Random Mysterious Messages Found In Bottles (14 items)

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  (#9) The Oldest Survivor

  More than 100 years ago, navigators and nautical chart makers used "float bottles" to learn more about the currents and tides in different bodies of water. In 1914, the Glasgow School of Navigation in Scotland cast more than 1,889 bottles into the sea. Each of the bottles contained a printed card with instructions describing how to report the bottle back to the navigation school.

  Fast forward to 2011 when a Scottish fisherman finally found one of the bottles while pulling in his fishing nets. To date, it is the oldest message in a bottle found in the modern era, and is recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.

  Over the years, more than 300 of the project's nearly 2,000 bottles have washed ashore.
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  (#8) A Far-Flung Message Of Love

  In 1956, a young Swedish man named Ake Viking was out at sea and lonely for love. One evening, he decided to send his quest for love out into the ocean via a message in a bottle.  After all, back then there were no Internet dating sites. The note included his contact information and a message that read, "To Someone Beautiful and Far Away."  

  He did not seriously think anything would come of it, but two years later he received a response from an Italian woman named Paolina. When she wrote back to him, she explained: "[it's] so miraculous that [the bottle] should have traveled so far and long to reach me that I must send you an answer."

  The two began to write letters back and forth, and fell in love over the course of their correspondence. Eventually, the couple met and Viking left his life at sea to marry Paolina and move to Sicily.
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  (#11) The "Uncorker Of Ocean Bottles"

  Queen Elizabeth I ruled England during the mid- to late-16th century. Her long reign was considered a Golden Age, but it was also known as an age of danger, intrigue, and piracy. Indeed, Queen Elizabeth I encouraged piracy - then politely known as "privateering" - and even affectionately referred to her favorite pirates as "Sea Dogs." It was not uncommon for pirates and other nefarious types to attempt to transmit messages via a floating bottle.

  The Queen considered such messages so important that she created the office of the royal “Uncorker of Ocean Bottles.” The holder of this position was the only person authorized to open discovered floating bottles, and anyone else caught attempting to uncork an "ocean bottle" would be arrested and charged with a capital crime.
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  (#3) Unfinished Business Aboard The Lusitania

  The Lusitania was once a luxury ocean liner, meeting its demise within years of the Titanic. Despite the fate of its predecessor, the Lusitania continued to sail undeterred by the dangers brought about by World War I. That is until the great ship was tragically hit by a German torpedo in May 1915 while on its way from New York to Liverpool. The damage was so severe that the Lusitania sank in only eighteen minutes. More than 1,000 people lost their lives and only around 700 were rescued.

  Somehow, there was one passenger aboard who had the presence of mind and the time to dash off a quick note, put it in a bottle, and set it adrift before the end came. The unknown author chillingly wrote: 

  "Still on deck with a few people. The last boats have left. We are sinking fast. Some men near me are praying with a priest. The end is near. Maybe this note will…"  

  The writer of the message must have realized the he only had a few moments left to roll up the note and secure it in a bottle, tossing it into the sea just in time.
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  (#2) A Haunting Message From The Titanic

  Many people have undoubtedly wondered over the years if any of the Titanic passengers had the time and presence of mind to write a note, find a bottle, and toss it into the Atlantic as the great ship was sinking. Well, it turns out someone did.

  A young Irishman named Jeremiah Burke was traveling with a cousin to join their family in Boston. He was off to start a new life and was excited about the possibilities. So, when the Titanic began to sink and Burke realized he would perish, he managed to write out a note. Before his departure from Ireland, his mother had given him a small bottle of holy water. In his last moments, Burke put his note into the bottle and cast it into the sea. His note read:

  "From Titanic, goodbye all, Burke of Glanmire, Cork."

  Sadly, both Burke and his cousin perished in the sinking and his poignant message washed ashore in the bottle a year later, just a few miles from his home.
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  (#14) Testing The Waters

  Sending off a message in a bottle is nothing new. While the first known glass bottles were made around 1500 BCE, the earliest recorded example of casting one into the sea didn't take place until 310 BCE when Ancient Greek philosopher Theophrastus took the plunge.

  The message he sent is unknown, but his intention was to demonstrate the theory that the waters of the Atlantic Ocean created the Mediterranean Sea.

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