Bottle mail. Interesting Facts.

One of the oldest inventions of mankind is the post. One of the versions of the parcels in ancient times was bottled mail.But what do we know about it? Who is its creator? and many other interesting facts about bottle mail.

It is believed that the inventor of bottled mail is the Greek philosopher Theophrastus, who in the IV century BC sent messages in bottles in order to track the flow of water in the Mediterranean.
In 1914 Captain Brown from Scotland threw a bottle into the sea with a note in which he promised to pay 6 pence to someone who would catch this message. In 97 years the bottle was caught by the crew of the Scottish ship "Copious". But Captain Brown was not alive by that time.

And although the version of this method of information transmission has long been outdated, yet sometimes people use it and our time

For example, in 2005, migrants from Ecuador and Peru were much more fortunate. More than 80 people in the old ship tried to reach the US coast, but got into a storm. In despair, they threw a bottle with a note in which they asked for help. Soon the letter was caught by a fisherman from Costa-Riki. People and the ship managed to save.

American pastor George Phillips decided with the help of a bottle mail to fight alcoholism. Picking up empty bottles of alcohol, he invested in them moral preaching and threw into the waters of the Puget Sound Bay, where the current is very strong. Soon the pastor began to receive letters from people who had caught unusual messages. Some even assured, that the sermons of George Phillips helped get rid of the addiction.

Japanese treasure hunter Matsuyama in 1784, hunted for treasure, fell with his comrades in a violent storm and found himself on a desert island. Matsuyama, realizing that he was doomed to death, sent a note in the bottle, hoping that his tragic fate would someday be recognized in his native Japanese village. Interesting, that the bottle was thrown out next to his village, but only 134 years later.

Richard Platz from Germany did not become a victim of a shipwreck. He just decided to check how far the bottle he threw away, into which he had put two stamps and his address in Berlin, could swim. The letter to this address, indeed, has come, but only in 2014, and was given to the great-grandson of Richard Platz.

But American researcher Dean Bampus sent bottled mail for scientific purposes, to study ocean currents. From 1956 to 1972, he sailed about 300,000 letters. True, the answers came only in one-tenth of the letters.
Sailor James Gleason with the help of a bottle mail was trying to find his soul mate. In 1895, he threw a letter in the Atlantic Ocean, in which he offered his hand and heart to a woman who "does not grumble and cooks well." Found a letter in 1956 at the Irish port of Queenstown.
The attempt to find Gleason failed: he died with his ship "Victoria" in 1900, and not having time to get married.

Be romantic. Send notes in bottles with good wishes.