The thought of receiving a message in a bottle is so intriguing. The irresistible curiosity to trace it back to the sender, to find out the story and have a mystery to unravel is such a delight. Just imagine walking on a beach and stumbling upon one! There have been such interesting cases around the world, the most recent one being in Australia. The gin bottle was found by a couple in the dunes near Wedge Island. This is said to be the oldest message in the bottle going back to 1886!

Tonya Illman found the bottle and got it home as it would make a good antique. The gin bottle was 132-year old! On the inside, they found a roll of paper which had German imprints on it and it dated back to 12 June 1886 as authenticated by the Western Australian Museum. The message on the paper had ship co-ordinates along with dates and name of the ship, which were used to track ocean currents back then. The museum curator of maritime archaeology Ross Anderson confirmed that it belonged to sailing ship Paula from Germany. The findings of this message were even confirmed by the German Naval Observatory. Back then thousands of such messages were thrown from bottles and 662 of them have been discovered from the same experiment! Interesting right?

Just as we look at one solved mystery of a message in the bottle, there have been many more.

A message for a new life discovery: In 1979, a Hawaiian couple by the name Peckhams, used the message in bottle concept as their time-pass! They used to write notes and throw them in champagne bottles along with a dollar inside. In the notes, they asked the receivers to write them back. Four years later, the couple actually got a response from a former Vietnamese soldier, Hoa Van Nguyen. The soldier had found the bottle while he was struggling to escape. Hoa wrote back to the Peckhams seeking help to relocate to the US. Peckhams did not hesitate in giving their support to their first receiver and help him settle into a new life.

A war-time message that was meant to be received: During the wartimes, messages in the bottle were relatively common, although there was never a guarantee of delivery. British soldier Thomas Hughes, from the World War I (1914) had written a letter to his wife, sealed it in a bottle and flung it in the water channel. Hughes died two days later on the battlefield. The bottle was found in 1999 in the river Thames. On digging about Hughes family, it was found his wife had passed away but his daughter was 86-years old. The message was then received his daughter.

Long-Distance Love that triumphed: We have the luxury of not one but plenty of dating sites today, but here’s a story of Ake Viking, who found love with his message in a bottle. The lonely fellow had flung a message that read, "To Someone Beautiful and Far Away,” without really expecting a return. But in two years, an Italian woman Paolina wrote back to him. They started writing to each other, fell in love eventually to get married. Doesn’t look like a straight outta movie-plot? Well, this is a true story of love that triumphed over all waves, literally!

Making connections over the sea: In times of technology, some of us look back to having a pen-friend to write letters to. But Harold Hackett from Prince Edward Island in Canada has made so many friends through messages in bottles. The fisherman started sending out bottles with messages into the sea to see if he gets any responses. And to be sure, he sent close to 5000 bottles. Well, surprisingly over the years he received responses from as good as 3000 people who had found his bottles.

Oh come on, let me send out a message already!

To look back a little into the history of the concept used as communication, sending off a message in a bottle was quite common from 310 BCE. Ancient Greek philosopher Theophrastus is said to have started this to test his theory of checking waters in the ocean. With such interesting examples of mysteries being unraveled aren’t you too thinking about flinging one in an ocean? What message would you like to send across if you have to? Do let us know!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 06, 2018 06:53 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).