A message that an American couple released from a cruise ship approaching Hawaii in 1979 was found off Songkhla Beach, Thailand by a former South Vietnamese soldier and his family as they fled that country's communist regime by boat. [77] A correspondence relationship began in 1983, and the couple worked with U.S. Immigration to help the Vietnamese family obtain refugee status in 1985 and move to the U.S. [77] 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. [82] Fifield, Ann (April 24, 2018). "With food and facts carried in bottles, activists try to penetrate isolated North Korea". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 24, 2018. Woman Finds Ashes and Message in a Bottle, 4 Years After It Was Sent Out to Sea". Inside Edition. November 8, 2017. Archived from the original on November 8, 2017. I saw Mum’s own GP today in the hope that I could put some kind of strategy in place for the future. She duly completed the “purple form” (basically a do not resuscitate document) but had no idea what I was supposed to do with it (she had only ever come across it in relation to nursing homes).

The notion of the message in a bottle has come to attain a kind of romanticism, built perhaps on the allure of the exotic mystery its contents might reveal from a faraway place or a long-ago time. In October 2011 in waters off Somalia, the crew of the 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. [83] a b Pfeiffer, Eric (August 30, 2012). "98-year-old message in bottle sets world record". Yahoo News. Archived from the original on July 30, 2016. a b c Lederer, Muriel (Fall 1971). "Letters from the Sea" (PDF). University of Florida Digital Collections: The Panama Canal Review. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 4, 2016.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 and Queen Isabella, enclosed the parchment in a waxed cloth and placed it into a large wooden barrel to be cast into the sea. [47] The communication was never found. [47]

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. [153] Glass bottles can break into sharp-edged pieces, and bottle caps are ingested by sea birds. [153] a b c d e f g Penry, Jerry, LS (March 2007). "Message in a Bottle" (PDF). The American Surveyor. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 23, 2014. {{ cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ( link)Breslin, Sean (May 7, 2015). "Message in a Bottle Found in Gulf of Alaska 40 Years Later". The Weather Channel. Archived from the original on August 30, 2016.

Message in a Bottle on Australian Beach". Brinkwire. August 12, 2019. Archived from the original on August 15, 2019.After the January 11, 1866 sinking of the 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. [53] Kraske, Robert (1977). The Twelve Million Dollar Note: Strange but True Tales of Messages Found in Seagoing Bottles. Thomas Nelson (publ.); 1st ed. ISBN 978-0-8407-6575-8. a b Keller, C.; Wessolowski, M. (April 5, 2013). "Flaschenpost: Norweger suchen jetzt mit (Message in a Bottle: Norwegians are now seeking)". Zeitungsgruppe Lahn-Dill (MittelHessen = Central Hessian). Archived from the original on February 1, 2015. Verne, Jules (1874). "Chapter 1. The Shark". In Search of the Castaways (Project Gutenberg eBook released August 16, 2014ed.). J.B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia (original publisher). Archived from the original on March 27, 2016. Ross, Shan (March 5, 2017). "50-year-old 'message in a bottle' traced to Edinburgh sailor". The Scotsman. Archived from the original on March 6, 2017.