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Message in a bottle

Message in a bottle. Harold Hackett

58-year-old Canadian networker Harold Hackett. Message in a bottle

Message in a bottle
The custom of throwing a bottle into the sea with put inside it note, which tells about the loss of the vessel or the fate of the shipwrecked, is very ancient. At least, the tradition could begin with the invention of the glass bottle.
And even in our contemporary world of email, Facebook and Skype there are people who prefer this ancient method of communication – bottle mail. In particular, 58-year-old Harold Hackett, who has spent two decades throwing bottles containing messages into the Atlantic. Meanwhile, hoping to contact people from far off shores. In total, he has sent out around 4,800 bottles from near his home on Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Harold Hackett

Harold Hackett

Harold Hackett is the original social networker. According to him, the hobby began with a glass Pepsi bottle that Hackett threw overboard while fishing. That first bottle simply included a name and address and requested a response. After receiving his first letter in reply, his hobby was off and running. However, written responses aren’t the only thing that Hackett receives in return. In many cases, he strikes up friendships with the people he hears back from. Hackett typically receives 150 Christmas cards from the people he’s contacted by bottle each year.

Some of the letters he’s sent out have potentially been at sea for decades. In his interview with the BBC, he showed letters from Ireland and Norway that took 10 or 11 years to reach him.

Ancient mail - Message in a bottle

The old beer bottle contained a postcard dated 17 May 1913. skipper Konrad Fischer was amazed

Among the many types of mail to send a letter in the bottle is called “bottle-mail”, or Neptune mail. It is said that its inventor was a Greek scientist living on the shores of the Mediterranean 300 years BC. To show people his assumption that the water flows into the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean, he threw from the Gibraltar into the ocean a few empty vessels sealed with notes. One in three months was found on the shore of the island of Sicily.

From time to time radio, telegraph and the press alert mankind of the sensational discovery of letters, wills, certificates and messages found in bottles that are on the beach or in the sea. The oldest message in a bottle listed by Guinness World Records was found in 2012 – 97 years after it was sent.

Message in a bottle

Prepared for sending out bottles containing messages

Prepared for sending out bottles containing messages

Having come down to us from immemorial time, this postal method reliably serve the people today. In addition to scientists – oceanographers, meteorologists and ichthyologists studying ocean currents, they are sometimes used as a means of conveying messages.

“Message in bottle found 101 years on after fisherman pulls it from the sea” – the article published by Daily Mail Reporter, 8 March 2014.

Pulled from the sea by fishermen message – a record-breaking 101 years after it was sent. A German called Richard Platz scribbled his note to the world on May 17, 1913 – one year before the First World War, in which he died. It was a postcard from Denmark with two German stamps on it and a message asking the finder ‘to post it on to my address in Berlin’. More than a century on, a crew from the north German port of Heikendorf, near Kiel found it. ‘When I saw the date I got really excited,’ said skipper Konrad Fischer.

The map of Harold's friends

The map of Harold’s friends

Ancient mail - Message in a bottle

Ancient mail

Ancient mail - Message in a bottle

Inspirational Message

Ancient mail - Message in a bottle

From left, fisherman Konrad Fischer and his crew Klaus Matthiesen and Thomas Buick

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2042929