisher=Manitoulin.ca |date=April 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200403232508/https://www.manitoulin.ca/message-in-a-bottle-finally-finds-a-reader-after-28-years-adrift/ |archive-date=April 3, 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| Jack Oppy, Australian soldier || 1916-04-17 || Between [[Encounter Bay]] & [[Kangaroo Island]], S. Australia || 1943-01-07 || Woolnorth, NW [[Tasmania]] || 26.7 || <ref name=Condobolin_19430201/>
|-
| [[Manitoba]], Canada resident || 1985 || [[Lake Winnipeg]] || 2011 || Near [[Libau, Manitoba]] || 26 || <ref name=CBC_20200114>{{cite news |last1=Parker |first1=Wendy |title=Manitoba man finds message in a bottle from 1985, spends 9 years tracking down messenger |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-man-finds-message-in-a-bottle-from-1985-spends-9-years-tracking-down-messenger-1.5425645 |publisher=CBC |date=January 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221207232116/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-man-finds-message-in-a-bottle-from-1985-spends-9-years-tracking-down-messenger-1.5425645 |archive-date=December 7, 2022 |url-status=live }} (Parker credited as file contributor)</ref>
|-
| Fifth grade class || 1993-05 || [[Delaware River (Kansas)]] || 2019 || [[Chester, Illinois]] || 25 || <ref name=KWCH_Wichita_20190405>{{cite news |last1=Hall |first1=Erika |title=Topeka elementary class puts message in a bottle, found nearly 26 years later |url=https://www.kwch.com/content/news/Topeka-elementary-class-puts-message-in-a-bottle-found-nearly-26-years-later-508192241.html |publisher=KWCH 12 |location=Wichita, KS |date=April 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408180635/https://www.kwch.com/content/news/Topeka-elementary-class-puts-message-in-a-bottle-found-nearly-26-years-later-508192241.html |archive-date=April 8, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| Ryan Mead, age 12 || 1994-08-01 || Near [[Greymouth]], [[New Zealand]] || 2019 || Mouth of [[Taramakau River]], NZ || 25 || <ref name=Stuff_NZ_20191122/>
|-

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|}

: '''<sup>s</sup>''' ''denotes stationary messages (placed on land, not in a body of water).''
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{{anchor|The Tides That Bind|The tides that bind|the tides that bind}}

==Popular perceptions==
{{Quote box
 |title =
 |quote = <div style="font-family:Times New Roman; font-size:14pt">''A hundred billion bottles''<br />
:''washed up on the shore,''
''Seems I'm not alone at being alone—''<br />
:''A hundred billion castaways''
::''Looking for a home.''</div>
 |source = "[[Message in a Bottle (The Police song)|Message in a Bottle]]" song lyrics<ref name=Newsweek20160307/><br />([[The Police]], 1979)
 |align = right
 |width = 45%
 |border = 1px
 |fontsize = 100%
 |bgcolor = #f0f0ff
 |title_bg = #f0f0ff
 |title_fnt = #202060
 |qalign = left
 |salign = right
}}

Besides interest in [[citizen science]] drift-bottle experiments,<ref name=Atlantic20120905/> message-in-a-bottle [[wikt:lore|lore]] has often been of a romantic or poetic nature.<ref name=Newsweek20160307/> Such messages have been romanticized in literature, from [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s 1833 story "[[MS. Found in a Bottle]]" through [[Nicholas Sparks]]' 1998 [[Message in a Bottle (novel)|''Message in a Bottle'']].<ref name="BostonGlobe20130212">{{cite news|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2013/02/12/messages-bottle-still-carry-hint-romance/dduFIyJjc451G7gZZNU0xM/story.html|title=Messages in a bottle chart a lifelong romance with the sea|last1=Brogan|first1=Jan|date=February 12, 2013|work=The Boston Globe|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130217055519/http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2013/02/12/messages-bottle-still-carry-hint-romance/dduFIyJjc451G7gZZNU0xM/story.html|archive-date=February 17, 2013|url-status=live}}<!-- Full-length archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20160812030532/http://goodnewszonly.blogspot.com/2013/02/romance-at-sea-51-year-old-launched-his.html --> ("MS." means ''manuscript.'')</ref> Clint Buffington, subject of the 2019 documentary [[short film]] ''The Tides That Bind / A Message in a Bottle Story,''<ref name=AtlanticCityCinefest_2019>{{cite web |title=The Tides That Bind (2019) |url=https://atlanticcitycinefest.org/movie/the-tides-that-bind/ |publisher=Atlantic City Cinefest |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190828051232/https://atlanticcitycinefest.org/movie/the-tides-that-bind/ |archive-date=August 28, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> surmised in an interview with ''The Guardian'' that sending a bottled message expresses a hope to find connection in a fear-filled world.<ref name=Guardian20160121>{{cite news |last1=Meakin |first1=Nione (interviewer) |last2=Buffington |first2=Clint (interviewee) |title=A message in a bottle ... and a journey round the world |url=https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/jan/21/message-in-a-bottle-journey-round-the-world-turks-and-caicos |work=The Guardian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420105232/http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/jan/21/message-in-a-bottle-journey-round-the-world-turks-and-caicos |archive-date=April 20, 2016 |date=January 21, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> In ''Newsweek'' Ryan Bort recounted various historical messages as being cries for help, or "final, poetic words of resignation left behind for (an) indifferent sea", or from "lonely, lovelorn souls, searching for serendipity", or a search for "affirmation ... that comes from somewhere other than yourself".<ref name=Newsweek20160307/> Bort described sending a message in a bottle as a romantic act that has "such a delicious potential for magic" or as "surrendering a part of yourself to something larger", concluding that "every message in a bottle is a prayer".<ref name=Newsweek20160307>{{cite magazine |last1=Bort |first1=Ryan |title=A Brooklyn Artist, the North Atlantic Garbage Patch and the Magic of the Message in a Bottle |url=http://www.newsweek.com/new-york-pelagic-message-bottle-george-boorujy-433926 |magazine=Newsweek |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416002303/http://www.newsweek.com/new-york-pelagic-message-bottle-george-boorujy-433926 |archive-date=April 16, 2016 |date=March 7, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Finding a bottled message has generally been viewed positively, the finder of a 98-year-old message referring to his find as winning the lottery.<ref name=BBC20120830/> However, intense media attention over a personal relationship that resulted from one woman's find, is said to have caused her to remark that had she known what would happen, she would have left the bottle on the beach.<ref name=IrishIndep20120805/> Another woman said she initially felt shocked and violated by publication of the personal suffering she had expressed in a bottled letter that she never expected would be found or read.<ref name=Guardian20100813/><ref name=Telegraph20100627/>

==Similar methods using other media==
{{multiple image
| align=right | direction=horizontal | total_width = 500
| image1=Pioneer10-plaque.jpg | width1=  | caption1=The [[Pioneer plaque]] (1972, 1973)
| image2    = The Sounds of Earth Record Cover - GPN-2000-001978.jpg | width2= | caption2 =The [[Voyager Golden Record]] (1977) contained images and encoded sounds
}}
{{See also|Balloon mail|Time capsule}}
The term "message in a bottle" has been applied to techniques of communication that do not literally involve a [[bottle]] or a water-based method of conveyance, such as the [[Pioneer plaque]] (1972, 1973), the [[Voyager Golden Record]] (1977), and even radio-borne messages (see [[Cosmic Call]], [[Teen Age Message]], [[A Message from Earth]]), all directed into space.<ref name=ABC20160207>{{cite news |last1=Hepburn |first1=Jonathan |title=Global 'message in a bottle' to be beamed to the stars carrying contributions from the public |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-07/global-message-in-a-bottle-to-transmit-to-space/7146908 |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207105954/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-07/global-message-in-a-bottle-to-transmit-to-space/7146908 |archive-date=February 7, 2016 |date=February 7, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Mittelhessen20130405>{{cite news |last1=Keller |first1=C. |last2=Wessolowski |first2=M. |title=Flaschenpost: Norweger suchen jetzt mit (Message in a Bottle: Norwegians are now seeking) |url=http://www.mittelhessen.de/lokales/region-dillenburg_artikel,-Flaschenpost-Norweger-suchen-jetzt-mit-_arid,111950.html |work=Zeitungsgruppe Lahn-Dill (MittelHessen = Central Hessian) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150201063618/http://www.mittelhessen.de/lokales/region-dillenburg_artikel%2C-Flaschenpost-Norweger-suchen-jetzt-mit-_arid%2C111950.html |archive-date=February 1, 2015 |date=April 5, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Balloon mail]] involves sending undirected messages through the air rather than into bodies of water.<ref name=Mittelhessen20130405/> For example, during the Prussian siege of Paris in 1870, about 2.5 million letters were sent by hot air balloon, the only way Parisians' letters could reach the rest of France.<ref name=ABCau20160224>{{cite news |last1=Maher |first1=Louise |title=Letter flown by balloon out of besieged Paris in 1870 discovered in National Archives |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-16/letter-flown-out-of-paris-by-hot-air-ballon-in-1870-found/6408654 |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161027201056/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-16/letter-flown-out-of-paris-by-hot-air-ballon-in-1870-found/6408654 |archive-date=October 27, 2016 |date=February 24, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Stationary [[time capsule]]s have been termed "messages in a bottle", such as a 1935 message in a lemonade bottle correctly portending difficult times, which was found in 2016 by masons restoring damaged Portland stone at [[Southampton Guildhall]].<ref name=ITV20160209>{{cite news |title='Message in a bottle' discovered in Southampton |url=http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2016-02-09/message-in-a-bottle-discovered-in-southampton/ |publisher=ITV |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160210164227/http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2016-02-09/message-in-a-bottle-discovered-in-southampton/ |archive-date=February 10, 2016 |date=February 9, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> A geologist left a bottled message in 1959 in a [[cairn]] on isolated [[Ward Hunt Island]] (Canada, 83°N latitude), allowing its finders in 2013 to determine that a nearby glacier had [[Retreat of glaciers since 1850|retreated]] over 200 feet in the intervening 54 years.<ref name=LATimes20131220>{{cite news |last1=Mohan |first1=Geoffrey |title=Message in a bottle found 54 years later in Arctic |url=http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-message-in-bottle-arctic-20131219-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=December 20, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140706145108/http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-message-in-bottle-arctic-20131219-story.html |archive-date=July 6, 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> More durable examples of time capsules are the [[Westinghouse Time Capsules]] of the [[1939 New York World's Fair|1939]] and [[1964 New York World's Fair]]s, intended to be opened 5,000 years after their creation.<ref name=BusinessInsider20140430>{{cite web |last1=Sterbenz |first1=Christina |title=An Incredibly Ambitious Time Capsule Was Sealed 75 Years Ago Today — Here's What's Inside |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/westinghouse-time-capsule-2014-4 |website=Business Insider |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160331130601/http://www.businessinsider.com/westinghouse-time-capsule-2014-4 |archive-date=March 31, 2016 |date=April 30, 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Prisoners from the [[Auschwitz concentration camp]] concealed bottles containing sketches<ref name=Spiegel20120117>{{cite news |last1=Macbeth |first1=Alex |title='Witness to Extermination': Auschwitz Museum Publishes Prisoner Sketchbook |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/witness-to-extermination-auschwitz-museum-publishes-prisoner-sketchbook-a-809591.html |work=Der Spiegel |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418031130/http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/witness-to-extermination-auschwitz-museum-publishes-prisoner-sketchbook-a-809591.html |archive-date=April 18, 2016 |date=January 17, 2012 |url-status=live }} Detailed sketches were found in a camp barracks in 1947.</ref> and writings<ref name=BBCNews20090427Novýčas20090430>• {{cite news |title=Builders find Auschwitz message  
 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8021845.stm |work=[[BBC News]] |date=April 27, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307130950/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8021845.stm |archive-date=March 7, 2017 |url-status=live}} Short prisoner list was found in 2009 in a wall of a bomb shelter that prisoners were forced to build. • {{cite web|title=Záhadný odkaz väzňov v Osvienčime: Autor je už známy! (Mysterious link from prisoners in Auschwitz: The author is already known!) |url=http://www.cas.sk/clanok/115020/zahadny-odkaz-vaznov-v-osviencime-autor-je-uz-znamy/ |publisher=Nový čas |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160729151358/http://www.cas.sk/clanok/115020/zahadny-odkaz-vaznov-v-osviencime-autor-je-uz-znamy/ |archive-date=July 29, 2016 |language=sk |date=April 30, 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref> that were found after World War II.

Certain emergency medical services urge patients to record information describing their medical conditions, medications and drug allergies, emergency contacts,<ref name=Lions2016>{{cite web |title=What is 'Message in a Bottle'? |url=http://www.lions105w.org.uk/MIAB.pdf |publisher=Lions Clubs International - District 105W |access-date=December 28, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110083141/http://www.lions105w.org.uk/MIAB.pdf |archive-date=November 10, 2016 |date=2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> as well as [[advance healthcare directive]]s for when the patients are incapacitated<ref name=FuturePlanning20171228>{{cite web |title=13.4 Adult "Do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation" (DNACPR / Advance Decision to Refuse Treatment (ADRT) |url=http://www.futureplanning.org.uk/uploads/8/0/4/0/80407130/final_dnacpr_guidance_for_primary_care_and_out_of_hours.pdf |publisher=South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust |access-date=December 28, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171228185509/http://www.futureplanning.org.uk/uploads/8/0/4/0/80407130/final_dnacpr_guidance_for_primary_care_and_out_of_hours.pdf |archive-date=December 28, 2017 |url-status=live }} Similar to DNR ([[Do not resuscitate]]) instruction in the U.S.</ref> or suffer from dementia or learning difficulties,<ref name=BerwickAdvertiser_20190521>{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Ian |title=Message in a bottle scheme launched |url=https://www.berwick-advertiser.co.uk/health/message-in-a-bottle-scheme-launched-1-4931493 |work=Berwick Advertiser |date=May 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190612192340/https://www.berwick-advertiser.co.uk/health/message-in-a-bottle-scheme-launched-1-4931493 |archive-date=June 12, 2019 |location=Berwick upon Tweed, Northumberland, U.K. |url-status=live }}</ref> and place the record as a special "message in a bottle" stored in (conventionally) a refrigerator, where paramedics can quickly locate it.<ref name=Lions2016/><ref name=FuturePlanning20171228/><ref name=BerwickAdvertiser_20190521/>

==Environmental issues==
Plastic bottles are known to constitute plastic marine pollution, and eventually break down into smaller pieces because of ultraviolet light, salt degradation or wave action.<ref name=CBC20180731/> Glass bottles can break into sharp-edged pieces, and bottle caps are ingested by sea birds.<ref name=CBC20180731>{{cite news |last1=Sinclair |first1=Jesara |title=Why throwing a message in a bottle into the ocean might be a bad idea |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-messages-bottles-ocean-plastic-pollution-1.4761138 |publisher=CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) |date=July 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180827003630/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-messages-bottles-ocean-plastic-pollution-1.4761138 |archive-date=August 27, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Some agencies continue to use drift bottles into the 21st century, but with increased awareness that man-made floating items can harm marine life or constitute waste material,<ref name=Krajick2001/><ref name=DW20161013/> biodegradable drift ''cards''<ref name=AmSurveyor200703/> and biodegradable wooden drifters<ref name=DW20161013/> with non-toxic ink<ref name=CBC20180731/> are gaining favor.

==See also==
*[[Beachcombing]]
*[[Drifter (floating device)]]
*[[List of time capsules#Earth's black box|Earth's black box]]
*[[Flotsam, jetsam, lagan, and derelict]]
*[[Friendly Floatees]], plastic bath toys accidentally released in the Pacific in 1992<ref name=NationalPost20160425/>
*[[Ice rafting]]
*[[John C. Swallow|Swallow float]]
*[[Message in a Bottle (The Police song)]] (1979)
*[[Message in a Bottle (novel)|''Message in a Bottle'' (Nicholas Sparks novel)]] (1998)
*[[Message in a Bottle (film)]] (1999)
*[[Message in a Bottle (Taylor Swift song)]] (2021)

==References==
{{Reflist | 2}}

===Publications===
* {{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Paul |title=Messages from the Sea: Letters and Notes from a Lost Era Found in Bottles and on Beaches Around the World |date=2016 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bPxMDwAAQBAJ |publisher=Superelastic |isbn=9780995541214}}
* {{cite book |last1=Ebbesmeyer |first1=Curtis |last2=Scigliano |first2=Eric |title=Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science |date=2009 |publisher=Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |isbn=978-0-06-155841-2 |title-link=Wiktionary:flotsam }}
* {{cite book |last=Kraske |first=Robert |year=1977 |title=The Twelve Million Dollar Note: Strange but True Tales of Messages Found in Seagoing Bottles |publisher=Thomas Nelson (publ.); 1st ed |isbn=978-0-8407-6575-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/twelvemilliondol00kras }}
* {{cite book|last1=Moody |first1=Skye |title=Washed Up: The Curious Journeys of Flotsam and Jetsam |date=2010 |publisher=Sasquatch Books |isbn=978-1570617386 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dCpPBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT56 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160904221424/https://books.google.com/books?id=dCpPBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT56 |archive-date=September 4, 2016 |url-status=live }}

{{Commons category|Message in a bottle}}
{{Wiktionary|message in a bottle}}


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[[Category:Emergency communication]]
[[Category:History of communication]]
[[Category:Interstellar messages]]
[[Category:Letters (message)]]
[[Category:Maritime communication]]
[[Category:Physical oceanography]]