A sealed letter is placed in a bottle and given to the will of waves and winds – this image is often found in adventure novels. Sometimes such a message is found after a few days, and sometimes after decades. And sometimes it happens that the letter can perish without a trace. Nevertheless, people continued to use this method of communication, because in some situations there were simply no other options. Of course, the bottle mail recalls the times of geographical discoveries and the era of colonization. At the same time, her story began much earlier.
How a bottle mail appeared
It is believed that the tradition of throwing bottles with messages was introduced by the Greek scientist and philosopher Theofrast. True, he did this not to report himself, but for the sake of scientific research. In 310 BC, Theofrast conducted an experiment. He threw several bottles with notes into the Atlantic Ocean near the Gibraltar Strait. Thanks to this, he was able to observe marine trends.
Theofrast
Theofrast’s experience was a success: some bottles were found by fishermen on the coast of Sicily. Inside there were pieces of parchment, on which the name of the scientist and the purpose of the experiment were indicated. Soon, the bottles returned to the owner, bringing him important information about the movement of water masses in the Mediterranean Sea.
Sea currents for the transfer of messages were used in other corners of the world, for example, in Japan. In the ancient epic, “Tale of Tyra’s House” tells about the poet being sent to the remote island. He wrote poetry about his bitter fate on the planks and threw them into the sea. Thus, the bottle mail or its analogues have been used everywhere for centuries. Of course, this method was unreliable, but in the most difficult situations it remained accessible.
The scream of the despair of sailors
Over time, the bottle mail has become especially popular among sailors. The captains of the ships of large sea powers often resorted to this method to transmit messages. For example, it is known that Christopher Columbus also took advantage of this way. When he returned from traveling to the New World, his ship fell into a strong storm. Columbus feared that the ship could not withstand the test.
Then he wrote about his discoveries on a wax parchment. The message also contained a request to deliver letters to the king and queen of Spain. After that, the navigator seized the note in the bottle and threw it overboard. True, this bottle was never found.
History knows cases when letters in a bottle traveled to the waves incredibly long. In 1784, the Japanese captain Chunosuke Matsuyama, along with a crew of 43 people, went to the islands of the Pacific Ocean Sails. The sailors were attracted by the hope of finding new lands and get rich. But suddenly their ship fell into a strong storm and crashed against a cliff near the uninhabited island.
On a piece of land were only stones and bird nests. Hunger and thirst tormented the sailors, and the bottle mail was the only opportunity to escape. Chunosuke Matsuyama wrote a desperate letter with a request for help. In it, he approximately indicated the place where the ship flew into the reefs. The waves brought a sealed bottle to their native village of sailors – but this happened only after 151. Unfortunately, the entire crew of Matsuyama died without waiting for the help.
Death penalty for open bottle
Despite the unreliability of the bottle mail, such dispatches were very seriously treated. In 1590, the English Queen Elizabeth I signed a special law. According to him, all the found bottles found were supposed to be delivered to the court of the monarch. If someone unauthorizedly uncorked the bottle, he was waiting for the death penalty. At the same time, it did not matter how important the contents of the message were.
Queen Elizabeth I
At the court of the English kings, there was a special position – the ruler of the sea bottles. She was trusted with high -born aristocrats, because it was an extremely responsible work. Do not think that the position was considered a synecure: loading from the ruler was very serious. In official documents in the first year, there were as many as 52 bottles with messages.
The ruler opened the bottle and tried to decipher the notes. Often they were written in other languages or damaged by water. After that, he went to report to the queen personally. Elizabeth I, when an official came to her with another bottle letter, met him with a joke: “Well, what does Neptune write to us?”
Bottles in the service of science
Nowadays, when there is radio and the Internet, letters in bottles continue to be used. True, they rarely become a cry of despair and serve science, as in the days of Greek Theophrastus. Using letters in hermetic container, oceanologists study marine and ocean currents. Inside the bottle or flask there is a note with a request to send the find to a specific address indicating the exact coordinates of the place of its detection.
Old letters from bottles are highly appreciated by collectors
In the Russian Empire, from 1907 to 1912, 10 thousand bottles with notes were used to study the Japanese and Okhotsk Sea. The oldest bottle with a message today was found on the Australian Island of Morton on June 6, 1983. She was thrown overboard from the Aravatt steamer in 1910.
Favorite mail romantics
It’s impossible to say exactly how many letters in bottles are now traveling around the seas and oceans or lie on the shore in anticipation of their wings, it is impossible. Most likely, there are thousands of them. Unfortunately, most of those who trusted this unreliable mail did not wait for help. Nevertheless, the mysterious romance of marine messages has always attracted writers.
The first recognized creation of Edgar, was the story “The manuscript found in a bottle” was. Jules Verne in the novel “Children of Captain Grant” The plot begins with the find of such a message. In principle, there are a lot of works where this method of transmitting information appears – they can be listed for a long time.
In addition, there are many people who send letters in bottles for themselves – just for the sake of entertainment. They are curious to find out how long the note will return to them and under what circumstances this will happen. To interest the founder, sometimes they even offer a reward for the return of the message.
The bottle mail is not only part of the story, but also a symbol of hope, romance, as well as scientific curiosity. If you had the opportunity to send a letter in a bottle to the unknown, what would you write? And for whom would your message be intended? Share your thoughts in the comments!
See also-missing expeditions: what happened to unsuccessful travelers from Columbus and Miklukho-Maclay
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