message in a bottle

19 Stories

79-Year-Old Letter in Bottle Found After Hurricane Debby

The letterhead is from a Navy base in Virginia

(Newser) - A World War II-era message in a bottle that traveled from a Navy training beach in Virginia to the Tampa area was apparently uncovered by Hurricane Debby. Suzanne Flament-Smith tells the Washington Post that she spotted the corked glass bottle with a handwritten letter inside while she was cleaning up...

9 Years Later, Teen Gets Response to Message in Bottle

Max Vredenburgh threw bottle into the water in Massachusetts; someone found it in France

(Newser) - A Massachusetts college student has received a response to a message he threw into the ocean when he was 10 years old, the AP reports. Suffolk University sophomore Max Vredenburgh says he put the letter into a glass wine bottle that he threw into the water at Long Beach in...

Man Who Wrote Message in a Bottle in 1969 Is Found

Too bad Paul Gilmore is at sea, again

(Newser) - Crossing the world on a steamship in 1969, 13-year-old Paul Gilmore decided he'd seek out a new penpal. He now has one, in the form of a 9-year-old boy who discovered Gilmore's message in a bottle on a beach in South Australia. The yellowed note on Sitmar Line...

On Aussie Beach, the World's Oldest Message in a Bottle
Inside a Gin Bottle, a Historic
132-Year-Old Message
In Case You Missed It
Mar 10, 2018 6:30 PM CST

Inside a Gin Bottle, a Historic 132-Year-Old Message

Bottle and note were tossed off a German ship in 1886, making it oldest message in a bottle ever

(Newser) - In a Police song come to life in an epic way, a Perth woman just made history with a find on a Western Australian beach. ABC News Australia and the BBC report Tonya Illman was strolling on Wedge Island at the end of January when she spotted what she thought...

Lovelorn Guy Gets Message About His Bottles: Stop Littering

Scottish widower was looking for love, found a lot of complaints about trashing beaches

(Newser) - When 49-year-old widower Craig Sullivan decided to dive back into the dating pool, he went with what he thought was a grand romantic gesture over swiping right on Tinder: The Scot took a week in mid-July and tossed 2,000 message-carrying bottles into waters around the United Kingdom, in the...

This Is the World's Oldest Message in a Bottle

It floated around for 108 years, 4 months, and 18 days

(Newser) - It's official: A year after retired German postal worker Marianne Winkler discovered a message in a bottle on the German island of Amrun, Guinness World Records has confirmed it's the world’s oldest at 108 years, four months, and 18 days. That beats out the former record holder...

World's Oldest Message in a Bottle Turns Up

It was launched in the North Sea around 1906

(Newser) - What is likely the oldest message in a bottle in history has turned up on a beach in Germany nearly 110 years after it was launched by a British scientist, the Telegraph reports. The bottle's story starts in 1906 at the end of a two-year span during which George...

Released at Dad's Grave, Girl's Balloons Fly Home

Balloons with a letter fly 25 miles from the cemetery back to girl's home

(Newser) - This past Father's Day, not long after John Seibold lost an eight-month battle with cancer, his 13-year-old daughter, Saige, released a fistful of balloons from his gravesite in Sterling, Okla. Mother Sandy thought it might be helpful for her daughter to send balloons "to heaven," and the...

Message in Bottle Finds Way Home 101 Years Later
Message in Bottle Finds
Way Home 101 Years Later
in case you missed it
Apr 12, 2014 6:54 AM CDT

Message in Bottle Finds Way Home 101 Years Later

But not quite into the hands of Richard Platz

(Newser) - At age 20, Richard Platz tossed a brown bottle into the Baltic Sea. Some 101 years later, it has found its way home, or as close to home as it can get. A German fisherman whose previous wild finds include bombs, torpedoes, and a corpse hauled the bottle out of...

Bottle Released in 1956 Finally Turns Up

Scientist's message from Cape Cod ends up in Nova Scotia

(Newser) - In April 1956, Dean Bumpus of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod began releasing bottles—a lot of bottles—into the Atlantic Ocean. Nearly 58 years later, a biologist studying grey seals off Nova Scotia found one of them in a pile of debris on a beach, 300...

Message in Bottle Gets a Reply, 23 Years Later

Zoe Averianov dropped bottle in North Sea in 1990 at age 10

(Newser) - A UK woman got a pretty unexpected Christmas card this holiday season—a response to a 23-year-old message in a bottle she'd dropped in the North Sea as a child. While on a ferry from England to Belgium in 1990, Zoe Lemon—now Zoe Averianov—wrote a note explaining,...

Researcher's 1959 Note Found in Remote Arctic

Request from message in a bottle finally carried out

(Newser) - It's not your usual message-in-a-bottle story, but maybe more fascinating for just that reason. Two researchers in the remote Canadian Arctic found the bottle tucked into a mound of rocks on Ward Hunt Island, reports Popular Science . The note inside had a simple request: Measure the distance from the...

Man Thinks He's Found Oldest Message in Bottle

It dates back to 1906

(Newser) - Steve Thurber was walking down the coast in Tofino, British Columbia, Monday when he spotted an old bottle just lying in the sand. It was still sealed and had, clearly visible within, a bit of paper. Thurber hasn't opened or broken the bottle, but he's been able to...

Storm's Gift: Message in Bottle From Dead Daughter

Sidonie Fery's message washes ashore 12 years later

(Newser) - At first glance, the green plastic ginger ale bottle on the beach looked just like another of the billions of pieces of debris splayed across Northeast coastlines after Superstorm Sandy. But this bottle, which would fetch a nickel at the recycling center, is worth everything to a grieving mother who...

Message in a Bottle Surfaces, 97 Years Later
 Message in a 
 Bottle Surfaces, 
 97 Years Later 
in case you missed it
Jun 22, 2013 12:24 PM CDT

Message in a Bottle Surfaces, 97 Years Later

Bottle sunk to bottom of St. Clair River

(Newser) - On June 30, 1915, Selina Pramstaller and Tillie Esper wrote a brief message during a trip to a Michigan amusement park on Harsens Island, sealed it in a bottle, and dropped it in the St. Clair River. Last June, almost exactly 97 years later, diver Dave Leander found it at...

98-Year-Old Message in Bottle Sets Record
 98-Year-Old 
 Message in 
 Bottle Sets 
 Record 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Sep 2, 2012 11:52 AM CDT

98-Year-Old Message in Bottle Sets Record

Same fishing boat set previous mark

(Newser) - A Scottish man has discovered a 98-year-old message in a bottle, setting a world record for the oldest such discovery, the BBC reports. Perhaps even more remarkable, though: The skipper was aboard the same vessel that set the previous record. "It was an amazing coincidence," says Andrew Leaper,...

Maine Woman Finds 12-Year-Old Message in Bottle

It had floated down from Canada

(Newser) - Volunteers picking up trash in a coastal Maine community found a message in a bottle that apparently floated down the coast from Canada. Becky Lee of Downeast Coastal Conservancy says she discovered the note as she and others cleaned up Tibbett Island off of South Addison. The plastic soda bottle...

Man Sends 5K Messages in Bottles —Gets 3K Replies

Answers can take up to 13 years, but come from everywhere

(Newser) - Sting should be so proud. Since 1996, Harold Hackett has tossed about 5,000 messages in bottles into the ocean from his home in Prince Edward Island, Canada, and has received more than 3,000 responses from all over the world, reports the BBC . Hackett throws his brightly colored notes,...

Boy Finds 24-Year-Old Message in a Bottle

Letter was written by 5-year-old German boy in 1987

(Newser) - There's no romance and no Kevin Costner, but nearly a quarter-century after a German boy tossed a message in a bottle off a ship in the Baltic Sea, he's received an answer. A 13-year-old Russian, Daniil Korotkikh, was walking with his parents on a beach when he saw something glittering...

19 Stories