Why Were “Messages In A Bottle” First Used?
They were found in the ocean
Messages in bottles have been used to send distress messages. Also, to send deceased loved ones’ ashes on a final journey. There are many reasons messages were sent this way.
History
1500s
Queen Elizabeth appoints a royal “Uncorker of Ocean Bottles” and makes the unauthorized opening of an “ocean bottle” a capital crime.
1913
A message in a bottle that reads “From Titanic. Goodbye all. Burke of Glanmire, Cork” washes ashore in Dunkettle, Ireland.
1915
As the ocean liner Lusitania is sinking — after being torpedoed by a German U-boat — one passenger has time to pen this message: “Still on deck with a few people. The last boats have left. We are sinking fast … The end is near. Maybe this note will — ”
1999
A bottle is discovered in the River Thames sent from World War I private Thomas Hughes, who wrote a message for his wife and tossed it into the English Channel as he left to fight in France in 1914. He was killed in battle two days later. The bottle is delivered to his 86-year-old daughter in New Zealand.
